The tessen, iron war fan, is one of the historical training tools that we explore in our martial arts training. Historically the tessen was made out of iron, often one piece shaped in the design of a closed fan.
Using the tessen with
taijutsu means using it to augment the martial arts movement, adding the weight
and characteristics of the training tool behind the martial arts movement.
As a smaller and often
hidden training tool, the aim of the movement with the tessen is to keep it
blended and flowing with the movement as if you don’t have it in hand.
Moving like you have a
tessen means moving without it, moving like you don’t have a tessen means you
are able to move with it.