Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Sekiro ( 隻狼 ) : A Historical "Review" This is something definitely new for this blog; I'm going to talk about a videogame! And if you are not familiar with my content but you were looking for the review itself of the game Sekiro ( Fromsoftware, 2019) I want to be honest, you are not going to find a normal review below here. In fact in this post, I want to talk about the history and the context in which the game is set: Japan during the Sengoku period ( 戦国時代 ). To be fair, I know that it is a game and it supposed to have fantasy elements in it, but nevertheless it is a good opportunity to talk about the true history behind the setting and the aesthetic of the game itself. Sekiro is extremely bounded to some aspect of Japanese culture and if you are looking for those elements, especially the martial ones , this post is definitely for you. First of all , I have to say, I'm impressed. Besides the gameplay, the map design, the plot and characters involved in th...

For the Readers: News and Feedback (25/03/2019) This is not the average article you are going to read here, in my blog, and if you are looking for some information about ancient Japanese warfare , feel free to skip entirely this post. This in fact is for the readers of my blog , for those who like to leave a comment in my articles, who shared them, who spent time reading all of my efforts. First of all, thank you, for the very bottom of my heart. This blog for me is a hobby, something I like to do in my free time: in fact I wish I could spend more of my time and money in order to have top notch graphics & drawings and an easy to use drop down menu; but if you have been here for a while you would have notice that the quality of the content is my priority, rather than anything else. Since I have started this adventure with blogger, two years ago, I would have never think to see all of those comments and those views ( which at least to me, they are a lot! ) and I'm still...

Naginata (薙刀) - The Samurai's Glaive  A typical foot soldier of the early Kamakura period carrying a naginata, from the Heiji Monogatari Emaki ( 平治物語絵巻 ). When it comes to Japanese (and in particular, Samurai) polearms, there are few examples as  iconic  as the  naginata (薙刀) , also written  長刀 , always  erroneously  translated into English as the  Japanese halberd  (which technically it is not, at least in it most common variation: the correct translation is  glaive )   . The naginata is a polearm with a curved blade of various shapes,  usually  in between 30 to 100 cm, mounted on an oval shaft of 90-180 cm  by means of a lengthy tang inserted  into a slot in the haft, and held in place by pegs. This polearm has been  the main weapon of foot soldiers  from the late Heian period to the early Muromachi period, it was  wielded from horseback  by the Samurai ...