Shippei

August 23, 2009. Kaizen returns the short staff to Enkyo Roshi after he gave his first dharma talk, during Shuso Hossen at the Grail in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, during the Village Zendo's summer ango.

A shippei is a bamboo staff which curves slightly, approximately half a metre long, which is used as a "symbol of a Zen master's authority" in Zen Buddhism. In contrast to the keisaku, the shippei was often used as a disciplinary measure for meditating monks. It can often be found at the side of a Zen master in a zendo and is also "one of seven items that make up a Zen monk's equipment." According to Helen Josephine Baroni, "The shippei is made from a split piece of bamboo, which is bound with wisteria vine and then lacquered." Sometimes curved in the shape of an S, the shippei may be elaborately decorated with a silk cord or have carvings. It is still "sometimes employed to hit monks."

Source

Wikipedia:Shippei