Why Shuriken Came in So Many Different Shapes
Not every shuriken was a star. Some were spikes, some had three points and some had eight. The shape tells you a lot about who used it and why.
The throwing star is the most famous ninja weapon on earth. In anime, a ninja throws ten of them at once and every one hits.
Hanzo tried this. One hit a tree. Nine hit nothing. The guard he was aiming at simply turned around.
Play video: Why Ninja Shuriken Came in Completely Different ShapesTwo big families
The word shuriken means something like “blade hidden in the hand”. There were two main kinds.
- Bō shuriken are straight metal spikes, a bit like a thick nail or a short pencil. They are thrown so that the point arrives first.
- Hira shuriken (also called shaken) are the flat ones with several points. These are the “ninja stars” everybody knows.
Why so many shapes?
Because there was never one official design.
Shuriken throwing was taught inside many different martial arts schools, called ryū. Each school had its own teachers, its own techniques and often its own favourite shape. A flat shuriken might have three points, four, six, eight or more. Spikes could be round, square or eight-sided.
Local blacksmiths made them by hand, so the shape also depended on what the smith was used to making. Many researchers think early shuriken grew out of ordinary objects such as nails, needles and small tools, which would explain why they look so different from region to region.
Not only a ninja weapon
Here is the part that surprises most people: shuriken were not special to the ninja.
Samurai learned shuriken throwing too, as one small part of their training alongside the sword, spear and bow. For both groups it was a backup skill, useful because the weapon was small, cheap and easy to hide.
The takeaway
- “Shuriken” covers both spikes and stars.
- Different schools and different blacksmiths meant different shapes.
- It was a tool for distraction, not a magic killing star, and samurai used it as well.
