War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
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Weapons System

Tekkan

Early Modern

The tekkan is a Japanese iron truncheon, shaped either like a wakizashi-sized sword with a blunt iron blade or as a cast-iron version of a kabutowari, used from the Edo period into the early 20th century. Because it carried no cutting edge, it remained legal for merchants and farmers who were forbidden to carry edged weapons. Its popularity grew further after the 1876 Haitorei Edict in Japan banned the public bearing of swords, when former samurai adopted it as a legal substitute for self-defense. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category)
Sword / Polearm / Bladed 1
Weapon Class (category)
Club / Mace / Blunt Weapon 1
Classification
Service Status
Retired 1
Weapon Class
Iron Truncheon 1
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Tekkan
  • Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
  • Weapon class (sword-polearm-blade) is a pre-industrial/melee weapon type by its own nature per the entity's own sourced description text; not carried in current active military service.
View the Source
Wikidata: Tekkan
Wikidata Q7695369, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
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