Naginata

The naginata is a Japanese polearm featuring a curved, single-edged blade mounted on a long wooden shaft, developed during Japan's Heian period, which ran from 794 to 1185, with the earliest documented references to the weapon appearing around 1146. It saw extensive use in medieval Japan among samurai, foot soldiers and the armed warrior monks known as sohei, valued for the reach and cutting power it gave a fighter against both infantry and mounted opponents. The naginata became especially iconic as the characteristic weapon of the onna-musha, noblewomen trained and equipped to fight, and the legendary warrior Tomoe Gozen, celebrated for her exploits during the Genpei War of 1180 to 1185, remains its best-known historical example. The naginata proved particularly effective at unhorsing mounted samurai during the Genpei War, a battlefield lesson that helped drive the adoption of greaves as standard leg armor for Japanese warriors in the conflict's aftermath.