bo

A bō is a long stick, usually made of wood or bamboo, but sometimes it is made of metal or plated with metal for extra strength; also, a full-size bo is sometimes called rokushakubō (六尺棒). This name derives from the Japanese words ろくroku (meaning "six"), shaku (a Japanese measurement equivalent to 30.3 centimeters, or just under 1 foot) and bo (kanji, Chinese character meaning "staff"). Thus, rokushakubo refers to a staff about 6 shaku (181.8 cm, about 6 ft.) long, other types of bo range from heavy to light, from rigid to highly flexible, and from simply a piece of wood picked up off the side of the road to ornately decorated works of art.

The martial art of wielding the bo is bojutsu. The basic purpose of the bo is increasing the force delivered in a strike, through leverage. The user's relatively slight motion, effected at the point of handling the bo, results in a faster, more forceful motion by the tip of the bo against the object or subject of the blow; thus enabling long-range crushing and sweeping strikes. The bo may also be thrust at an opponent, allowing one to punch from a distance. It also is used for joint-locks, thrustings of the bo that immobilize a target joint, which are used to non-fatally subdue an opponent. The bo is a weapon mainly used for self-defense, and can be used to execute several blocks and parries. Martial arts techniques, such as kicks and blocks, also are often combined with weapon techniques when practicing this martial art to enhance its effectiveness.

Although the bo is now used as a weapon, its use is believed to have evolved from non-combative uses, like most martial arts devices. The bo staff was traditionally used to balance buckets or baskets. Typically, one would carry baskets of harvested crops or buckets of water or milk or fish, one at each end of the bo, that is balanced across the middle of the back at the shoulder blades. In poorer agrarian economies, the bo remains a traditional farm work implement; yet, when these nations were required to lay down their arms by conquering armies, they looked to their household implements to extend their self-defense. In styles such as Yamani Ryu or Kenshin Ryu, many of the strikes are the same as those used for Yari (spear) or Naginata (halberd). There are stick fighting techniques native to just about every country on every continent. The word "bo" is merely the Japanese word for wooden staff weapons.

In popular culture

See also Quarterstaff in popular culture

• Donatello, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, uses the bo as his weapon of choice.
• The Tim Drake incarnation of Robin, Batman's partner, uses a bo. While the identity of Robin in the Teen Titans animated series is disputed, he uses a bo as well; a bo of metal instead of wood.
• Jade fights with a metal bo. In Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, the bo had a spearhead, which enabled it to be utilized like a javelin and that could immobilize opponents.
• In the movie Napoleon Dynamite, Napoleon claims that many school gangs were attempting to recruit him because he is "pretty good with a bo staff."
• In the science fiction series Babylon 5, some of the Minbari race carry a "Minbari Fighting Pike", essentially a bo cabable of retracting to about 20 cm long through "molecular compression".
• In the role-playing computer game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, one potential melée weapon is the quarterstaff, perhaps slightly longer than a bo, that, like the Minbari Fighting Pike, could retract to foot-length (30cm); how that is achieved is unknown.
• It is the first weapon used by Gabrielle in the television series Xena: Warrior Princess.
• Son Goku of Dragon Ball and Saiyuki manga and animé wields an extendible bo, at times.
• Nami of the manga and animé One Piece uses a bo in fighting.
• In X-Men and its spin-offs, Gambit (Remy LeBeau) fights with an extendible bo.
• An alien bounty hunter in the series Megas XLR also wielded a bo capable of collapsing to the size of a coin.
• Kilik, a character in the Soul Calibur series, uses the Ling-Sheng Su Rod style in battle.
• A bo called the "Lunar" is an available weapon for the ninja Ryu Hayabusa in the Hurricane Pack and Black Edition versions of the popular Xbox video game, Ninja Gaiden.
• In Frank Miller's Sin City graphic novel, Hell and Back, the assassin Mariah wields a bo staff.
• In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo uses a nearby metal pole as a bo to fight the swarm of Smiths
• A very similar weapon is used by some monks in the Doctor Who episode Tooth and Claw
• In the Predator film series, the Predator race use a technologically advanced, telescoping, sharpened bo staffs.
• In the animated series Thundercats Cheetara fights with a bo.
• Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda science fiction series features a weapon called the force-lance, which can be used not only as a bo staff, but also telescoped down to about 1/3 m long and used as a projectile energy weapon, a flashlight, or a cutting tool.
• Pom Pom, a ficional character from the Homestar Runner Universe can be seen wielding a Bo on occasion.
• 4 of the Sentai/PR characters: Kiranger from Himitsu Sentai Goranger, MegaBlack/Space Black Ranger from Denji Sentai Megaranger/Power Rangers in Space, AbareRed/Dino Thunder Red from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger/Power Rangers Dino Thunder, and BoukenRed/Operation Overdrive Red from Gougou Sentai Boukenger/Power Rangers Operation Overdrive wield bo weapons.
• The Chinese cultural hero Sun Wukong is armed with a staff named Ru Yi Jin Gu Bang that can transfrom into a bo, a cudgel or even a pin.

See also

• Hanbo
• Jo
• Okinawan kobudo
• Okinawan weapon
• Tambo
• Budo
• Bojutsu
• Ninjutsu
• Quarterstaff
• Stick fighting
• Tanjo
• Gun (staff)
• List of martial arts weapons
• Tetsubo
• Eskrima

External link

• How to select a Bo Staff