Length Of Naginata?

[JH Lee]

Specifically, I am curious about how short were the shortest naginata (the pole), and whether they saw any indoor use historically.  Or would indoor spaces (in traditional Japanese castle architecture) have made them unusable or pointless (maybe since not enough room to use them to full effect).

Also, were any naginata-naoshi wakizashi ever re-mounted as naginata?  Or would that have been impossible/not functional since the nakago would now be too short to be mounted in a pole?

[Gasam]

Hi,

 

Not an expert, but all photos I have seen of naginatas have always had them stood considerably taller than the person holding them. Also, the purpose of the naginata seems to have been (among other things possibly, again not an expert), to create openings in the battlefield by long arching movements and to level the playing field so to speak if wielded by a person of small size vs bigger person. I have learned since getting my first naginata recently that in Japan, they were/are regarded as first and foremost a weapon for women (the onna-bugeishi), and since they could not own katanas, and were smaller than the men, the naginata became their weapon of choice. (Of course we have all seen photos of samurai holding them (the naginatas, not the women) :-) , and so they would use them too I guess.

 

For indoor use, they would not be practical as far as I can figure anyways. I believe there were special short yari little over a meter for indoor combat situations.

 

Finally, I believe the nakago of a naginata naoshi would indeed be to short for remounting on tip of pole. Naginatas were reinforced around the area where the longer naginata nakago went into the pole, often with metal rings or such. So that gives indication to the forces applied to that area in combat.

[Geraint]

Dear John.

 

No answers but some thoughts.  First, small yari on very short poles are usually called kago yari and reputed to have been for use in palanquin.  There is a wealth of documentary evidence for naginata in use on the battlefield and surviving early naginata.  I suspect that the tradition for them being women's weapons is an Edo development and even then not entirely the case.  I have formed the opinion that the rather short and sharply curved blade with an enlarged tip, (Tomoe sugata?) is intended as a weapon for women but there are some quite late naginata, shinshinto,  that were clearly never intended for this given their size.  I suspect that for women the shaft would be a little shorter and possibly allow for their use indoors in certain buildings.  I also recall a reference to polearms mounted over the door in a preserved samurai home.

 

There is the Knutsen book available on polearms.  It has much to say from a practical aspect regarding their use but is sometimes frustratingly short on the information that one would like.

 

All the best.

[paulb]

At the Chiddingstone event last year Raoul gave a lecture about the use of polearms. Unfortunately because of other duties at the time I only caught part of the lecture but if I understood correctly he was dispelling a number of misconceptions regarding the use of naginata as a defensive weapon or by women. His view was that certainly pre Edo it was used effectively on the battlefield as an offensive weapon capable of inflicting great damage.

I wonder if the idea of it being used by women came out of martial art practices where women with naginata competed with men with swords (not my area so this may be more common than I realise) rather than historical use as weapons.

[Gasam]

Hi again,

 

Yes, I too think naginatas as women weapon must be a peace time Edo period enterprise, if indeed the concept of it beeing women weapon holds water.

Some naginatas were so large in earlier times that even the naoshi were katana size i believe. Definately a field weapon.

 

Best regards,

Gard S.

[Jussi Ekholm]

I guess you could call the ones with shorter shaft a nagamaki. Generally nagamaki will have quite long blade in relation to the shorter shaft. You'll find many debates about nagamaki vs. naginata definitions if you search.

 

Here you can see Owarikan-ryu Sojutsu demonstration. Look at c. 2:00 mark for odachi, nagamaki and naginata

 

[JH Lee]

Thank you, everyone, as always, for the enlightening information.

Jussi, I absolutely love that video link.  I was especially delighted to see the use of jumonji yari-- as I've always wondered how it was used.  Very, very cool.  I wonder if the jumonji design was ever adapted as a shorter "kago" yari.  

[Marius]

I have enjoyed it, too :-) Now, what struck me, was the white wrapping around the upper part of the nodachi tsuka...