apparently Hanwei is moving into even more cool japanese stuff...

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http://www.casiberia.com/casiberia/cas/produc...?id=oh2182

888knives has it for $112.... but I just bought a new MT Bike so I'm out... ;)

Hey, that is really cool if for no other reason than that it's different from everything else out now. I do like that Hanwei does that from time to time. Their "trident" main gauche, while not the highest quality piece ever, still was unique in the modern market.

Well for me its neat things like this that you just can't find elsewhere (under $$$$) that really perks my interest. unfortunately the way in which CASI advertises their new stuff is entirely poor. One never knows when/if/how/why something is coming out. As with this one, I was ready to "buy, buy, buy", but then I remembered the way they did the helmets, and others stuff, so I think I will wait and see if some different versions come out before I pick one. 888Knives shows it with a nice wood stand too: nice touch.

Looks nice. Presumably this is the type of war fan for signalling the troops and giving orders not the 'gunsen' or 'tetsu-sen'/'tessen' war-fan used for combat. I always understood the latter were folding fans with heavy iron exteriors which could be used as a parry-ing weapon (or possibly a club) as a back-up ?

Daniel

Actually the Tessen was not a true fan. It didn't unfold and was merely an iron club cast or carved into the shape of a fan so as not to appear too out of place when tucked into the obi.

Thanks Thomas ! I didn't know that. I always took it at its literal meaning of 'tetsu-sen', 'iron-fan' and assumed it would open like others. Interesting that it was actually a disguised club/defence weapon, as you say.

The reality is somewhat more complex.

There were opening and non-opening iron fans. Non-opening ones were apparently much cheaper and more effective when it came to cracking heads, so I'm betting they were much more common.

Tyler:

I have yet to see a practical version of the folding kind that were actually meant for self defense use. It's just not strong enough and is too unwieldy.

Most of the Metal fans with ribs I've seen were more of a status symbol than a true weapon.

I'm not saying they were a very practical proposition for beating people upside the head with...

...but they did exist, and I'm pretty sure one would work quite nicely in a pinch.

Don't get confused with the fake wushu fams out there.

Those are not tessen.

Just looked through my notes.

The folding fan with the metal ribs are calld "Gun-Sen" and are not Tessen.

Gun-Sen had the outer metal ribs because they were carried while the Samurai was at war. Tucked into the Obi alongside their swords and other paraphanalia, a plain bamboo fan would snap while riding on horseback or if they took a fall. The metal outer ribs supported the fan so it would not snap under battlefield conditions.

They were used for signaling troops and for acting as a sunshade when viewing a battle. The closest they would come to being used as a weapon would be to ward of thrown stones and if desperate enough, arrows.

Attached are two fans from WW2 period, seems that senior officers signed these as presents, both came with "Bring back" swords from British military personnel so I have no doubt of their authenticity. It is also interesting that one is a poem while the second is patriotic. Both generals were executed for war crimes after the end of the war,yet it seems to carry on the samurai theme of literate men with with a poetical bent.

The picture are from my flatbed scanner so are foreshortened.

:eek:

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Wow. I had always thought that war fans were able to unfold, and I kinda figgured that they had razor tips, but I guess not. I'm just suprised at the misconseptions some people have about weapons. The other day, I found a site where you could see an "actual computer generated reenactment" of a fight between a man with a knife, and a woman weilding a metal, folding, war fan The battle was pretty cool, and looked realistic enough. But, now that I think about it, she did use the fan to somehow dissarm the guy with the knife... :confused: Oh well. I guess that the line between fantasy and realistic fighting is not very thin.

Wow. When you mentioned that these war fans came from two General officers convicted and executed for war crimes, I didn't realize that Tojo was one of them.

Did you happen to notice today's news reports of two WW2 Japanese Imperial Army veterans still in hiding in Mindanao (Philippines). Not yet confirmed, and the Japanese Government is apparently jumping through hoops trying to confirm. These guys are in their 80's, of course.