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The tessen, (lit. "Iron Fan" or War Fan), is a folding fan with outer spokes made of heavy plates of iron which were designed to look like normal, harmless folding fans. Others were shaped to look like a closed fan, being solid clubs.
Samurai could take these to places where swords or other overt weapons were not allowed, and some swordsmanship schools included training in the use of the tessen as a weapon. The tessen was also used for fending off arrows and darts, and as an aid in swimming. Some tessen were bladed, and could be used as slicing weapons.
A war fan is a fan designed for use in warfare. Several types of war fans were used by the samurai class of feudal Japan.
Prominent users[]
- Venus (1997 action figure) comes with a tessen (listed as a "Full-Swing Fan Shield"). As she had no standardized weapon in the series proper outside of magic devices, she is often associated with the tessen in popularity.
- The weapon is wielded by Hisomi-Shisho, one of the powerful Ninja Tribunal in 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a large tessen.
- As of the events of "Baxter's Gambit", April O'Neil has become armed with a tessen a weapon that Splinter had one day hoped to give to his daughter, Miwa, who April reminds him of. April will now be focusing her fighting style around the real-life Japanese martial art of Tessenjutsu.
- A pair of Tessen are wielded by Lita in the future.