yawara

thumb|A single dumbbell-shaped yawara stick The yawara is a Japanese weapon used in various martial arts. Numerous types of jujutsu make use of a small rod, made of wood, that extends somewhat from both ends of a person's fist which is known as a yawara. The yawara likely originated from the use of the tokkosho, a Buddhist symbolic object, by monks in feudal Japan. The tokkosho was used during the Edo period and it was made of brass. Sometimes a short rope or cord would be looped around the user's wrist to distract someone else while in combat. The methods of using a yawara may have been created by samurai that used tantojutsu, which was combat that made use of a short knife. According to another theory, a samurai might have fought with the scabbard "when a more deadly weapon was not necessary".

The yawara stick was popularized for police officers in the 1940s by Frank A. Matsuyama, who made his own version in 1937 or earlier. The upgraded yawara was made of Bakelite plastic and had golf shoe metal spikes on both ends. A yawara can be used by the general public for self-defense in some countries. A variation of the yawara is a kubotan which is about six inches long, made of plastic, weighs about two ounces, and has no sharp edges. The kubotan is used by police officers and the general public. It is considered to be a modern version of a yawara, which is "a little shorter and broader". In the United States, yawaras are not intrinsically illegal in any jurisdiction. In the UK it's illegal for any member of the public to carry a lethal or non-lethal self defence weapon.