Japanese Spear - Hira-sankaku Omi-no-yari

[Lee]

The most unexpected things will turn up at the huge Brimfield, MA flea market.

From Roald & Patricia Knutsen's Japanese Spears, I understand this to be a Hira-sankaku (three-sided isosceles cross-section) Omi-no (long bladed) yari (spear).

From the standpoint of the proper Japanese blade collector, I fear this this would be unsigned (yes, I am sure), out of polish, quite tired (as manifested by loss of superfical horimono or engraving on the blade) and in shabby dress. For at least one general ethnographic collector, it remains a marvelous old thing to behold.

I'll speculate mid to late Muromachi for the forging of the blade and later Edo for the mounts and most recent polish. Overall, the whole spear with pole is relatively short, being about 6 feet (~176 cm). The flattened triangular cross-section (2.8 cm wide and 0.8 cm thick in the mid-section) blade has a cutting edge of 52 cm (20.5 inches) and a total length with tang of 127 cm.