improve their arsenal of weapons using that technology. Consequently,
even more important than swords, Japanese smiths forged other bladed
weapons such as the yari(spear), naginata(halberd), and bisentô(great
halberd), which were far more effective as battlefield weapons. Further-
more, blades for pole-arms were easier to manufacture, since they did not
require the same cumbersome process as making a sword blade, the blades
were usually smaller in size (thus requiring less iron), and the fittings that
accompanied the blade were reduced to bare wood with minimal rein-
forcement parts. They thus took a shorter time to produce and allowed for
mass production. Picture scrolls from the Heian period, such as the Former
Nine Years War Picture Scroll and the Latter Three Years War Picture
Scroll, depict warriors wielding naginata or yari, but portray a consider-
ably smaller number of sword-wielding warriors.
The technology for producing blades is said to have reached its high-
est level during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, but since then not
much has changed. In fact, contemporary sword makers proudly claim to
have retained the knowledge of sword making that was used in the early
medieval period. In that sense, blade making has become a matter of mas-
tery of a technology that has been frozen in time. It is also perhaps one
among very few unique examples of technology that has taken on a sacred,
religious character, requiring the blade maker to follow a purification rit-
ual that is meant to complement the mundane nature of technology in or-
der to produce a superior blade. Nevertheless, some changes have occurred
in the making of swords; during the sixteenth century when swords were
in high demand for local use (due to internal countrywide strife) or for ex-
port to the continent, the number of blade makers grew while the quality
dropped. The political stability and social changes that followed the end of
a period of civil war in the early seventeenth century resulted in a signifi-
cant reduction in the production of naginata and yari blades while pro-
moting a new style of sword.
Somewhat similar to the development of blade technology was the
production of bows as the primary weapon until the medieval period. It is
impossible to examine bows that were produced prior to the Heian period
simply because bamboo, the material used for making the bows, could not
have survived the forces of nature. Yet, from sketches and drawings found
in picture scrolls, as well as by examining bows from later periods, we can
confirm that the design of the bow and the technology used for making it
have changed very little if at all since they were first produced. In the
Obusuma Saburô Picture Scroll from the Kamakura period, a depiction of
warriors stringing a bow indicates that nothing much has changed since
then in the manner of setting the bow and shooting arrows. Neither the rel-
atively peaceful Kamakura period nor the chaotic Sengoku period had
Japan 191