What knife for Bear?: The Japanese Solution

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Sam Cade

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The Okuotani-Tou (also called the Fukuronagasa) was named after the favorite knife used by hunters in Okuotani. This knife has a tough blade, so you can use it to chop through a branch like an axe. The peculiar hollow handle has various uses. For example, the knife can be affixed to a rod of oak, Keyaki or any other wood to provide a longer reach. This is particularly useful when you want to cut a wild vine beyond your reach and get mushrooms from high trees.


Bear hunters insert a 1.5m wood rod for close fighting in an emergency. They plant the butt of their Okuotani-Tou in the ground close at the hand with their rifle at the ready. When bears attack, they always rear over the man. The hunter falls backward when the bear comes down and thrusts the Okuotani-Tou into the bear's belly while the butt of the Okuotani-Tou is planted firmly in the ground. This strategy has actually saved several people.
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:eek:


:uhoh:

Pure comedy gold.

http://www.kitchen-knife.jp/special/echigo.htm
 
NEver ceases to amaze me that when penetration is required, the Tanto point pops its head up and says " HELLO THERE, COMING IN ".


FWIW, I would not pay $100 for the folded iron one on that link, lololol
 
Good oogly moogly!

I bought a couple like the first one at Blade a few years ago for closer to the $97 mark with a sheath! I think you could still get them with sheath for under $300 this year.
 
It looks like there are several manufacturers/smiths making variations of these things...including a great big machete sized sucker that would make for a fearsome polearm.

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fukuronagasa9-1l.jpg

Japanese bears don't look very impressive. Not that I would want one in the tent with me. ;)

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I have a feeling the numbers of those knives produced out-number the black bears still left in Japan by about 10,000/1!

Must be the Japenese equlivent of the 'Rambo Knife' here.

rc
 
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Would be good for boars! You stun it first with a Te Klap Lang and then you grab your Okuotani-Tou and ...
 
It's a Cold Steel Japanese Bushman...only a little more expensive due to the bear-killing story. I can see Lynn Thompson hacking away at a bear carcass hanging from a meat hook.
 
Slaying the beastie.

So, at 43 to 60 inches in length and 130-260 pounds... Who do they "rear over"... wait, Japan right?

Nevermind.
 
Bear attack in Japan? I'll stick with judo...

Judo Throw Saves Man From Bold Bear
MATSUMOTO, Nagano -- A man used a judo throw to scare off a bear that attacked him while he was picking mushrooms on a Nagano Prefecture mountain Monday afternoon, police said Tuesday.

At around 3:50 p.m., Keiichi Yamaguchi, 63, a resident of Matsuda, Kanagawa Prefecture, was picking mushrooms on a mountain in Omachi, Nagano Prefecture, when an Asiatic black bear suddenly attacked him, police said.

The bear bit Yamaguchi on the hand and left thigh and he responded by hitting it on the nose and in the stomach. When he used a judo technique to hurl the bear, it ran away from the scene. The bear was about 170 centimeters long, police said.

Yamaguchi said his injuries are not serious, but he intends to receive medical treatment at a local hospital. (Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Japan, Aug. 19, 2003)
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Vonderek said:
It's a Cold Steel Japanese Bushman.
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This was probably the inspiration for the Cold Steel piece.

Condor/IMACASA has a similar knife the "Matagi"

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagi


Socket handled big knives-on-sticks are fairly common throughout Asia as agricultural tools.
 
You have to 'hunker down' while they 'rear over' to make a good Japeneze bear story.

Like a Sumo Wrestler, right? :D

rc
 
Sam Cade said:
This was probably the inspiration for the Cold Steel piece.

Condor/IMACASA has a similar knife the "Matagi"




Socket handled big knives-on-sticks are fairly common throughout Asia as agricultural tools.
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I'm thinking "re-purposed" former shovels were the inspiration for Cold Steel.:evil:
 
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It sounds like a mix between the Bushman knife and the movie The Edge. BTW, The Edge was a pretty good movie.
 
Do you think Lynn might be pissed that he didn't think of the bear killing angle?
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If a bear was coming for me and all I had was a blade, I'd be tempted to do like the Asian immortal in Highlander: Endgame and plant my sword at neck-level in the wall and decapitate myself!
 
Now come on boys. Hunting bears with Bowie knives is a long standing tradition in the South. I've read that some Yankees who are supposedly tough are bashful about it. Don't need no tanto I've never seen a bear with armor. Now boars might be another story. Took mine with a Randall #2 in Hawii:D
 
Shanghai McCoy said:
OK, am I wrong for thinking that the Condor version might be kind of handy and wanting one...? :eek:
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Nothin' wrong with that as long as the price is right and the "legend" isn't a factor. I have a couple-three Japanese gardening tools that I keep in a bag for jeeping and quading. Great all around tools/knives, them.
 
Yeah ok, it's funny.. but if it were serious, though, it's silly, because you'd be lucky to have time to take a breath, let alone attach the blade to your stick alla sudden, in an "emergency" bear attack. Either you carry like a spear (in which that is a possibility - the Braveheart ground-backed thing), or you don't (in which case it's an impossibility) - you ain't gonna get warning, 90% of the time.

Having said that, love spears, espec. the Cold Steel Assegai - take that head and put it on a QUALITY stick - that's what I did. Yeah, I also have one of the Cold Steel bushman doohickey knives - pretty neat - but the theoretical use for the latter, for me, is spear-fishing (though you'd need to add a barb to the blade).

Here's my Assagai on a D-handled shovel handle - maximum retention even with a one-handed thrust at full extension with the handle.

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Unlicensed Dremel said:
Yeah ok, it's funny.. but if it were serious, though, it's silly, because you'd be lucky to have time to take a breath, let alone attach the blade to your stick alla sudden, in an "emergency" bear attack. Either you carry like a spear (in which that is a possibility - the Braveheart ground-backed thing), or you don't (in which case it's an impossibility) - you ain't gonna get warning, 90% of the time.

Having said that, love spears, espec. the Cold Steel Assegai - take that head and put it on a QUALITY stick - that's what I did. Yeah, I also have one of the Cold Steel bushman doohickey knives - pretty neat - but the theoretical use for the latter, for me, is spear-fishing (though you'd need to add a barb to the blade).

Here's my Assagai on a D-handled shovel handle - maximum retention even with a one-handed thrust at full extension with the handle.
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Good idea.
 
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