Items sold separately

THE STORY

Wooden weapons for martial training have been made for centuries in Japan, but it is an endangered art and we are exceptionally pleased to be able to bring you these beautifully crafted weapons. The process to make these weapons can take over 70 years. Firstly, the oak trees are grown in special plantations and take around 70 years to mature to a size they can be harvested for use. Once the timber is cut it is then dried for another year so the wood is ideal for shaping, shaving and smoothing.

The specialised work to make a weapon is done by craftsmen who know and admire the wood they work with. A jo is lovingly shaped out of a rectangle of wood following the same process used in making bokken and tanto.

It takes time to create a person capable of making such weapons, as much as it does to create the weapon themselves. The problem is these days people cannot charge sufficiently for their product to make enough to make this lifestyle attractive and the art of making beautiful wooden training weapons is being lost as the artisans cannot make a reasonable living and so it is difficult to attract new generations of artisans. A few years ago the largest manufacturer of these products sadly closed its doors after 125 years in business.

These particular weapons are made from white oak, which come from the heart of the plantation where the sun has not coloured the wood red. There is no structural difference between red and white oak but there is no denying the beauty of the white version. Naturally, there is less white oak wood available due to its central location in the forest.

THE JO

The jo is about 630gms in weight, 128cms long and around 2.5cm wide, each has a wonderful natural textured finish of striations running through it from the oak, making every weapon unique with its own distinctive pattern. Oak imbues the weapon with a special weight that feels so right when running it through your hands!

Because it is made of oak, one of the hardest woods, with care these weapons should give you decades of use. Moreover, you will be aiding an historic Japanese industry and holding in your hands a work of art which came from the heart of a forest and was lovingly crafted for you to use and admire.

Colour of weapons may vary from what you see on screen
Golden background image supplied by callmetak