写真

Naginatajutsu is a martial art of wielding halberd which is the long arms peculiar to Japan. After the sword turned into the a Japanese sword, the "halberd" classified were produced when the main arms in a battlefield became main from arrow in horseriding to fighting on foot. The naginata is one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese swords (nihonto) in the form of a pole weapon. Naginata were originally used by the samurai class of feudal Japan, and naginata were also used by ashigaru(foot soldiers) and sōhei(warrior monks). Power was demonstrated as a monk soldier's arms from the Nara period to the Heian period for protection of a temple, and it became the main arms of the battlefield from the end of the Kamakura period to the Muromachi period. However, when the mainstream of the battle changed to the high density fighting by a foot soldier from the Ōnin War time, it was soon taken and replaced to the spear from a functional viewpoint. When it entered at the Edo period, and the Edo Shogunate forbade possession of the halberd in a samurai's individual temporarily, continuation also of the way method of the halberd as a martial art became dangerous. But, the samurai's woman continued the halberd by becoming military arts which should carry out a requirement. It applies after the Pacific War from Taisho Era, and becomes the "naginata" of martial art, and a woman's art is prosperous also in the present age. It is not the purpose that the present halberd beats a partner. It aims to let mind and body take harmony.　And, the contestant of a naginata mainly has a woman in use. This photograph was taken in Tokyo Budokan Hall in Ayase of Tokyo Adachi-ku.