Musha – Japanese Nagamaki

This large Japanese Nagamaki has a sword-like blade of 1045 high carbon steel secured within a polearm haft of wood – its long blade tang is secured with a dual-pinned construction. The tsuba and hilt fittings are blackened steel and the habaki and seppa are brass. The wooden grip is bound with red ito cord in its middle and its upper and lowermost areas are fitted with panels of rayskin and overlaid with black knotted tsuka-ito cord; a total of four antiqued brass menuki are fitted beneath the ito folds.

The saya-like sheath is black-lacquered wood.

The Nagamaki can vary in its forms, but most are essentially a sword-bladed polearm; it is used in a technique different than the Naginata which utilizes more sliding action on the haft, whereas a more fixed grip is typically used for the Nagimaki. The Nagamaki was often used as an anti-cavalry weapon and its long sweeping blade was used to great effect to cut down cavalrymen or even their horses.

The Nagimaki was most popular during the Muromachi period and it is said that the great Daimyo warlord Uesugi Kenshin had an elite bodyguard of personal retainers who were all armed with the imposing and intimidating Nagamaki.