Medieval Japanese Axe

The most common type of polearm used in early medieval japan was known as the naginata and techniques of its use were called naginata jutsu.

Medieval japanese axe. Ashigaru formed the backbone of samurai armies in the later periods. There is a hard steel insert of 0 45 carbon steel in the middle for the cutting edge and two softer iron laminations to support it and form the rest of the head. Battle axes were very common in europe in the migration period and the subsequent viking age and they famously figure on the 11th century bayeaux tapestry which depicts norman mounted knights pitted against anglo saxon infantrymen. They continued to be employed throughout the rest of the middle ages with significant combatants being noted axe wielders in the 12th 13th and 14th centuries.

A long and stout shakuhachi can act as a truncheon. This versatile weapon resembles the halberd used by european soldiers. The samurai warrior also known as bushi originated in japan in the heian period the samurai kept a range of weapons such as bows and arrows spears and guns but their main weapon and symbol was the. However such fortifications could be elaborate and large in scale.

Japan s stone axes predate those of iron and steel and made ono a preferred weapon of japan s ancient yamabushi or warrior monks. The shigetou was primarily used by samurais and the kazuyumi was commonly used by soldiers. The shakuhachi refers to a japanese bamboo flute. But unlike the halberd the naginata had no axe and was usually longer than the six foot 1 8 meter european polearm.

There were two kinds. The tobikuchi is similar to a fireman s axe. Japanese longbow samurai warriors and soldiers in olden times were trained to be skilled archers. Or in individual encounters tobiguchi.

Early medieval defense structures were more like barricades than buildings and were not intended to house soldiers for extended periods. Japanese hatchet and axe heads from mizuno seisakujo in sanjo niigata province are normally made with a 3 layer laminated steel head warikomi. Their favored weapon was the japanese longbow usually seven feet long. Public domain tobikuchi.

The yamabushi used these pole axes some six feet tall in the thick of battle whirling them around at varying heights. The music produced when playing the shakuhachi was associated with meditation and zen buddhism. Not just for fighting fires source. A shakuhachi 尺八 a japanese bamboo flute blowing edge up.

Many extant screens depict scenes from tale of the heike the famous japanese historical saga of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The real change for the ashigaru began in 1543 with the introduction of matchlock firearms by the portuguese.