WWII Japanese Fighting Club or???

[itallianPith]

I picked this up with a bunch of Japanese ordnance I'm not sure exactly what it is it defiantly looks Japanese. I thought it was some kind of club.

Its made of leather and is about 15 inches long.

Anyone know what this is?

[Stu W]

Looks like a sap to me. A lead powder filled impact weapon commonly used till the late 1970s by police in various countries. They came in both the somewhat cylindrical shape like the one you show as well as flat sided. Sap gloves were also made and used for a time. They each packed a heck of a wallop but fell out of favour as the baton came into widespread use.

Perhaps yours came from a member of either a civilian or military police force.

If you Google "police sap" you'll be able to see many images of these items.

Regards,
Stu

[nickn]

I have a similar cosh my grandfather ,who was in the Raf regiment, carried in Palestine 45-46 he said he bought it in Egypt

[juoneen]

This one is a real dandy...possibly from the thirties , maybe even earlier. Many times saps could be used to knock a man out ...without doing perminant damage. Folks in those days made a lot of these by hand. Man who owned it may have once been in the Japanese military or civilian police. IT is a beaut.