Looking at this clip from youtube on the Chinese Dart it seems like the use of Dart and Kusari are similar, well to me anyway. What are your thoughts on this compared to the Kusarigama and other rope weapons we use? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhW67MBO8M8"]YouTube - Kung Fu Weapons - The Rope Dart & The Meteor Hammer[/ame]
What Kagete said. I can't compare the two because I've yet to encounter even one skilled instructor of whatever ryu of kusarigama-jutsu is taught in Takamatsu-den budo.
I trained with chain weapons in Japan. The movements are very, very different. At this point, I would suspect that a lot of what passes for kusarigamajutsu in the Bujinkan is something based off of rope darts and such like that by someone in Delaware and passed off as kusarigama to his unsuspecting students. Seriously, unless someone spent a lot of time living in Japan how are they even supposed to learn the basics of kusarigama use? Did they pick it up during a tai kai? When was it shown? And I don't know of any Japanese Bujinkan instructors that teach the basics of the kusarigama. What is the name of the teachers in Japan that teach their students it? I know of some that demo it (at least one pretty comically) but none that teach it. So I suspect that youtube has more to do with the lessons than actual living teachers.
That's pretty scary actually. I wonder if anyone here can estimate how much of the Bujinkan's curriculum was invented in America.
The more complex a movement or technique the more likely it will go wrong and backfire when some mofo is running at you screaming his lungs out. I'd like to see that demonstration while someone is running at him with a decent shield and a spear.
I know of one instructor who was teaching it at his seminar! Non bujinkan(ex) maybe that's where everyone learned it. In eastern Australia of all places!
"The rope dart is composed of a rope ... with a dart at the end." wow...educational... um no I don't think that is anything like using a Kusarigama (though it did look cool to a point)
