Bō

A bō (棒: ぼう), joong bong (Korean), gun (Chinese), or kun (Okinawan), is a very tall and long staff weapon used in Okinawa and feudal Japan. Bō are typically around 1.8 m (71 in) long and used in Japanese martial arts, in particular bōjutsu. Other staff-related weapons are the jō which is 1.2 m (47 in) long and the hanbō (half bō, known as tahn bong in Korea) which is 90 cm (35 in) long.

Types

The bō is usually made with hard wood or a flexible wood, such as red or white oak, although bamboo and pine wood have been used, more common still is rattan for its flexibility. The bō may be tapered in that it can be thicker in the center (chukon-bu) than at the ends (kontei) and usually round or circular (maru-bo). Some bō are very light, with metallic sides, stripes and a grip which are used for XMA and competitions/demonstrations. Older bō were round (maru-bo), square (kaku-bo), hexagon (rokkaku-bo) or octagon (hakkaku-bo). The average size of a bō is 6 shaku (around 6 ft (1.8 m)) but they can be as long as 9 ft (2.7 m) (kyu-shaku-bō).