The chigiriki is a Japanese flail. It consists of a solid or hollow wood (sometimes bamboo) or a stick with an iron plate and an iron chain at the end, sometimes retractable.
The chigiririki is a more aggressive variant of the kusarigama. It can be used to strike or entangle the adversary, as well as to parry his blows and capture or incapacitate the opponents' weapons.
The stick can be as long as the bearer's forearm or longer, while the length of the chain can also be of various lengths. The iron plate may have spikes and its shape may be round or multi-sided. Its origin is not clearly known.
The chigiriki belongs to the furi-zue (wielding sticks) family of weapons, which was any type of stick or staff with a chain attached and is also one of the shinobi zue (ninja sticks and staffs) weapons, shinobi zue were often hollow and had multiple uses such as concealing other weapons like the shuriken or as an air gun or breathing tube.
Chigiriki-jutsu is the method of training with a ball and chain tied to a stick. Chigiriki is said to be used by the Kiraku ryu and Araki ryu schools.
