Naginata

(on the left: bamboo naginata for training and competition. on the midle: wooden naginata for training. on the right: real combat naginata.)

The naginata is an ancient Japanese weapon similar to the eastern halberd or alabarda and to the chinese kwan-dao. It consists in a simple blade similar of those used in swords (actualy, it was not strange to turn swords into naginatas) that varies in the amond of curvature, widith of the blade and size, going from something like 6 inches to 2 feet mounted on a pole that may vary betwen 2 or 3 feet up to 10 feet long.
These differences reflect the diferent uses and needs along the 1000 years of this weapon.

It was widly used by monks, foot attendants of the samurai and personal guards, but around 1400 this weapon was partialy substituted by the simple spear. Some monks and personal guards still prefereded it, but the spear started to be prefered in massive battles. By this time it was more used by women to guard theyr homes and, if I'm not wrong, shrines.
(In the link I'll put here it's sayd that female samurai used the naginata and dagger, but I never heard of female samurai before. I will check it out.)

It seems that the naginata turned into a prefered weapon for females, but it did NOT turned into a female weapon. Lots of men still uses the naginata as prefered weapon.

Nowadays it's used as fisical and spiritual development and sport to use the naginata, but you can still find schools that teach traditional stiles of naginata, not the competitive.

The basic stances for the Atarashi Naginata, the competitive form:


The basic targets for the Atarashi Naginata:




This was based into personal knowledge and research. The site I took the images and the main source of information is the folowing:
http://www.ny-jss.org/naginata/


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