Three Sectional Staff History
(Sansetsu Kon)

Sansetsu Kon, properly called Chinese Shorin Temple Sansetsu Kon, is a historical weapon, which appears in the Chinese book "Sangokushi". Its distinctive feature is three 70 cm sticks chained together making it much longer than Bo. It can be swung around, or as a Bo, using one's whole body space to fend off an attacker.

There are a heap of variations of a normal nunchaku. It seems that the Chinese had a round stick nunchaku, or maru gata nunchaku. The Japanese made it a little more efficient by making the sticks octogonal (8 sides). This nunchaku is called hakabukei nunchaku. Then, there is a nunchaku with one long stick and a short stick, which is called so setsu kon nunchaku. It should prevent you from hitting your own hand when you miss a hit. The han kei nunchaku is made out of 2 halfs of a stick which fit nicely together and makes it easy to carry. The san setsu kon nunchaku is the 3 sectional staff. The sticks may vary in size. Sometimes, the middle one is a little shorter than the outer ones. Another variation of this nunchaku has one normal stick, and the other side is composed out of 2 shorter sticks. It makes it harder to block an attack and it is easier to loop another weapon or attacker with this nunchaku. Another variation, the yon setsu kon nunchaku is made out of 4 sticks: long piece/short piece/rope/short piece/ long piece.

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