 Staff used in martial art  Staff used in martial art A staff is a large, thick stick or stick-shaped object used to help with walking or as a status symbol or a weapon. Staves are also associated with wizards and other fictitious users of magic and sorcery.
Staves, in particular those used for status, are often ornately ornamented, but are sometimes also deliberately bland-looking.
Staves are often used in combat when bladed weapons are not available, as they are both affordable and practical. Police forces have used sticks for centuries --actually, since specialised police forces have been trained for anti-riots tactics; before that, standard cavalry units were used, which used sabres, possibly slashing rioter with the non-cutting part of the blade (for the "t" shaped stick used by police forces, see tonfa).
In Asia, the fighting with sticks has been integrated into mainstream martial arts (wushu in China, aikijo in Japan). The Chinese stick is called gun (棍 pinyin gun4 which pronounces like gwun).
Japanese stick techniques (jo) were reportidly invented by Sensei Muso Gonnosuke Katsuyoshi after he was defeated by Miyamoto Musashi in a sabre duel. Struck by his defeat, he invented techniques to fight against a sabre using only a stick, and defeated Musashi on their next encounter. This is the only time Musashi was defeated.
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