Nagamaki
Encyclopedia
The nagamaki is a Japanese pole weapon
Pole weapon
A pole weapon or polearm is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is placed on the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range. Spears, glaives, poleaxes, halberds, and bardiches are all varieties of polearms...

 with a long and heavy blade with an equally long hilt
Hilt
The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A ricasso may also be present, but this is rarely the case...

, used by the samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

 warriors of medieval Japan. The nagamaki is very much like the Japanese naginata
Naginata
The naginata is one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese blades in the form of a pole weapon. Naginata were originally used by the samurai class in feudal Japan, and naginata were also used by ashigaru and sōhei .-Description:A naginata consists of a wooden shaft with a curved...

or a glaive
Glaive
A glaive is a European polearm weapon, consisting of a single-edged blade on the end of a pole. It is similar to the Japanese naginata and the Chinese Guan Dao....

.

History

The nagamaki was introduced and used primarily during the late Kamakura
Kamakura period
The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....

 (1192–1333), Nanboku-chō (1334–1392) and early Muromachi
Muromachi period
The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...

 (1392–1573) periods. During the middle of the Muromachi period (1336–1573 A.D.) the nagamaki reached its peak of usage. The nagamaki is considered the favored weapon of samurai General Oda Nobunaga
Oda Nobunaga
was the initiator of the unification of Japan under the shogunate in the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a major daimyo during the Sengoku period of Japanese history. His opus was continued, completed and finalized by his successors Toyotomi...

. Uesugi Kenshin
Uesugi Kenshin
was a daimyo who ruled Echigo province in the Sengoku period of Japan.He was one of the most powerful lords of the Sengoku period. While chiefly remembered for his prowess on the battlefield, Kenshin is also regarded as an extremely skillful administrator who fostered the growth of local industries...

 is said to have a special guard of retainers armed with nagamagi.

Description

The nagamaki was a long sword with 2–4 feet blade and a shaft with about equal length or slightly shorter.
The blade was single-edged. It was also bevel
Bevel
A beveled edge refers to an edge of a structure that is not perpendicular to the faces of the piece. The words bevel and chamfer overlap in usage; in general usage they are often interchanged, while in technical usage they may sometimes be differentiated as shown in the image at right.-Cutting...

ed along the back edge to reduce its weight. It resembles a traditional naginata
Naginata
The naginata is one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese blades in the form of a pole weapon. Naginata were originally used by the samurai class in feudal Japan, and naginata were also used by ashigaru and sōhei .-Description:A naginata consists of a wooden shaft with a curved...

, but the main difference was that the handle (tsuka) of the nagamaki was not a simple wooden shaft; it was made more like a katana
Katana
A Japanese sword, or , is one of the traditional bladed weapons of Japan. There are several types of Japanese swords, according to size, field of application and method of manufacture.-Description:...

 hilt. Even the name "nagamaki" ("long wrapping") is given by the tradition of handle wrapping. The nagamaki handle was wrapped with leather or silk cords in criss-crossed manner, very similar to the wrapping that is made on katana. The nagamaki is considered to be evolved from the extremely long nodachi
Nodachi
A nodachi is a large two-handed Japanese sword. Some have suggested that the meaning of "nodachi" is roughly the same as ōdachi meaning "large/great sword". A confusion between the terms has nearly synonymized "nodachi" with the very large "ōdachi"...

or ōdachi
Odachi
An , was a type of long Japanese sword. The term nodachi, or "field sword", which refers to a different type of sword, is often mistakenly used in place of ōdachi. It is historically known as ōtachi....

swords that are described in fourteenth century literature and pictorial sources.

The length of blade varies on a nagamaki. However, the nagasa most commonly fits the profile of a tachi
Tachi
The is one type of traditional Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan.-History and description:With a few exceptions katana and tachi can be distinguished from each other if signed, by the location of the signature on the tang...

or katana blade, which would be a blade of more than 2 shaku (2 Shaku = 60.6 cm, roughly 2 feet) in length. While nagamaki means "long wrap" they have been found with no ito (wrapping cord) at all, which is very much like a long tachi handle. The tsukamaki (hilt wrap) is of even more importance when applied to the tsuka of a nagamaki. The cord helps to improve grip on the tsuka and also lends structural integrity to the wooden handle. Nagamaki found without hilt wrap usually had at least metal collars around the hilt where the tang is.

There are no solid rules governing the aspects of the make of the nagamaki. Unlike wakizashi
Wakizashi
The is one of the traditional Japanese swords worn by the samurai class in feudal Japan.-Description:...

, tantō
Tanto
A is one of the traditional Japanese swords that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate...

, and katana, which have had history of strict measurements regarding the nagasa, and even the tsuka in some cases; the nagamaki varied in nagasa, nakago (tang) length, kissaki style, etc. Bare nagamaki blades are katana length with typical katana-size tang (7–10 inches). Nagamaki presumably could have koshirae in a tachi or katana style as well as a nagamaki style, however there are examples of nagamaki with rather long nakago (tang), which could be fitted with a longer staff for a haft and effectively function as a naginata. Araki-ryū nagamaki is a heavy naginata over eight pounds of weight and eight feet long.

All traditional Japanese swords are fitted very snugly to their tsukas and held in place with a mekugi (bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....

 peg) which is fit through a mekugi-ana (hole in the tang and hilt). This is actually quite a strong mount when done correctly, and allowed for easy dismount of the bare blade for maintenance or inspection. Katana most commonly had one single mekugi, and nagamaki commonly have been found with two or more to account for the added leverage of a longer handle.

Use

The way to hold a nagamaki is very specific. It is held with the two hands in a fixed position in the same way a katana is held. Unlike the naginata, the hands do not change when handling the weapon and the right hand was always the closest to the blade. While handling nagamaki fewer sliding actions on the handle are performed than are with the naginata, where the entire length of the shaft is used.

The nagamaki is designed for large sweeping and slicing strokes. It also works as a spear
Spear
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

. Traditionally, it was used as an infantry
Infantry
Infantrymen are soldiers who are specifically trained for the role of fighting on foot to engage the enemy face to face and have historically borne the brunt of the casualties of combat in wars. As the oldest branch of combat arms, they are the backbone of armies...

 weapon. Warriors used the weapon against horsemen. Still, it required more time and materials to create a nagamaki than spears or naginata, which is why it was not as widely used. The closest exemplar of real nagamaki that can be seen today is nagamaki-naoshi. It appears to be like a long katana-shaped halberd, but straighter and thinner, with a very long tsuka. In contrast to it, the naginata blade is shorter, wider and more curved to the tip. The nagamaki also resembles the Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

 anti-cavalry weapon, the Zhanmadao
Zhanmadao
The zhanmadao was a single-bladed anti-cavalry Chinese sword of the Song Dynasty.- General characteristics :The zhanmadao is a sabre with a single long broad blade, and a long handle suitable for two-handed use....

.

External links

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