How often would a martial artist carry a weapon?

Perhaps, the wonder of any weapon is that can be used at hand. In other words, you will use whatever you have available,

But actual weapons, in many cultures, were left to nobility or military over many eras.

In many societies also, weapons are not allowed or have legal restrictions

 

My father told me that when a kid walked on the road by himself, he would carry a big stick. There were so many wolf in Manchuria (northeast China) back in my father's time. My grandfather taught my father, "don't hit on wolf's head or back, but to hit on the wolf's leg because the wolf has brass head, iron back but straw legs".

 

I have carried at least one knife almost everyday of my life since the age of 6. I am 50+ now.
Caveat here, I don't consider a knife a weapon. It is the second oldest tool known to man. Second only to the hammer and well . . . you can kill with a hammer just as easy as a knife. Maybe easier.

BTW, Hello, I am new to the forum, but not the discussions or ideas

 

You also have to consider which martial artists would carry a weapon at work.
I think (considering the hardships of pre modernization) there would have been many fewer hobbyists and more professionals per capita among martial artists in the "back when".

 

On multiple occasions I've heard or been told that fans used to have blades on the ends and were used as a kind of inconspicuous or hidden weapon. These claims all came from martial artists who heard it from someone else.
I have yet to see in any museum - and I am one of those people who enjoys and has had the opportunity to visit museums in Europe and Asia to look at their weapons collections - evidence that these bladed fans ever existed.

The theory/belief I subscribe to is that the fan is an example of adapting an everyday item to use as a simple weapon, much like training with the wooden bench - no blades, just something to hit people with and maybe use in joint manipulations as extra leverage. Nothing more than that.

 

Especially because at different times, in many areas of the world military forces often played double duty as law enforcement and much of the male population was frequently conscripted for warfare prior to formal militaries.

I get the sense that the definition of martial artist being used by the OP has a hobbyist/oriental bent to it. For example would you consider nobility carrying a smallsword and regularly trained in fencing as martial artists? Or what about swash-buckling rapier-brandishing youth? How about regular soldiers from any era after regular armies were established? Certainly these could all be martial artists and the answer for when they would carry would all be different.

 

I think the OP is referring to more or less "civilian" martial artists, as a chivalric-type warrior could for the most part carry whatever he liked throughout many eras and nations.

So a smallsword wielding nobleman is given carte blanche. His commoner fencing instructor, perhaps not so much. Part of it was looking rich enough that no one would question you: a guy in the finest plate armour atop a destrier is obviously on official business. Who's going to stop him to check? The town watch? Not likely. An obviously poor peasant with an arming sword not on his way to either war or training with the feudal levy is going to run into some trouble, perhaps from said dude on the destrier.

 

So in short, despite these movie depictions, mostly the nobility carried. As there will be laws against regular civilians carrying-correct?

 

Depends on time and place. Sometimes weapons would be restricted to certain lengths, which resulted in people having their rapiers forcibly cut down to whatever length the town allowed, similar to restrictions on the length of Japanese swords.

As a general rule, nobility carry whatever they like wherever and whenever they want to. Remember that in Germany, some knights were actually "unfree". Check out the "Ministeriales".

 

The Tessen was made of Iron if I recall correctly and was used as a shield. It wasn't blade though

I could google it but lack the incentive......

Oh go on then


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_fan