The Tekkan or "iron sword" (Tetsu-ken) is a Japanese weapon, used during the Edo period until the beginning of the 20th Century.[1]
This weapon was an iron truncheon, and could closely resemble a wakizashi sized sword with a blunt iron blade or they could be a cast iron version of a hachiwari ( hachiwara ).[2]
Tekkan became very popular during the Edo period with wealthy merchants and farmers, since such people were denied by law from carrying or possessing swords or other edged weapons.[3] The tekkan, bearing no edge, had always been permitted by law.
In 1876, the Meiji government of Japan passed the Haitorei Edict, often called the "Sword Abolishment Act". This law prohibited all Japanese people, including the former members of the knightly samurai class, from bearing weapons in public. This prohibition led to a surge in popularity of a number of non-sword weapons, as well as disguised swords of various kinds. After the Haitorei Edict came into effect, members of the Samurai class also began carrying tekkan as self-defence weapons.