Japanese Spears: A historical survey of naginata and yari – from earliest times to the end of the Edo period

By Roald and Patricia Knutsen

Published by Global Oriental

In this entirely new study of spears and halberds, Roald and Patricia Knutsen describe the diverse development of spear forms from the Yayoi period to the Meiji Restoration, and include original material on the use of these polearms.

For their presentation, they displayed five different spear blades including, for the first time in public, a highly important and rare Kikuchi-Yari made around 1335 and a Nagamaki blade smithed in 1360 by Hojoji Kunimitsu, one of the foremost pupils of Sadamune. Roald Knutsen’s accompanying informal talk elaborated on the position of So-jutsu as one of the Four Pillars of the classic arts of the battlefield.

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