Jūmonji yari

Quick Facts

Martial Arts

Hozoin-ryu SojutsuHozoin-ryu Takada-ha Sojutsu

OriginJapan

Weapon typeSpear

How it worksPolearm, Thrusting, Cutting, Hooked

Period of useMedieval, Early modern, Present day

Original purposeMilitary weapon

Carried byWarrior class

About the weapon

Jūmonji yari (十文字槍, 'cross-shaped spear'), also called magari yari, is a Japanese spear with a cross-shaped head. Japanese sources place it among the kama yari, spears with a sickle-shaped crossblade, and attribute its systematic form to Hōzōin Insai, a Buddhist monk of Kōfuku-ji temple in Nara. Equally long side blades curved upward extend from both sides of the point, so the head resembles a trident. Sickle spears usually had a shorter shaft than ordinary yari, so they could be used at close range and for sweeping. The cross-shaped head extended the thrusting spear with cutting, sweeping, pulling and grazing. The Hōzōin-ryū school sums this up as 'thrust like a spear, sweep like a naginata, pull like a sickle'. Insai studied swordsmanship under Kamiizumi Ise no Kami together with Yagyū Tajima no Kami, and spear fighting under master Daizen Moritada. His art was taken up by Nakamura Naomasa and, after him, by Takada Matabei Yoshitsugu, founder of the Takada-ha branch. By the end of the Sengoku period, sickle spears had become a mark of daimyo status; Mori Nagayoshi's great cross spear was famous. Hōzōin-ryū has, according to the school, been passed down for over 460 years through its kata. In 2020, about a hundred students trained in Nara, Nagoya, Tokyo and Hamburg, Germany, and since 2017 the school has also admitted women.

Parts of the weapon

• Point
• Blade — 鎌
• Shaft

Related weapons

• Variant of: Yari