History of the Three Part Staff

The Three Part Staff is one of the weirdest weapons in Kobudo and it's origins are weirder

The Three part staff was popularized by Hong Kong action movies like the 36 Chambers of Shaolin and Ip Man 3, these films popularized the weapon it was also featured in the Mortal Kombat, Samurai Warriors and Dynasty Warriors video games.

The name in all languages mean the same thing
Japanese San-Setsu-Kon
Chinese San-jie-gun
English Three-Part-Staff
in Chinese and Japanese the word San means the number Three. in japanese setsu means part/section and Kon mean staff as we can tell from the Bo kata "Shushi no Kon" or "Sakugawa no Kon" and in Chinese Jie means section and Gun means staff.

Kata for this weapon are limited unlike its cousin the Bo staff the Three Part Staff has about two Kata from what i can find these are Tokushin no Sansetsukon, from the Tokushin Ryu system of Kobudo, Matayoshi no Sansetsukon (Also known as Hakuho) aswell as a second kata called Matayoshi no Sansetsukon, ive only seen this kata done by one school in the United States.

A three part staff is measured at a 14-inch section for certain types of Okinawa Kobudo or a 26-inch section for Kung Fu practice these sections are connected with about 3 inches of chain or about 7/8 inches of rope. To custom fit a three part staff to yourself measure a straight path from your wrist to the top of your tricep/bottom of the shoulder and cut a piece of dowel to that length. To measure rope make a first and place your thumb on the top, now measure this, double it and add about an inch or two for tying, for chain do the same but don't double the count or add any extra length and buy a ball bearing swivel to place it on.

All this fluff out the way now, what is the real history of the Three Part Staff?

If we believe the film The 36 Chambers of Shaolin, the weapon was created by a man who wanted to become a Shaolin warrior monk, after using several different weapons and loosing he went off to the forest to meditate/practice, there he broke a piece of bamboo which split into three parts connected by vines, this then inspired him to create a three part staff, eventually when he returned to the monastery he bested the Shaolin master and made his way into the temple. That's all good for a film but what is the true origin of the Three part staff?

One tale i've heard is slightly more spiritual, along the same level as the 'Never wash your belt' myth, which is complete bull. This tale says that as the old Buddhist monks (Most likely Shaolin Warriors) trained with the Bo staff and if it snapped, the way it broke dictated the type of weapon it might become, two small pieces break at the end, one nunchuck and a Jo staff, or it could be a kind of two section staff if only one piece at the end snaps off, simply attach the broken bit to the end as a flail. If the weapon breaks at the center attach in the middle and make another kind of two part staff. The reasoning for this explanation is that the monks get attached to the weapon (Weird as attachments are looked down upon), this explanation feels like it could be a legitimate reason, or it's more western myths about the history of the martial arts, like the "A black belt is a dirty white belt, never wash the belt"

One idea is that it was a battlefield weapon used to tie the legs of horses or strike around objects, this is a harder option to believe in as the amount of time it would take to train soldiers to do this wouldn't be economical, the time to learn the basics of the Three part staff the spear/Bo Staff techniques could be mastered. and in formation fighting the Three Part Staff wouldn't be usefull as there'd need to be a large gap between the two soldiers would be too much.

So what is the real history of this weapon? The answer is...We don't know. The theories i've provided today could be a part of the story of the weapon's creation but chinese history being as it is the weapon's history might've gone with the revolution. There isn't much sense to the idea of a large stick with two other sticks connected.