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Concept
Naginatajutsu
Summary
is the Japanese martial art of wielding the naginata. The naginata is a weapon resembling the medieval European glaive and the Chinese guan dao. Most naginatajutsu practiced today is in a modernized form, a gendai budō, in which competitions also are held.
The naginata originates from development of the Japanese spear called hoko yari of the later 1st millennium AD. It has been suggested that it developed along the same lines as Okinawan kobudō weapons as a modified farming tool. Others say that creative samurai in need of a longer weapon attached a sword to a pole. Perhaps the simplest explanation is the natural development of polearms. Polearms are intended as mass weapons, to be used not just by individual warriors, but by formations of soldiers together on field battles and not for dueling. When fighting in close order, two-handed cut-and-thrust weapons, such as halberds and glaives, are much more efficient than mere spears or swords because of their versatility compared to spears and longer reach compared to swords. Fighting in massed formation does not require similar individual weapon-handling skills as required by a skilled swordsman. Naginata are almost identical in appearance to both the glaive and the guan dao, and it is most likely result of parallel evolution.
The oldest account of naginata is in the Kojiki and battle paintings by Tengyo no ran, in 980 AD (Heian Period). The naginata was a weapon widely used mainly by Onna-musha (女武者, warrior women), Sôhei (僧兵; warrior monks), and Yamabushi (山伏, mountain monks).
In the early history of its use, the naginata was primarily used against cavalry, as its length kept the wielder a safe distance from horses and their riders.
Its use became popular around the year 1000 AD. In the centuries that followed, the naginata's popularity rose and fell as tactics used in battle evolved.
The importance of naginata for samurai can be attested by the relatively large number of styles of bujutsu that have incorporated it in their curriculum, to name a few: Suiō-ryū, Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, Tendō-ryū, Toda-ha Bukō-ryū, and the Yōshin-ryū.
Official source
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