Kusarigama-jutsu

The Isshin Ryū was a separate school taught in the Kuroda Domain that incorporated a number of weapons and originated in the 15^th Century.
In the late 1800s, the 24^th Headmaster of Shintō Muso Ryū, Shiraishi Hanjiro, mastered the Kusarigama-jutsu curriculum of and began to teach it to his students.

The Kusarigama of the Isshin Ryū is a scythe with a straight double-edged blade of around 30 cm, or 1 foot, attached to a hardwood (often oak) handle of approximately 36 cm in length, or 1.2 feet, a tsuba (metal handguard) close to the blade, and a long chain of about 3.6 meters, or 12 feet, with a heavy weight attached to the other extremity.
As an interesting note, the Isshin Ryū Kusarigama is not the most common weapon of this type as many other schools that have this typology of techniques employ curved sickle blades with shorter chains.

The Kusarigama is a weapon that requires sufficient space to be used effectively, but it can be a very powerful weapon in the hands of an expert. The Kusari (chain) is used to capture and restrain the weapon, or body of the opponent, the Fundo (weight) is used to strike and smash, the handle is used like a baton, and the blade can cut and pierce as a spear or a sword.
As a policing weapon, it is a formidable tool to entrap and control an opponent at distance and even more so in conjunction with others officers.

There are over 30 forms in the curriculum of the “short” Kusarigama. A longer Kusarigama with a handle the size of Jō and a shorter blade is also studied by the advanced practitioner and has it is own set of techniques.