Yawara!

Yawara! (also stylized as YAWARA!) is a Japanese manga series by Naoki Urasawa which ran in Big Comic Spirits from 1986 to 1993. In 1990, it received the 35th Shogakukan Manga Award for general manga. It was adapted in 1989 by Toho as a live action movie directed by Kazuo Yoshida, starring Yui Asaka in the main role and singing the main theme, "Neverland."

In the same year, Yomiuri TV began broadcasting an anime adaptation titled Yawara! A Fashionable Judo Girl!, which ran from October 16, 1989 through September 21, 1992 for 124 episodes. Each episode ended with a countdown of days remaining to the start of the Barcelona Olympics. The anime, produced by Kitty Film with animation by the Madhouse studio, aired on Japanese television contemporary with Kitty's Ranma 1/2 but achieved higher ratings than Ranma 1/2, despite the latter series' being more well-known outside Japan. AnimEigo licensed the TV series for North American distribution in August 2006. However, as of April 2010 AnimEigo has been unable to license the remaining episodes of the TV series for North American distribution.

Yawara

The yawara (also called pasak or dulodulo in Filipino martial arts) is a Japanese weapon used in various martial arts.

The Yawara originated from the use of Kongou, a Buddhist symbolic object, by monks in Feudal Japan. The Yawara takes the form of one or two small, thick sticks that protrude about an inch from each side of the hand. They are usually used in pairs to initiate throws, bone breaks, and pressure point strikes.

The yawara stick was popularized for police officers in the 1940s by Frank A. Matsuyama who made his own version in 1937 or earlier.

Legality

In the United States, yawaras are not intrinsically illegal in any jurisdiction. In the United Kingdom, "any article made or adapted for use for causing injury to the person, or intended by the person having it with him for such use" is defined as an offensive weapon under the Prevention of Crime Act 1953. This vaguely-worded measure may proscribe a yawara that is purposely manufactured or carried to be used as a weapon. However, because the yawara is essentially just a small cylinder, a wide variety of common everyday objects can be used in the same manner, making any outright legal ban all but impossible to enforce.

Yawara (disambiguation)

Yawara can refer to: