Kampilan - Tumblr Posts
Hello tumblr. Call me R-, I'm a Filipino martial artist and mechanical engineer who designs weapons (usually). Recently washed up on these shores from Twitter and I'm a little bit lost, please bear with me as I figure this out.
Indeed it is!
I feel like I should add a little context for those unfamiliar.
The Bakunawa (or Bakonawa or however the spelling varies) is a giant serpent-dragon shared across several cultures in the Philippines, particularly in the Visayas area and those with whom they share close cultural ties.
It is one of several moon-eaters (alongside other giants such as the blade-feathered Minokawa of the Bagobo peoples stories), whose attempts to eat the moon have been pointed out in folklore and mythology as the cause of eclipses.
I can't say too much with confidence; I am by no means an expert on these stories, nor do I belong to the cultures that sing them. Filipino culture is anything but a monolith- it is in fact an enormous mosaic of often intersecting and overlapping cultureS (plural) that only appear to be all the same color if you're not looking closely enough. As it happens, the moon-eaters I mention here belong to cultures far away from where I can claim my own ancestry; we have stories of our own where I come from.
What I can say is that the Bakunawa tends to make an appearance on figural hilts on Philippine blades. I placed an example of a tenegre hilt in the original post, and added here some more examples of Bakunawa hilts on kampilan swords.
It may be that the figural hilts were originally meant to depict something else, or were known by other names, but blade collectors, smiths, and enthusiasts frequently refer to them as Bakunawa hilts in the present day.
Moonhammer
No pretentious loretext this time. I designed this meteor-hammer belt thing a while back based on the Bakunawa, the moon-eater serpent. The look of the maw is based in part on Visayan tenegre hilts, and the moon and star are based on my uh- Idk what to call it, a brand logo I guess?
I was going to get it made for myself, then I remembered I'm not actually trained to use a meteor hammer, so-
The Fifth Blade: Kampilan - Warrior Made
Down to the last three days before Gubat Banwa launches on Kickstarter! Moon-eating titans, sword-souls and bullet devils, giant flying crocodile mounts, sparks arcing off clashing blades like lightning- Gubat Banwa is an action-packed martial arts TTRPG where you play as warrior Kadungganan in a Southeast Asian-inspired fantasy world afire with wonder and violence in a thousand colors.
Counting down the days to the KS launch on October 10 comes with anxiety and anticipation in equal measure, and I thought maybe posting the weapons I've drawn for the game would help cut through it all. These were meant to be posted for Swordtember, but the game needed a bit more time to pick up speed. 5/7 blades done, let's start off the final three with the KAMPILAN
Yet another large weapon from south of Luzon, the kampilan is a long-bladed sword with a unique "trapezoidal" shape, sometimes sporting a small spike at the tip, often with a figural hilt. "Figural hilt" just means the hilt depicts a certain abstracted figure of something, usually a creature or a beast of some kind. The sharpened edge is on the long side of the blade. I repeat: The sharpened edge is on the long side of the blade. You would not believe how frequently people get that wrong. This useful diagram is one of the first things you see when you do a Google-search for "kampilan", so there is truly no excuse for anyone to be depicting it with the sharp side pointing the wrong way.
(Diagram by Lorenz Lasco) The most common examples of kampilan figural hilts depict the Bakunawa- a giant moon-eating serpent of legend- and are decorated with hair or with roots. The angled protrusion on the hilt usually points away from the sharpened edge, and may have been used for added leverage when maneuvering the blade.
(Photos from the collection of Ron Zambarrano) Other creatures commonly depicted in the hilts are crocodiles, cockatoos (what collectors call "kakatua" handles), or- in the case of this somewhat rare example- a horse.
(Photo from the collection of Richard Hudson) The kampilan is surrounded by a rather popular story: That it was the blade used by Lapu-Lapu himself to slay Fernando Magallanes on the shores of Mactan. One of Pigafetta's writings recounts how Magellan was wounded on the leg by a large blade, akin to a scimitar. Whether or not this was describing a kampilan is anyone's guess, and whether it was in the hands of the hero of Mactan is foggier still. While it is difficult to verify the authenticity of this claim, the legend of Lapu-Lapu quickly grew, taking the story with it- and it kind of just stuck.
(Photo from Lapu-Lapu City LGU) Most Philippine blades generally vary in size make depending on where they're from, but the distinctions are even more apparent for kampilan. The two-handed ones shown so far are often referred to as Moro kampilan. The Lumad peoples have kampilan of their own.
(Photo from Iniingatang Talim At Kaluban.; Taken by Ramon H. Bathan) I'm not an expert on identifying these blades, and this is by no means an exhaustive list (as the kampilan was used widely across Visayas and Mindanao), but I will try to show and identify a few select variants. Starting with this "NICE SHOT"
(Various Moro kampilan; Photo by Richard Hudson) Following up with some antique Bagobo kampilan. Notice the difference in size relative to the Moro variant. This seems to be built for one-handed use. You will also notice that the shape of the blade is different, without the spike, and with the sharp edge on the other side.
(Photos from Raymundo Lucero) A more useful comparison; These next three blades come from the same collector.
Bagobo kampilan
T'boli kampilan or kefilan
Moro kampilan (Photos from Dennis Andrew Golez) Sometimes these blades stray far from home. This next one is a T'boli kampilan inherited by a collector.
(Photos from Hege-Eileen Ottem Lund) Rather than hair or roots, the Lumad seem to prefer adorning their hilts with brass bells. When you see examples of these blades in museums for up for auction, the bells tend to be absent. I purposefully included examples with bells to show them off in their full ornate glory. "Lumad" is a collective term for indigenous peoples in the south of the Philippines. Another T'boli kampilan, with a closeup on the hilt to show the brasswork.
(Photos from JC Nolas) This one's a headscratcher for me- supposedly this unique find from the 1800s has a hilt made of whalebone. The blade looks to be of the Moro variant, but I could very easily be mistaken. It looks to have been adorned with bells as well.
(Photos from Ron Zambarrano) One more thing to note is that the kampilan is not a tool-turned-weapon, nor a multipurpose blade. They are made to be used as weapons. I won't fault anyone for subscribing to the belief that Philippine native blades were mostly farming implements, which just happened to be repurposed for combat sometimes. It is true for many blades which functioned essentially as multi-tools, and the languages sometimes don't help when they use the same word for any kind of blade- be it a tool or a sword. Dispel your myths. Our ancestors were not ALL farmers-turned-fighters. They faced our colonizers as warriors.
(Photo by Ramon H. Bathan) The veritable force of nature that is Sam'baha (the smug-looking badass in the art at the top of this post) stands as the face of Gubat Banwa, wielding a kampilan in one hand and a karambit in the other. Challenge her legacy! Be a part of all the tide-churning, sky-burning, world-rending action by supporting the game on Kickstarter!
The Gubat Banwa Kickstarter launches in 3 days! Check it out here:
Just three more days for this incredibly small team from the global south to get as many eyes on this project before it launches. We straight up cannot afford Proper Advertising on the scale this game deserves, so we're relying on folks like yourself to help us get the word out. Any help will do! Share it with your friends! Send it to people you think might be interested! Send it to people you know aren't interested! Dump it in that one channel in your friendgroup Discord server that no one has sent any messages to for weeks now! Reblog this even if you didn't read the post at all, we won't tell!
Seven Blades Until Glory
Gubat Banwa launches on Kickstarter TODAY! Just a few more hours before the highly-anticipated launch of this award-winning, SEA fantasy-based, tactical martial arts TTRPG. Godsfuck, that's a lotta adjectives.
I've been posting the weapons I've drawn for the game to count down the final week before the launch. These were supposed to be for Swordtember but we had to move it back a little bit.
Below are links to all the individual threads, providing details on each of these individual blades, including which cultures they belong to and how they might have been (and still are) used.
The Gubat Banwa Kickstarter launches in a few hours! Check it out here:
