Bokken (Signature Weapon)

 This post is a new entry in my Signature Weapons series, about weapons that are or should be featured in crime fiction and other genres as signature weapon for heroes and villains. And everyone in-between, really, antiheroes and whoever else. As I was binge-watching a certain animated series with Wolfie (more on that later, maybe, I discovered a new weapon I didn't know about, at least the term describing it. It's the bokken, a Japanese wooden sword used primarily for training. That said, it can still cause grievous damage if used in real combat. It can even be lethal. It's one of these weapons that I think would be more suitable for a hero than a villain, if only because it is primarily meant to be a training tool. Maybe as a weapon of opportunity sometimes, but as it is in effect a wooden stick used by someone skilled in sword fighting (more specifically kentjutsu), I could really see a fighter either from Japan or with ties to Japan using the bokken as a way to subdue his adversaries without killing them. There is just something potentially ethical about this weapon which I like a lot. And it also has a sober elegance, even though in the end it's just a wooden stick. All the same, I love the bokken and I want to see it as someone's signature weapon.