# Throwing Stars



## PhotonGuy (May 24, 2015)

The throwing star is one of the most commonly associated weapons with the Ninja but Im not sure as to their origin. The Ninja are from Japan but throwing stars I believe originated from China and that's why they're often called Chinese stars. They are no doubt still a very effective weapon in the right hands.


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## tshadowchaser (May 24, 2015)

they still are against the law in most places
I have no clue as to their history


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## Langenschwert (May 30, 2015)

So's a beer bottle in the right hands!  I remember in junior high the coolest kids had throwing stars. It was the height of the ninja craze, you'll have to remember. Too bad they're illegal, I think that's kind of silly.


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## Dirty Dog (May 30, 2015)

Considering how superficial the wounds these things are capable of inflicting are, it's truly silly to ban them. 


Sent from an old fashioned 300 baud acoustic modem by whistling into the handset. Not TapaTalk. Really.


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## Chris Parker (May 31, 2015)

PhotonGuy said:


> The throwing star is one of the most commonly associated weapons with the Ninja but Im not sure as to their origin. The Ninja are from Japan but throwing stars I believe originated from China and that's why they're often called Chinese stars. They are no doubt still a very effective weapon in the right hands.



Okay… while the "throwing stars" are most commonly associated with "ninja", that's not really historically that accurate in and of itself. Shuriken were commonly used by samurai just as much as "ninja", with different systems having preferences for a wide array of different blade shapes and designs, ranging from basically just elongated spikes through to multi-point "stars", knife-blade shaped, or even some that had extra long spikes to use as a handle (to aid in throwing them). With regards to who came up with them first, that's not so easy to ascertain… the idea of projectile weapons are fairly ubiquitous throughout many cultures… starting from simply throwing a rock at someone. As time went on, these basic ideas got refined and developed… which lead to shaken and shuriken in Japan, and similar in various other cultures.

The term "Chinese stars" isn't really a reference to any genuine Chinese usage, of course… it's really a modern Western (American) term as accurate as "numchucks", and is based more than anything else in the usage of such weapons in the tv series "Kung Fu", as well as other movies and media. I'm not aware of any traditional Chinese system that teaches them, although obviously there are a number of Japanese systems that still do.


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