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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Oct 10, 2016 15:17:28 GMT
An interesting aspect I found is the use of a smaller form of naginata (ko-naginata) by samurai-women. From artwork, women were usually shown with ordinary naginata, rather than small naginata. (Tomoe Gozen is an exception - she's often shown with a really big naginata.) There were plenty of quite small naginata made during the late Edo Period. But these were for men, as ceremonial/parade weapons, for when the daimyo had to go to Edo every couple of years, for their accompanying retainers to carry. These are sometimes (incorrectly) described as "women's naginata". From the threat with the enormous axe/hammer artwork I got the idea, this could perhaps express "fights as well as a man" or "dangerous as a man" and the bigger one means "better". I do not MA, but I think a polearm should match the person (weight, size, strengh, perhaps situation) which uses it for optimal fighting.
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Oct 10, 2016 20:21:45 GMT
"Bigger is better" is why Tomoe Gozen is shown with a big naginata. According to the text sources, she used bow, sword, knife, mostly fighting on horseback. The naginata appears due to the later association of the naginata with women (there is no known contemporary artwork of Tomoe Gozen). She was supposedly stronger than most samurai.
I don't think average-sized or smaller people should go for super-huge weapons, but average weapons are usable by average people, for a pretty broad range of average people. Train enough to be effective with the weapon, and you tend to have the fitness and strength to cope with the average weapon, even if you're smaller than average.
This is a good opportunity to repost my favourite o-naginata demo:
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Post by Cosmoline on Oct 11, 2016 22:40:36 GMT
Late medieval and Renaissance pole arms tend to be pretty specialized. A number of them were designed for dealing with armored men on war horses for example. Complete with hooks for grabbing the guy and huge blades on shafts strong enough to impale the horse. The ones I've seen in museums have been really big, presumably to cope with the charge. Others were for countering pike formations and could even be used in special units like the Swiss halberdiers. There were also poleaxes and long hammers designed for fighting armored opponents on foot. Like a can opener for harness. And there were long axe type weapons such as the English bill or guisarme.
The Japanese and Chinese types seem similar in their uses, with some differences owing to different armor types. Either way I suspect the best bet for a duel would be one of the more simple types that doesn't have all of the specialty prongs on it. Something that can stab, cut and grab. English bill is tough to beat for that. Silver ranked it among the best of weapons IIRC.
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