Tonbokiri

Japanese name:

蜻蛉切

Tonbokiri was forged by Fujiwara Masazane of the Muramasa school. This spear became famous for being used by the warrior and daimyou Honda Tadakatsu. Tonbokiri was the last blade to join the Three Great Spears of Japan, along with Otegine and Nihongou.

Tonbokiri's name has a story behind, which tells that Honda Tadakatsu left his spear aside to rest after one of his battles, and a dragonfly perched on the tip of the weapon. In that instant, the unlucky insect was cut in half, without any movement being necessary. Tonbo (dragonfly), kiri (cut).

Tadakatsu Honda was famous for participating in numerous battles and devote his whole life to the Tokugawa family, especially to Tokugawa Ieyasu. Tonbokiri accompanied him on many of his sorties, and a interesting detail is that Tadakatsu adapted the size of his spear as he needed. It is said that Tonbokiri's original size was about 3.9m, but at some point, someone wrote in the sword records that it measured up to 6m. However, during Tadakatsu's last years, Tonbokiri was shortened to 90cm to remain useful until his death.

Currently, Tonbokiri belongs to a private collection and is exhibited sporadically (last chance to see it was on 2015/02/15). The last time that Tonbokiri was seen publicly, was 10 years ago, but there is a replica in the Ieyasu and Mikawa Bushi Museum that is always on exhibition.

Wikia