Hi Vandoo,
These weapons are common from (supposedly) India, through Indonesia (where they're called tjabang) up to Japan. They show the most diversity in form in Indonesia. Since they spread along the coast, they were probably carried by traders and sailors. I've seen Chinese, Indonesian, and Okinawan examples, and the Chinese examples often come from coastal provinces. Actually, I have a pair--modern, but real fun to play with.
Anyway, they're not great against swords, but they work pretty well against staves and other blunt weapons. The Okinawan police carried three of them, and supposedly you can hook three of them together to make a decent pair of handcuffs. The Edo police carried a jutte, which has a single hook, primarily as a symbol of authority, and they used it against peace-time samurai who didn't really know how to use their swords. During the Warring States period, Japanese cops worked in trios with pole weapons to subdue samurai, which tells you how dangerous they were. That's all from Donn Draeger's three-book series on Japanese martial arts.
My 0.02 cents,
F
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