# Ninja Throwing Stars **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603 "2009-11-23T03:22:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/21 "2009-11-23T21:06:30Z")
yeah. i picked them up 2 summers ago. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/22 "2009-11-23T21:13:04Z")
I throw them sometimes, but I think of them as darts. Just something to hit a taget with and about as deadly, if I wanted to hurt someone I wouldn’t throw them at people, I would use them more as a knife, but not if I had a knife. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/23 "2009-11-24T03:48:08Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > … poison, hired thugs, sabotage, etc. Ninja’s weren’t black pajama wearing dudes. Speaking of black pajamas, I can’t resist explaining why ninjas are associated with that highly conspicuous attire : it comes from Japanese kabuki theater. Now, in Western theater, a lot of effort goes into making stage effects look real to the public - trap doors, smoke and mirrors, offstage shenanigans or, in extreme cases, just dropping the curtain to change the scenery. Japanese directors didn’t bother with that crap : the stagehands were right there on the stage, moving props about and the like in plain view of the public. They were dressed in black from head to toe, to indicate to the public that they weren’t “really” there and to not be too distracting. Stage writers used this rather cleverly : when the script called for a dastardly elusive assassin, the character was attacked by an actor \*disguised \*as a stagehand. The public was thus suitably shocked and surprised when someone they were conditioned to consider as “not really there” suddenly became part of the action. Nifty use of the fourth wall, the origin of the myth of ninja vanishing/appearing out of thin air - and a form of highly stylized realism, too, since many real life ninjas relied on exactly that kind of “invisibility”, by pretending to be a servant or peasant or beggar, someone people don’t really look at. ---
**Author:** ![ALBIM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@ALBIM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ALBIM)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/24 "2009-11-24T03:50:39Z")
Ninja stars are especially dangerous if you try to pull them out with [pliers.](http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.com/images/shows/southpark/vertical_video/import/season_08/sp_0801_07_v6.jpg)😃 ---
**Author:** ![Harry1945](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Harry1945](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harry1945)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/25 "2009-11-24T04:21:10Z")
Middle-school boys in Metal shop excell at making thowing stars, 'specially if there’s a sub…distract him for about a minute, minute and a half…seven plunges with a cutter=one throwing star. Which, of course, will get the boys suspended, but they didn’t want to be there, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/26 "2009-11-24T05:34:05Z")
and i shall not resist posting a video to an example of ninja stagehands - [Maxtrix Pong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11810530#post11810530) ---
**Author:** ![MannyL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/27 "2009-11-24T05:41:24Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > and i shall not resist posting a video to an example of ninja stagehands - [Maxtrix Pong](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=11810530#post11810530) Umm there is no video and it brings us right back to this thread ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/28 "2009-11-24T05:55:55Z")
oops - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dcmDscwEcI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dcmDscwEcI) ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/29 "2009-11-24T05:56:37Z")
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDiT5xYylo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgDiT5xYylo) is the link ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/30 "2009-11-24T06:06:46Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > since many real life ninjas relied on exactly that kind of “invisibility”, by pretending to be a servant or peasant or beggar, someone people don’t really look at. Another popular disguise among ninja was that of a beggar-monk of the Fuke sect, who as you can see, [wore baskets on their heads.](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Komuso_Buddhist_monk_beggar_Kita-kamakura.jpg) This had the the double advantage of first, being non remarkable, because there were enough Fuke Komuso running around that people didn’t pay them THAT much attention, and second, because even if they did notice the ninja, who can describe somebody with a basket on his head? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/31 "2009-11-24T06:12:39Z")
> [@Lanzy](#): > > Just something to hit a taget with and about as deadly, if I wanted to hurt someone I wouldn’t throw them at people, I would use them more as a knife, but not if I had a knife. Which is generally how they were used. They were also buried in the ground and used as caltrops. Being careless and stepping on an iron stake can really ruin your day. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/32 "2009-11-24T06:33:47Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > They’re actually not that hard to find in a lot of places around the country - gun shows, truck stops, the aforementioned Chinatown souvenier and curio shops. Yes, but as I said, [not California](http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/cacode/PEN/3/4/2/1/2/s12020). Because mere possession of difficult-to-use items like shuriken and nunchaku immediately turns a teenager into a monstrous ninja killing machine. ---
**Author:** ![toofs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4491bb/32.png) [@toofs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toofs)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/33 "2009-11-24T07:14:18Z")
Ha ha, the ceiling of my high school metal shop class was riddled with spot welded ninja stars and the holes from at least a hundred stars that had been pulled out over countless years. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/34 "2009-11-24T07:22:55Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Speaking of black pajamas, I can’t resist explaining why ninjas are associated with that highly conspicuous attire : it comes from Japanese kabuki theater. Now, in Western theater, a lot of effort goes into making stage effects look real to the public - trap doors, smoke and mirrors, offstage shenanigans or, in extreme cases, just dropping the curtain to change the scenery. > > Japanese directors didn’t bother with that crap : the stagehands were right there on the stage, moving props about and the like in plain view of the public. They were dressed in black from head to toe, to indicate to the public that they weren’t “really” there and to not be too distracting. > > Stage writers used this rather cleverly : when the script called for a dastardly elusive assassin, the character was attacked by an actor \*disguised \*as a stagehand. The public was thus suitably shocked and surprised when someone they were conditioned to consider as “not really there” suddenly became part of the action. Nifty use of the fourth wall, the origin of the myth of ninja vanishing/appearing out of thin air - and a form of highly stylized realism, too, since many real life ninjas relied on exactly that kind of “invisibility”, by pretending to be a servant or peasant or beggar, someone people don’t really look at. CUUUURSE YOOOU! Fine, I’ll just hit up the NEXT ninja thread with this info, and **you’re** not invited this time. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/35 "2009-11-24T15:50:21Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > CUUUURSE YOOOU! Fine, I’ll just hit up the NEXT ninja thread with this info, and **you’re** not invited this time. And just like that… I am gone. _smokebomb_ ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/36 "2009-11-24T22:33:13Z")
> [@](#): > > Because mere possession of difficult-to-use items like shuriken and nunchaku immediately turns a teenager into a monstrous ninja killing machine. Of course, the reason why the nunchuck was used as a weapon in the first place was precisely because it was something that _wasn’t_ banned as a weapon. Peasants weren’t allowed to have “real” weapons like swords, so they had to improvise weapons from farm implements like pitchforks, scythes, and threshing flails. **Jragon** , on another forum I sometimes post at, the act of beating another poster to something they were going to post is referred to as “ninjaing” that poster. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/37 "2009-11-24T23:01:43Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > How deadly is a ninja throwing star? Apart from putting out an eye, I just can’t imagine them doing much real damage. MAYBE if you get lucky you can sever the jugular. But it seems like a weapon of annoyance rather than a real killing device. Sorry for being a grumpy old asshole, but I haven’t read the whole thread. Nowadays these GQ threads are regrettable spammed with none factual information I don’t bother to read, so perhaps the OP forgives me if my information is redundant. Strange at it might seem, I spent a few years training [ninjutsu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninjutsu)for a sensei who in turn trained with [dr Masaaki Hatsumi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaaki_Hatsumi) in Japan for several years. Of course, today, the whole ninja thing seems a bit silly, but it is in fact a very old and quite living Japanese martial arts tradition. In any case, according these guys who not only knows their “ninja” ways, but also are very interested in the tradition, the shuriken was a weapon of distraction. The ninjas invented lots of weapons to deal with the samurai, often a main opponent. Of course, you can’t beat the samurai (or other man of the “bushido”) man to man, so you had to invent different kind of “unmanly” tactics; smoke, masks, terrifying stances, and so forth, to put the enemy off, either to attack (often with weapons behind your back, so the opponent didn’t know weather it was say a short dagger or a long chain for instance), or to escape. The shuriken was carried in an inner pocket, the ninja took them out like a card of deck, and threw them rapidly, like five, six or seven in a row, one after another (like frisbees, in the tradition of Hatsumi), mainly to have the opponent focus on avoiding them. This allowed the ninja to attack uncountered, or escape “unseen”. ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/38 "2009-11-25T17:28:35Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Of course, the reason why the nunchuck was used as a weapon in the first place was precisely because it was something that _wasn’t_ banned as a weapon. Peasants weren’t allowed to have “real” weapons like swords, so they had to improvise weapons from farm implements like pitchforks, scythes, and threshing flails. > > **Jragon** , on another forum I sometimes post at, the act of beating another poster to something they were going to post is referred to as “ninjaing” that poster. This was karate, right? The farm stuff that got used in karate (how did people reconcile “empty hand” with “let’s introduce weapons,” anyway?) wasn’t “real” weapons, but ninja, the underground anti-official (ie samurai) forces, I’m sure procured actual weapons. But the nunchuck I didn’t know came from all that. What exactly does one use a nunchuck for on a farm? Abusing your rice stalks until the stand up straighter? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/39 "2009-11-25T17:40:30Z")
The nunchuck is a [threshing flail](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flail). You basically lay out your grain on the floor and clobber it until the good part separates from the chaff. ---
**Author:** ![berff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/43a26b/32.png) [@berff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/berff)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2009, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603/40 "2009-11-25T18:09:33Z")
I was hit in the head with a throwing star when I was 8 years old when my brother and his friend were throwing them in the backyard. Nobody believes me but I clearly remember it sticking in my head for a brief second after I walked into its path. And of course I still have a sexy scar. Good thing my brother and his friend had pretty limp wrists and they couldn’t throw them very hard. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ninja-throwing-stars/518603.md?page=3)