estcrh

Well unless someone comes up with something better I am going with hira sankaku for a isosceles triangle shaped blade and sei sankaku for the equilateral triangle shaped ones, thanks for all the input everyone.

Here is the kind of thing that causes me problems when trying to find an exact label for Japanese items, one person says one thing and then you find another completely different term. This quote is from http://www.japaneseswordcollector.com/def1.html Is this saying that a three sided yari with equal sides is an unequal three sided yari that has three equal sides?

Piers you have done it again I believe, I have seen a few of the equal three sided sankaku yari with sei in front of the sakaku. Thanks! You mentioned "Ryo-shinogi Choku yarimi" excuse my linguistic ignorance but can you explain "yarimi".

I would think that there is a term missing which differentiates between the two types of three sided yari, the three equal sided yari and the yari with two equal sides and one longer side. Would they label them all just "sankaku"? Both of these yari have three sides but one has three equal sides and one has two equal sides and one long side. Is it accurate to call them both "sankaku"?

Dave Thacher in England has studied urushi application in Japan I believe, he has posted some interesting information on the subject on the toraba forum, if you search for urushi you will find the relevant posts. http://www.toraba.com/forum/

If any of them have web sites or contact info that would be helpful as this subject does come up rather frequently in various forums.

Quoting from "The Japanese sword" By Kanzan Satō p.63, he seems to imply that sasaho-zukuri is a blade cross section type along with ryoshinogi-zukuri and sankaku-zukiri. Am I just understanding the meaning of this this wrong? Is Kanzan Satō calling the three sided yari with unequal sides "sasaho-zukuri" and the yari with three equal sides sankaku-zukuri? Is sasaho used to describe cross section as well as body shape? It is confusing as some sources describe sankaku as being triangle shape with three equal sides and other sources use sankaku to describe all three sided yari even the yari with one wide flat side and two equal sides.

Thanks everyone, I see now, tsukuri refers to the body shape as opposed to the cross section shape. Now I have one more question. This yari is diamond shaped, it is not flat, it has two cutting edges and two ridges so it is ryo-shinogi, but would this shape be considered as sasa-ho?

Keith, do you know what "tsukuri" refers to?

Jacques, yes your right. I was not thinking about the cross section correctly. I meant triangular not diamond but it is a triangular shape.

I thought that "sansaku" refer to a diamond shaped blade?

Keith, I could not find anything online under that name but when I searched for "leaf shaped yari" this term came up "sasaho yari", and searching with this term got some results, thanks. http://www.ricecracker.com/japanese_swords/s17.htm

I have been looking for a name for this type of yari and have been unable to find pictures of another one. It has been suggested that it may be for hunting. If anyone has any information I would appreciate it.

There is a link to all the photos I have along with the pictures. Did you see it?

All the ashigaru dou I have seen has had flush rivets, maybe someone here has seen some with raised rivets. Here is a link to a couple that I have. http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz23 ... ?start=all

Justin, it looks all original and in good used condition. Can you post a picture of the inside showing the liner "ukebari" and chin cord "shinobi-no-o" when you get it. The neck guard ''shikoro'' looks good and the lacing ''odoshi" does not look recent. I say that you got yourself a nice kabuto there. Were did you get it if from and what kind of description came with it if you if you can reveal that info, I didnt see this on ebay.

Ian I am in no hurry and while I was waiting I started to look at all the available pictures online of these extra short types of yari and I have yet to find one that seems to be authentic. I found another one that was labeled as being a modern shaft with an authentic blade and a couple of bare blades that were being called kago yari as if there was a specific type of blade which could be discerned from other types of yari. Here are some links. New shaft http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/j ... -kago-yari The notorious Mr Miller Robert Winter http://www.winterjapaneseart.com/index. ... &Itemid=76 Nihonto message board viewtopic.php?f=4&p=51937

Oil made a huge difference! I will post some pictures of the wood staff weapons.

I have never seen another one like it either, I got it along with some old hard wood staffs from someone who had a lot of old unusual martial arts weapons and books. It actually has some beetle bore holes, they have some really tough bugs in Japan.

Some great info on the subject guys, thanks. Here is a photo of both ends of the bokken to compare.

Henk, I do not know the exact details as I would never purchase a sword from Yahoo Japan. I do not know it this applies to yari and other blades or just strictly swords. The "related" items I was told would be oils for sword care. You would have to ask the company if they have any method other than Japan Post for shipping a sword outside of Japan. Quite possibly they can use Fed Express etc.

Ian....waiting patiently

Piers, I hate it when that happens! But thanks for the photos of an extremely rare item.

Piers, the two pieces are an exact fit but not not original, I have to admit that I put them together. An example of an item that while at one time must have been very common but now is very rare. I have a few felt saya covers, leather tsuka covers etc, I will try to find them and take some pictures.

The tsuba is thick leather or rawhide and it has a round cross section. While it is a hard wood it is not really heavy, I have a couple of staff weapons with very tight grain that are extremely heavy.