The truth of Ninja -Ninja Encyclopedia-

Shikomizue

Shikomizue Ninja's Sword camouflaged Cane

Shikomizue

Shikomizue

I have described about "Shikomizue (Ždž‚ݏρ) " as a Ninja's secret weapon in a previous entry but shikomizue has many other variations in look and use which I will elaborate on. Firstly, there was a hidden weapon named "Shikomitessen", its shape was that of a folding fan, "Tessen (“Sξ) " means a weapon camouflaged as a fan. There were two types of tessen. One with outer two ribs made of iron, and another with plates made from iron that are connected by a rope. Tessen were used mainly by military commanders in the Warring States period for both cooling the body and self-defence. Shikomi-tessen has plates that are a cover and inside of it is a blade. Of course it was used for assassination by means of putting a target off their guard. The inside of shikomizue varied. For instance, it could be a weight with a chain. This weapon was able to be used when facing a sword attack and could be used like a Kusarigama (½Š™). Ninjas sometimes prepared a spearhead inside of the cane so they could use it as a spear. Ninjas also hid blades on the inside of "Shakujo". As described many times, ninjas often disguised themselves as "Yamabushi (ŽR•š) " . Shakujo was the cane which yamabushi carried with them and as yamabushi was a kind of a priest, it was easy for a ninja disguised as yamabushi to remain inconspicuous and approach enemies without being noticed.

 

The most famous Shikomizue User "Zatoichi"

Zatoichi

Zatoichi, starring Katsu-Shintaro

At a glance, shikomizue seems like very a specialized weapon but we can find the master of shikomizue in films such as" Zatoichi (ΐ“ͺŽs) ", starring Katsu, Shintaro (Ÿ V‘Ύ˜Y) or Kitano, Takeshi (–k–μ •) .
In the movie, Zatoichi is a blind vagabond, who helps the weak and fights the strong. The weapon Zatoichi used in the stories was was a shikomizue. After the success of Katoichi, other similar films were produced such as gBlind furyh. Because of the properties of this weapon, movie makers succeeded in making movie watchers think it was possible for even the blind to utilize shikomizue. There are a lot of ninja weapons that have been used in fictional works today and shikomizue is certainly one of them.