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Originally Posted by Timo Nieminen
Pre-Meiji Okinawan sai are built much like Chinese ones. How would one tell the difference? How can one tell whether it was made where it was found? (Mark Bishop's book, "Okinawan Weaponry" has some old Okinawan sai, and notes one that might have been imported from China.)
These days, Okinawan sai are best known, but that's a result of the spread of karate and the inclusion of the sai as a karate weapon.
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Timo, I personally have not seen an authentic, antique sai that was proven to have originated from China and looked anything like the sai currently posted, they may have had some similarities but they also had glaring differences.
I have watched, dealers, auctions, Ebay, Yahoo Japan for years and have only seen a couple of antique sai, surviving ones are rare. Of the ones I posted I know for sure that two came directly from Japan, and one came here from Indonesia, the other one was said to be from Japan but I have no proof. So if I see a sai that is of unknown origin and it is quite similar to the ones I know did not come from China I have to assume that it is not Chinese.
Here are two Chinese sai, as you can see they have some similarity to the sai previously posted but they have more in common with the ones you posted.