Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Nagamaki (長巻) - A unique Japanese sword One of the few artistic representation of the Nagamaki; on the centre left, a fleeing warrior is holding said weapon while running from a cavalry charge. From the Kiyomizu  Dera Engi Emaki ( 清水寺縁起絵巻 ) The Nagamaki ( 長巻 ) is a unique sword design found only in Japan, with very few exceptions. The name itself means "long wrapping" and there is a very specific reason behind it that I'm going to explain in this article. Before discussing the weapon itself, it should be clarified why it is considered a sword ; despite having the length required to be classified in the polearms category, the nagamaki is used as a sword , which means that both hands   are in a fixed position and the weapon is held in the same way a sword is held, with few-to-none hands changing along the handle. The closest example of this weapon found outside Japan is the European Spetum , although this weapon was used as a polearm rather than as a sword. Hi...

Shichihode (七方出) - Ninja's Seven Disguises A group of travelling merchants during the Edo period; one of the famous Ninja's famous disguises. From a Hiroshige's Ukiyo-e Among the various arts and techniques a Shinobi  was supposed to learn, the Shichihode ( 七方出 ) was one of the most useful when it comes to infiltration and espionage. The Shichihode, which could be translated in " seven directions" ,   are useful disguises associated with particular professions or social class  used by various ninjas to travel unnoticed across the country in order to spy the others domains. The disguises are listed in the Shoninki ( 正忍記 ) , which was written in the late 17th century, when the Tokugawa Shogunate was in full control of the country and had a well developed spies network all across Japan; however, these disguises were likely  to be used in the previous centuries as well, especially during the Sengoku period, when war was at its peak. To better understand why...