Talk:Tonbokiri/@comment-31.33.217.53-20160126142624

Their is somewhat a stupid error inducing thing in Tonbokiri's History description.

What Tadakatsu changed was not the size of the spear, but the one of it's shaft !

I'll explain.

Honda Tadakatsu was a samurai general, meaning he mainly ride on horse back, and when fighting, he charged along other cavalry or infantry men. Starting with Onin wars, the bulk of samurai armies were Ashigaru, but samurai continued to ride. So samurai commanders were pretty much all equiped with horses, and from the beast's back were bossing them around. Since fighting on horseback is difficult, and that the samurai style of combat give priority to offensive way of fighting (unlike the medieval Knights who wore armors better than their weapons) he dismounted and some Ashigaru or low ranked samurai would take care of his horse for him while he was fighting (English Knights fought in a similar fashion, unlike French Knights for exemple who were together has some kind of Cavalry division, English Knights had the tendency to fight alongside the infantry). Then, if the situation went bad and he needed to retreat, the samurai commander would return to his horse and his retainers would protect him while he mounted back, and then cover his retreat while retreating themselves.

For ashigaru infantry, long spears are good, they can fight in formations together, even against intensely trained ferocious samurai veterans they would be less affraid than if they were fighting up-close.

But as an horse riding specialist, one need a shorter spear for more agile attacks. Though, I have read somewhere Honda Tadakatsu still used a spear longer than the average horsemanship Yari.

After he grew old, that was Tenka Taihei (the world in peace, litterally "Great Peace Under the Heaven") so Tadakatsu would be likelier to fight indoors. And he had less physical strenght (that and all other problems who come with old age and old bones...) so he reduced the size of the shaft. It is also known some high ranked samurai fancied verry short spears they could thrust while sitting inside a litter.

The size of a spear's Nakago has but few influence over the maximal size of a Yari's shaft.

That is why it's probably not the spear itself who was reduced. I precise this because it is dubious that Tonbokiri's Nagasa was reduced, or that the Nakago was partly cut off. If they did so, it may have caused disharmony in the Horimono.

For exemple, the Owari Kan-ryû uses empty spear shaft, allowing the samurai to twist it.

Also, about the smith.

The official smith attribution is Fujiwara no Masazane. But. Tonbokiri's Touken Danshi says it's Muramasa.

This must be confusing for most people. I will explain.

During the Tokugawa Bakufu, Muramasa swords were banned. Everyone knows it, right ? Well... many people didn't wanted to get rid of their swords or spears or Tantô from the Muramasa school and/or Nidai (Second Generation) Muramasa. So it is speculated many changed the signature or made Suriage, so it would be impossible to identify it as a Muramasa.

This is what is supposed to have happened to Tonbokiri.

It iseems the Honda clan managed to erase a kanji, and wrote the "Sane" kanji instead. Tonbokiri Masazane is thought to be actually Tonbokiri Muramasa because of the blade's caracteristics, and also the fact Muramasa liked Horimono with Buddhist inspirations (this is the case for Tonbokiri). Also, the smith Fujiwara no Masazane could imply be made up (their is also a theory prettending Masamune never existed and all his works were from Muramasa... but that's dubbious, considering the differences in style, for exemple, or the fact Muramasa is clearly not as obsessed with Ko-Hoki school or Tomonari as Masamune (or Norishige, one of his Ten Disciples) was).

So maybe it would be a good idea to writte : "Fujiwara Masazane or Muramasa". Of course, their is also the possibility Masazane is actually a smith who learned from the Muramasa school but whose work almost disapeared.