Sojutsu

Used by men and women of the samurai class on foot and horseback, the Yari has been part of Oriental weaponry for thousands of years. Many schools of Sojutsu (the art of the spear) were formed throughout history, each teaching different methods of Yari fighting. The Yari is primarily a thrusting weapon with a flat blade designed to pierce between the plates of the samurai armor. It can also be used to slash, peck, cut, trap, and bludgeon. It can be debated that a spear is more deadly than a sword. This is due to the fact that the damage caused by a thrust is often times more fatal or debilitating than a cut or percussion. Slashing and cutting weapons do not always penetrate deep enough to cause debilitating wounds, especially when facing opponents wearing armor. Where as a spear tip only needed to penetrate a few inches to be effective. Not only was the edge of the spear extremely effective, recent archaeological evidence of Japanese battlefields shows the most common cause of death was due to fractured temporal bones. These wounds are attributed to the blunt end of the spear.

Monasteries and Pole arms

Parallel to the development of the pole arm was the development religion. The 6th century introduced to Japan military innovations, but also Buddhism and Confucianism. With the import of continental religions and philosophies, very powerful monasteries developed. These religious groups grew into the Hozoin and Sohei monasteries. Both of these played a significant part in the development of pole arm fighting arts. For the Hozoin, the pole arm of choice was the Yari. For the Sohei, the pole arm of choice was the Naginata. The tight community structure of these monasteries provided a natural environment for the development of specialized fighting arts.

The Hozoin monks are of special note. Their monastery became a focal point for many students pursuing the martial arts. This included Japan’s greatest samurai, Mayamoto Musashi. The Hozoin also developed a unique Yari that included a cross bar about 2 feet below the kissaki. This cross piece could be used to throw an opponent off his feet with comparable effectiveness to Judo. The same cross piece was highly effective at keeping a horseman from driving forward after impacting the kissaki of the Yari.

Why is it “Sojutsu” and not “Yari-jutsu”?

The character for spear in the Japanese language has two pronunciations; “so” and “Yari”. This is similar to the numbers 4 and 7. The number 4 is pronounced both as “shi” and “yon”, while the number 7 is pronounced both “shichi” and “nana”. Consequently, we don’t call a fourth degree black belt a “shidan”; we call him a “yondan”. Similarly, we don’t say “yari-jutsu”, but Sojutsu instead.

According to Meik Skoss’s history on the development of traditional Japanese martial arts, the spear was one of the original three weapons studied in the first ryu-ha. The other weapons were the bow (yumi) and the sword (tachi). As part of sogo bujutsu, the comprehensive system then taught, these weapons were taught in addition to tactics and strategy. The goal was the production of a warrior with a well rounded arsenal at his disposal. The sogo bujutsu ryu-ha arose following the Heian Period, circa 794-1185.

As can be seen, then, the yari has long since been traditionally taught to Japan’s warriors, including the samurai. Regardless, when it came time to fit an army for battle the weapon that would be thrust into the hands of the peasant soldier was the yari. Hence, the yari was not only a central part of Japan’s creation myth it was also the peasant’s weapon. This is not to denigrate the yari, since a real logic was being applied. With hundreds or thousands of men armed with yari, a veritable porcupine wall could be presented to an opposing army. The end result was an almost impenetrable defense. This same tactic was used by Scotland’s William Wallace during his rebellion against England’s William Longshanks. A world apart, but the logic holds.

Regardless of the yari being a common peasant’s weapon, there existed around 148 sojutsu ryu-ha by the end of the Edo Period. Unlike today, these systems were considered “state secrets” by the daimyo or shomyo in whose district the ryu-ha resided. While not always, some ryu-ha were given otome-ryu, official, status. When this was done, warriors from outside the district were not allowed to study that particular ryu-ha. In a few instances, instructors were even prevented from ever leaving the district and the art could not be shown to outsiders. Sojutsu was not the only art to be so regulated. Kenjutsu, kyujutsu and jujutsu were all subject to such controls. And unless one views such control as oddly restricting, let’s not forget that in a time when hand to hand combat was the means of conducting war the techniques used in these ryu-ha are comparable to today’s modern weaponry in their importance.

In Roald and Patricia Knutsen’s book, Japanese Spears: Polearms and Their Use in Old Japan, the author’s note that the yari “[does] not lend itself to softening”; therefore, they go on to note, sojutsu ryu-ha retained much of their battlefield strength. This may very well be one of the reasons that we do not see any so-do today. Following the war-like medieval period of Japan and again WWII, many bujutsu traditions began to adopt more theoretical pedagogies. This brought to being the many “-do” ryu-ha; judo, kendo, iaido, kyudo, karate-do, etc.