The Real Kunai Was a Garden Tool
In anime the kunai is a deadly throwing knife. In real history it was closer to a trowel: a cheap iron tool for digging, prying and climbing.
If you have watched any ninja anime, you know the kunai: a black, leaf-shaped knife with a ring on the end, thrown with perfect aim.
Hanzo threw his at a wooden door. It bounced off, landed at the guard’s feet, and that was the end of his evening.
Play video: Anime Kunai Throwing Is 100% Wrong (The Real Kunai)What a kunai was for
A historical kunai was a thick, leaf-shaped piece of iron with a handle and a ring. It was made from cheap, soft iron, and the edges were usually not sharpened at all.
People used it for hard, dirty jobs:
- Digging holes in the ground
- Prying open doors, boards and gaps
- Scraping through plaster and earthen walls
- Climbing, by jamming it into a wall or between stones as a foothold
Why the ring?
The ring on the end was practical. You could tie a rope to it, hang it from your belt, or pull it back out of a wall. It was not there for spinning the kunai around your finger, however good that looks on screen.
Could it be a weapon?
Yes, in an emergency. A heavy piece of iron with a point will hurt if you stab or hit with it. But the kunai was not balanced for throwing, and it was not sharp. If a shinobi wanted to throw something, a shuriken was the better choice.
The real advantage of a kunai was that it was ordinary. A farmer or a gardener could carry one without anybody asking questions. For a spy, a tool that nobody notices is worth more than a weapon that everybody fears.
The takeaway
- The kunai began as a digging and prying tool.
- It was cheap iron, usually with dull edges.
- It could be used to fight, but it was not designed as a throwing knife.
