Talk:Sōjutsu

"never particularly popular with Japanese warriors?"
Nothing could be more wrong. The spear was second only to the bow in use in battle, and was used extensively before, during, and after the introduction of superior sword crafting technology and even firearms. there is no culture in history that did not attatch great importance to the spear. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.35.204.189 (talk) 16:36, 20 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't know what to tell you except to either take it up with Donn Draeger or provide a source for your assertions; I worked with the only published reference I had available to me. Bradford44 (talk) 19:32, 24 July 2008 (UTC)


 * I have to agree, the spear was incredibly popular amongst the Samurai and the Ashigaru soldiers, who themselves used it to great effect before and during the Sengoku Jidai. Oda Nobunaga for instance used them /widely/. I'll need to get some sources from my library to provide sources though, so I won't be able to modify anything for a while.--Caliburnis (talk) 21:09, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Role in Mythology
Can someone get confirmation that it was the yari that was used to form the Japanese islands? I've seen several depictions showing a naginata, and a couple of translations with "halberd", which is typically an (inaccurate) translation of naginata. Also, in the "Use and Popularity" section, the article focuses on use by ashigaru, in conjunction with firearms. The yari was a popular weapon even before firearms were common. I'm not sure why "requiring less training" would be cited in an article about what is essentially yari training. It also ignores the popularity of yari with samurai, who often used it mounted. Sources can be produced for this; the best would be the book that was used in the article on the yari itself. --Longpatrol42 (talk) 17:26, 11 April 2010 (UTC)