At 09:29 PM 7/10/97 -0400, JBailey906@aol.com wrote:

 It's also not a weapon that is particularly well suited to
 to extremely agile movement.

On the contrary, if you've read the novel 'The Tokkaido Road' which was based
on a true story, you'd see that the naginata can, in the hands of a skilled
user be *very* fast and agile.  Using the forward hand as a fulcrum and the
back hand to move the weapon, and it can be considerably faster and more
agile than a sword would be.  It might have it's disadvantages compared to an
unarmed attacker in terms of agility, but pure damage potential and reach are
on the side of the naginata wielder (unless, of course, the opponent is
superhuman or something). 

  Actually, the sword came to dominate hand-to-hand warfare because it was
an edged weapon whose length was sufficient both for reach and leverage,
but was still light enough to be wielded easily.  Polearms were cheaper to
manufacture (often modified farm implements), but gain power and reach at
the expense of weight and ease of use.  They were of most use when used in
groups.  Warfare, where the fighting is done by units, is very different
from one-on-one fighting.  A good swordsman would usually win in single
combat against a polearm fighter.  However, a unit of polearm-armed
soldiers fighting in formation would probably defeat a sword-armed unit of
same size if the latter were to attack frontally (greater length and mutual
support).  The key word is "frontal".  Unless the polearm unit was in a
square or some similar formation, in which case they usually couldn't move
(the Swiss were an exception due to extensive training), they would be
vulnerable to a flanking attack, where the sword unit would use its better
mobility to attack on the sides or rear.  

  Quarterstaves were faster than other polearms because of the way they
were handled, but that style reduced reach.  Furthermore, the quarterstaff
is not edged, which is a disadvantage in  warfare since an edged weapon is
better to seriously wound or kill the opponent, and is much better against
an armored foe.  Poleams have the further disadvantage that they can not be
used in close quarters.  The naginata was a traditional weapon for women of
the samurai class for two major reasons - the two-handed use and length
gave meant that even a small woman could strike a deadly blow, and it was
not a sword.  Remember the important place that the sword possessed in the
samurai tradition.  Although Japanese legends indicate that there were
women fighters in the distant past, later attitudes towards women and the
mystique of the sword would combine to discourage training women in
kenjutsu, although there remained samurai fathers who would train their
daughters in it.

                                                                  dml