Throwing Stars

Essentially, the art of throwing stars, or shuriken-jutsu, was divided into two distinct categories. One was based on the star-shaped designs and the other on the spike-shaped designs. Both could be devastatingly lethal when wielded by a skilled practitioner of the art.

Until recently, there were only 10 distinct star-shaped styles of shuriken favored by the ninja. The early designs included cross-shaped, four-pointed, six-pointed, eight-pointed, and ten-pointed configurations. Variations also included triangular, swastika-shaped, hexagonal, pentagonal, and three-pointed weapons.

The spike-shaped shuriken also were constructed in a variety of designs, depending upon the needs and skill of the shadow warrior. They could be pointed on one or both ends and range in lengths and shaft configurations from completely round to hexagonal, triangular, or rectangular.

The star-shaped shuriken throwing stars were more versatile and required less overall skill in mastering the art of throwing them. Since the multifaceted points could be made to stick every time the weapon was thrown, the star-shaped designs were usually more abundant in the ninja’s arsenal than the spike-shaped. The spike-shaped shuriken, if accuracy was expected, required a keen judgment of distance, velocity-to-spin ratio, rotation, and aerodynamic characteristics before it could be used successfully in actual combat.