Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Tsuruhashi (鶴觜) - The Samurai's Warpick  In the centre, an unarmored soldiers wearing a Tsuruhashi on a two handed shaft, with an hammer side and a white-hardened point, from the Ukiyo-e " Descending Gees at Yahagi Bridge" by Yoshitoshi, 1868 In this article I want to cover a dedicated anti armor weapon known as Tsuruhashi (Crane's beak ) also known as Motayu  ( 藻弛 ) and often erroneously called nanban hachiwari ( more of this later on ). This warpick was a percussive weapon which resemble an European warhammer or an Indian Zaghnal , both in shapes but also in usage as well. The war pick was made of iron or steel , usually fitted onto a lacquered wooden handle that could vary in length; most of the time it was one handed , but there is at least one depiction showing it to be two handed length. The one handed version occasionally had a "D-shaped" handguard on the handle. Even if it was rare , it was used from the 14th century onward to overcom...

Kanabou (金棒) - The Samurai's Mace  A Kanasaibou wielded by a Sohei ( 僧兵 ) from  大和武者絵 Since I've received some request about this particular weapon, I've decided to write a detailed article about this iconic mace. The Kanabou ( 金棒 ) or Tetsubou ( 鉄棒 ) , better know as Kanasaibou ( 金砕棒 ) in Japanese, is a percussive weapon designed to counter armor . The name translated means "metal or iron staff". For the sake of simplicity in this blog I won't consider similar weapons like the aribo or kanemuchi as different ones since they are essentially Kanabou too. I've already talk why and when Japanese percussive weapons started to be   underrated in my previous article about war axes so I won't spent more lines talking about it; but maces in Japan were known and used  through out the feudal period, without being considered " lesser"  or  "dishonorable" tools. The Kanabou is a mace either made of hardwood like oak or ...

Masakari (鉞) - The Samurai's War Axe Samurai holding a battle axe; detail from the  春日権現験記. 第８軸 Also know as Ono ( 斧 ) or as Fuetsu ( 斧鉞 ), this weapon is one of the less related within the "Samurai warfare" context. For many years inside the internet I've read a lot of stuffs about the fact that Samurai didn't use Axes in battle. If there is someone to blame, his name is Bashford Dean .  Although I do extremely respect the man for his pioneering approach inside the field of Samurai Arms & Armors in the late 19th and early 20th century, we can read in his first catalogue, "Catalogue of  the Loan Collection of Japanese Armor" dated 1905 from the "Metropolitan Museum of Art" one of the most "romantic" cliché associated within the Samurai warrior culture.                          Bashford Dean wearing Samurai Armor Quoting from the man itself, page 10 of the catalogue: " "In Japan, on the ...