Dark Luther
10-14-2006, 02:03 AM
Actually, it's spelled Zanbatō...
Quite commonly seen in fantasy and in anime,
but almost ironicly always taken as fiction rather than as an actual weapon...
The truth is this weapon was very real, and it's size was not differant from it's portrayal in those media, though the way it was used probably was quite differant.
The weapon itself is a massive sword -
an over sized blade that's almost as large if not indeed larger than it's wielder - at around 5 - 6 feet.
The blade would be quite thick at around 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches at it's greatest, falling into a backbone of wood that would portude out for a couple of feet to around four feet.
This generally made the "sword" around 5 to 7 feet in height, and weighing considerably.
In the bottom I will list the Wikipedia - but for an image of it, one can pretty much look towards the large weapons used in Naruto, or Rurouni Kenshin - even the Buster Sword used in FF is of similar appearance ( though not quite exactly at proportion and design ).
I warn that what I write is quite differant from what it says in the wiki - this some have noticed is almost common place with some of the past weapons.
Personally I think it rather stupid to write all this when you could just read the wiki.
The reason I do write this though - is because I believe the wiki to be wrong. This is usually from my own research or conclusions from evidence given by others who are experts in the field.
In the wiki it is stated that the weapon was not existant in Japanese history as far as it was known -
but this is quite false in my knowledge.
I know for a fact that examples of these weapons have been found, and have long since studied their use and application in the battlefield and Japanese history.
The wiki also coincidedly states that this was probably because the weapon was too large to actually wield -
again this is false.
As far as the wiki states - it's a fictional weapon that can't be wielded. What's wrong with this conclusion is that they believe it would be wielded as a normal sword.
In reality the Zanbatō was used by the Sohei -
a class of warrior monks that faded with the rise of Oda Nobunaga. The weapon was used primarily as an anti-calvary deterant, and was often not used by the strongest, but instead by rather small ( by today's standards ) monks who were not primarily strong, but quite well versed in Budo and use of taijutsu....
The extremly large weapon would be carried balanced on the shoulder flat - as it was too heavy to be carried in any other way. This sounds heavy, but if you've ever worked construction - you'd be surprised how easy it is to carry heavy loads that way.
In the battle the weapon would be deployed with the wooden handle into the ground and the blade leaning in a certain way on the monk.
As the calvary came in - the weapon's weight would be used to simply fall and cut the horse in half.
There was more to it than this of course - as a particular way of moving your hips and turning your body was needed to properly operate it.
This was mostly done with the extremly large versions - other lighter versions ( which where more common and commonly around 5 feet ) was balanced on the shoulder - but at a 45 instead of a 90 - and the turn rotation of the body would allow the swing downwards to cause devastating stopping power.
The sword would never be swung by hand as in anime and the movies - it would simply roll ( like a seesaw ) forward over the shoulder...
The wiki states a similarity to a zhanmadao,
but this is absolutely ridiculous and false.
A zhanmadao is not similar at all to a Zanbatō,
nor is it even similar to a nagamaki - as it states...
The zhanmadao was simply a slightly larger sword - and itself wasn't even quite large when compared to the Nodachi or Odachi stated in the previous weapons ( at only a total length of around 60 inches at most ).
The Nagamaki - a future weapon for another time, itself is quite differant from the zhanmadao in being it actually was a calvary sword - not an anti calvary sword - and was known simply for being a blade with a large handle that equaled the length of the blade.
The Zanbatō I quess would resemble the top of a glaive if I were to compare it to anything - but it was truly an exotic and little known weapon.
I have had the good fortune to see it's use, and even examples of the weapon...,
it truly is a weapon one would have to move and think, to understand it...
But still, it's fun to imagine such a fictional looking weapon was in fact quite real....
Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanbato
Make your own minds up on who to trust....
Quite commonly seen in fantasy and in anime,
but almost ironicly always taken as fiction rather than as an actual weapon...
The truth is this weapon was very real, and it's size was not differant from it's portrayal in those media, though the way it was used probably was quite differant.
The weapon itself is a massive sword -
an over sized blade that's almost as large if not indeed larger than it's wielder - at around 5 - 6 feet.
The blade would be quite thick at around 1 to 1 and 1/2 inches at it's greatest, falling into a backbone of wood that would portude out for a couple of feet to around four feet.
This generally made the "sword" around 5 to 7 feet in height, and weighing considerably.
In the bottom I will list the Wikipedia - but for an image of it, one can pretty much look towards the large weapons used in Naruto, or Rurouni Kenshin - even the Buster Sword used in FF is of similar appearance ( though not quite exactly at proportion and design ).
I warn that what I write is quite differant from what it says in the wiki - this some have noticed is almost common place with some of the past weapons.
Personally I think it rather stupid to write all this when you could just read the wiki.
The reason I do write this though - is because I believe the wiki to be wrong. This is usually from my own research or conclusions from evidence given by others who are experts in the field.
In the wiki it is stated that the weapon was not existant in Japanese history as far as it was known -
but this is quite false in my knowledge.
I know for a fact that examples of these weapons have been found, and have long since studied their use and application in the battlefield and Japanese history.
The wiki also coincidedly states that this was probably because the weapon was too large to actually wield -
again this is false.
As far as the wiki states - it's a fictional weapon that can't be wielded. What's wrong with this conclusion is that they believe it would be wielded as a normal sword.
In reality the Zanbatō was used by the Sohei -
a class of warrior monks that faded with the rise of Oda Nobunaga. The weapon was used primarily as an anti-calvary deterant, and was often not used by the strongest, but instead by rather small ( by today's standards ) monks who were not primarily strong, but quite well versed in Budo and use of taijutsu....
The extremly large weapon would be carried balanced on the shoulder flat - as it was too heavy to be carried in any other way. This sounds heavy, but if you've ever worked construction - you'd be surprised how easy it is to carry heavy loads that way.
In the battle the weapon would be deployed with the wooden handle into the ground and the blade leaning in a certain way on the monk.
As the calvary came in - the weapon's weight would be used to simply fall and cut the horse in half.
There was more to it than this of course - as a particular way of moving your hips and turning your body was needed to properly operate it.
This was mostly done with the extremly large versions - other lighter versions ( which where more common and commonly around 5 feet ) was balanced on the shoulder - but at a 45 instead of a 90 - and the turn rotation of the body would allow the swing downwards to cause devastating stopping power.
The sword would never be swung by hand as in anime and the movies - it would simply roll ( like a seesaw ) forward over the shoulder...
The wiki states a similarity to a zhanmadao,
but this is absolutely ridiculous and false.
A zhanmadao is not similar at all to a Zanbatō,
nor is it even similar to a nagamaki - as it states...
The zhanmadao was simply a slightly larger sword - and itself wasn't even quite large when compared to the Nodachi or Odachi stated in the previous weapons ( at only a total length of around 60 inches at most ).
The Nagamaki - a future weapon for another time, itself is quite differant from the zhanmadao in being it actually was a calvary sword - not an anti calvary sword - and was known simply for being a blade with a large handle that equaled the length of the blade.
The Zanbatō I quess would resemble the top of a glaive if I were to compare it to anything - but it was truly an exotic and little known weapon.
I have had the good fortune to see it's use, and even examples of the weapon...,
it truly is a weapon one would have to move and think, to understand it...
But still, it's fun to imagine such a fictional looking weapon was in fact quite real....
Here's the link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zanbato
Make your own minds up on who to trust....