History of the Traditional Japanese Sai

Series Summary

Most people know about the Japanese Sai from watching the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; Raphael fought the Foot Clan with his pair of Sai and take no prisoners attitude. A Sai is a three pronged weapon resembling a short trident. In the hands of a trained expert the Sai can be used as a defense against a katana and bo staff. If you would like to learn how to train with the Japanese Sai, you can learn for free from one of our experts.

In this free martial arts video series, learn how to train with the Japanese Sai from 3rd degree Black Belt Michael Lewis. Michael will demonstrate Sai fighting techniques such as how to use a Sai to block a bo staff strike, how to block and counter strike with a Sai, how to use a Sai disarm an opponent armed with a bo staff and an opponent armed with an escrima stick, and how to use a Sai to block and disarm an opponent with a katana blade. Michael will also teach you the history of the Japanese Sai and safety tips for training with a Sai.

Video Transcript

"I'm Michael Lewis with Yeshuas Ryu martial arts, on behalf of Expert Village. We're here today to cover the sai. Now we're covering the history of the sai. This originally started out as a farm tool. Back in the, is actually known as an Okinawan weapon. So in one of the southern islands of Japan this tool was used for farming. One of the first, one of the basic purposes of it was this long stem here was probably approximately about sixteen inches long, you would stab it into the ground and you would be able to plant your seed. Certain seed had to be planted a certain depth into the ground in order for it to grow properly. And so what they did is they went ahead and measured out how much that needed to be, and then they would stab into the ground. Also, because it's metal, it was able to remove some of the roots and everything else in the ground, to allow it to grow a little bit better. One of the other purposes of it, is that the long stem was also used to hammer into an axle, and the two prongs on the side would connect into a wheel. So that way it was connecting a wheel and axle together for some of the wagons. And now as a, as a weapon, it developed because of the samurai. The samurai came through and there were a lot of problems with villagers and samurais and a lot of looting and everything else going on so they what they had to do is they had to find some way of using their farm tools as weapons to defend themselves. And this is a great way of defending against the samurai sword because it is metal. Its better than some of the other wooden weapons that there are. So as a way of self defense they took their sais and began to work and develop them as a weapon."