This is actually quite a strong mount when done correctly, and allowed for easy dismount of the bare blade for maintenance or inspection. Īll traditional Japanese swords are fitted very snugly to their hilts and held in place with a mekugi, a bamboo peg which is fit through a hole in the tang called a mekugi-ana.
Araki-ryū nagamaki is a heavy naginata over eight pounds of weight and eight feet long. Nagamaki presumably could have koshirae in a tachi or katana style as well as a nagamaki style, however there are examples of nagamaki with rather long tangs, which could be fitted with a longer staff for a haft and effectively function as a naginata. Unlike wakizashi, tantō, and katana, which have had history of strict measurements regarding the blade length and even the hilt in some cases the nagamaki varied in blade length, tang length, kissaki style, etc. There are no solid rules governing the aspects of the make of the nagamaki. Nagamaki found without hilt wraps usually had at least metal collars around the hilt where the tang is. The cord helps to improve grip on the hilt and also lends structural integrity to the wooden handle. The tsukamaki (hilt wrap) is of even more importance when applied to the hilt. While nagamaki means "long wrap", there have been specimens found with no wrapping cord at all, which is very much like a long tachi handle. However, the nagasa (blade length) most commonly fits the profile of a tachi or katana blade, which would be a blade of more than 2 shaku (2 Shaku = 60.6 cm, roughly 2 feet) in length. The length of blade varies on a nagamaki. The nagamaki is considered to be evolved from the extremely long ōdachi or nodachi swords that are described in fourteenth century literature and pictorial sources.
The nagamaki's handle was wrapped with leather or silk cords in criss-crossed manner, very similar to that of a katana's. Even the name "nagamaki" ("long wrapping") is given by the tradition of handle wrapping. The blade was single-edged and it could resemble a naginata blade, but the main difference in how the blades were mounted was that the handle ( tsuka) of the nagamaki was not a simple wooden shaft as in the naginata it was made more like a katana hilt. The nagamaki was a long sword with a blade that could be 2 feet or more and a handle of about equal length to the blade. The famed warlord Uesugi Kenshin, daimyō of Echigo Province, is said to have had a special guard of retainers armed with nagamaki. It was generally used as a weapon for low-ranking samurai who fought on foot. During the middle of the Muromachi period (1336–1573) the nagamaki reached its peak of usage. It is possible that nagamaki were first produced during the Heian period (794 to 1185) but there are no known examples dating from before the mid Kamakura period (1192–1333).
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