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been an unusual thing to do if he had discarded his bow for a swordfight. He then began to pull arrows out of his armor, indicating that arrowheads caused the “sparks” that flew off the two opponents, not sword blades. A samurai who had lost his horse would still prefer to use his bow, as long as he had arrows left. Only when he had no more arrows would he move on to using his sword. At the Battle of Shinohara in 1183:

      Arikuni, having penetrated very deeply into the ranks of the foe, had his horse shot from under him, and then while he was fighting on foot, his helmet was struck from his head, so that he looked like a youth fighting with his long hair streaming in all directions. By this time his arrows were exhausted, so he drew his sword and laid about him mightily, until, pierced by seven or eight shafts, he met his death still on his feet and glaring at his enemies.³⁵

      The unusual situation of a battle fought completely dismounted is illustrated by the Battle of Mizushima (1183), which was fought from on board ship, and again we see a preference for the bow. The Taira had tied their ships together and created a flat surface using planking, but even though their horses had been left on land, the battle began with bows, which continued “until they came to close quarters, when they drew their swords and engaged each other hand to hand.”³⁶ A samurai was therefore most unlikely to voluntarily abandon his bow for a sword, particularly when his enemy still had the use of a bow, as is perfectly illustrated in Azuma Kagami. In 1180 the Minamoto under Yoritomo were fighting Oba Kagechika:

      When they encountered Kagehisa at Hashida Mountain, they turned their horses and attacked him. Caught without bowstrings and forced to use their long swords, Kagehisa and his men could not defend themselves adequately against the arrows and the stones, and many of them were struck. Although Yasuda’s men could not escape the enemy swords entirely, nevertheless, Kagehisa pocketed his pride and quietly took flight.³⁷

      On rare occasions, a brave samurai might approach an opponent with sword drawn, hoping, no doubt, that the demands of samurai honor would cause his enemy to hesitate to put an arrow into him. An example of this appears in Azuma Kagami:

      Then Takatsuna moved up to the edge of the courtyard and released an arrow. This was the moment of the beginning of the Minamoto war against the Taira. A bright moon above made the night as bright as midday. Nobutō’s followers, seeing Takatsuna’s challenge, shot their arrows at him, while Nobutō, his long sword in hand, went forth round toward the southwest to confront Takatsuna. The latter discarded his bow, grasped his long sword, and facing his adversary to the northeast, engaged him in combat. Both excelled in bravery, but Takatsuna was struck by an arrow.³⁸

      So Takatsuna respects Nobutō’s unusual approach, but his more conventional comrades do not, with fatal results. The most famous example of a warrior armed with a cutting weapon taking on bows and arrows occurs in the Heike Monogatari account of the Battle of Uji in 1180. The retreating Minamoto army, accompanied by their monk allies, had torn up the planking on the bridge over the Uji River to delay pursuit by the Taira, and had taken their stand on the far bank of the river. One group of mounted Taira samurai charged out of the morning mist and went straight through the hole on the bridge, but then the fight began with a series of arrow duels and individual combats across the broken beams. Tajima, who was a sōhei (warrior monk) from the temple of Miidera, was one of those who mounted the bridge. He used his naginata (the sōhei’s traditional weapon) in a very unusual way:

      Then Gochin-no-Tajima, throwing away the sheath of his long naginata, strode forth alone on to the bridge, whereupon the Heike straightaway shot at him fast and furious. Tajima, not at all perturbed, ducking to avoid the higher ones and leaping up over those that flew low, cut through those that flew straight with his whirring naginata, so that even the enemy looked on in admiration. Thus it was that he was dubbed “Tajima the arrow-cutter.”³⁹

      We may assume that the whirling of the naginata was designed to put the Taira archers off their concentration, rather than represent any serious attempt to deflect arrows. (An illustration of a monk whirling a naginata to this purpose appears on the picture scroll called the Ishiyamadera emaki). We may also reasonably assume that by the time Tajima mounted the bridge to perform his strange feat, he had exhausted his own supply of arrows, because he was followed onto the broken structure by his comrade Tsutsui Jomyō Meishū, who ran through the whole repertoire of samurai weaponry before retiring:

      And loosing off his twenty-four arrows like lightning flashes he slew twelve of the Heike soldiers and wounded eleven more. One arrow yet remained in his quiver, but flinging away his bow, he stripped off his quiver and threw that after it, cast off his foot gear, and springing barefoot on to the beams of the bridge, he strode across.... With his naginata he mows down five of the enemy, but with the sixth the halberd snaps asunder in the midst and flinging it away he draws his tachi, and wielding it in the zig-zag style, the interlacing, cross, reverse dragonfly, waterwheel and eight sides at once styles of fencing, and cutting down eight men; but as he brought down the ninth with an exceeding mighty blow on the helmet the blade snapped at the hilt and fell splash into the water beneath. Then seizing the dagger which was his only weapon left he plied it as one in the death fury.⁴¹

      When Jomyō finally rested after his exertions, he counted sixty-three arrows or arrow wounds in his armor or his body. This fascinating account also confirms the existence, by the mid-fourteenth century at least, of several recognized styles of ken-jutsu (sword-fighting techniques). However, little technique is recognizable when a sword is used for a swift opportunistic stroke against a samurai who has just spared the swordsman’s life, as at the Battle of Shinohara (1183) in Heike Monogatari:

      Then Takahashi got off his horse to recover his breath and wait to see if any of his retainers would come up, and Nyūzen also dismounted, but, still thinking what a feat it would be to kill such a famous leader, even though he had just spared his life, he cast about to see how he could take him unawares. Takahashi, never dreaming of such treachery, was talking to him quite without reserve, when Nūzen, who was famous for the rapidity of his movements, catching him off guard, suddenly drew his sword and aimed a lightning thrust under his helmet.⁴²

      Hand-to-Hand Fighting

      If archery did not produce a direct hit or a mortal wound, the two competing samurai would try to grapple with one another, using the techniques later given the name yoroi-gumi (armor grappling). This would result in the unhorsing of one or both, at which point the short katana (rendered into English as “dagger” in the accounts that follow) was the weapon most favored for close-quarters fighting. This directly contradicts the usually accepted theory that the tachi developed as a fairly long, curved-bladed weapon that could more easily be wielded from the saddle. One may perhaps hypothesize that the reason for the yoroi-gumi style of combat was largely the samurai’s primary role as a mounted archer. While mounted and wearing a suit of armor built like a rigid box, he was effectively a mobile “gun platform.” When unable to wield his bow, he was ungainly and unwieldy, able only to grapple in the most clumsy fashion. His defensive costume, although not unduly heavy, was not designed to allow him to take the fight to the enemy, and was certainly not helpful in allowing a sword to be used from the saddle. The tachi was also a two-handed weapon, so to draw it, the samurai would have to discard his bow, which required his opponent to be already helpless. In the Shōkyūki, which deals with ex-emperor Go-Toba’s rebellion of 1221, a “grapnel” (probably a kumade, a polearm with several hooks at the end) is used to hold an enemy out of range while the sword is drawn: “... he rushed up and hooked his grapnel into the crown of Satsuma’s helmet, pulled him close, and struck off his head.”⁴³

      Several examples of similar practices are recorded in Heike Monogatari, such as the account of a fight that eventually led to the death of Taira Tadanori at the Battle of Ichinotani in 1184:

      But Satsuma-no-kami, who had been brought up at Kumano, was famous for his strength, and was extremely active and agile besides, so clutching Tadazumi he pulled him from his horse, dealing him two stabs with his dagger while he was yet in the saddle, and following them with another as he was falling. The first two blows fell on his armour and failed to pierce it, while the third wounded him in the face but was not mortal....⁴⁴

      At the same battle, the single combat between Etchū Zenji Moritoshi and

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