The sword shows its true value in “Kubitori(decapitation)” The Japanese sword's turn in the battle is at the end of the battle.
When you think of battle scenes from the Sengoku period, you usually imagine familiar battle scenes from TV dramas and movies. Horse warriors and armored soldiers clash head-on, fighting melee with spears and swords in hand. However, such hand-to-hand combat was extremely rare. Many letters of military loyalty testify to this reality. A military loyalty letter is a report written by a participant in a battle to the commander to show their performance in battle, and it also details the injuries sustained by themselves and their subordinates. According to researchers' statistics, before the spread of firearms, arrow injuries from bows and arrows were the most common cause of injury, and after the spread of firearms, injuries caused by gunshots were the most common. The next most common injuries were caused by bows and arrows and spears, followed by stones and gravel (stones thrown during sieges), and the least common were sword injuries. Physical evidence such as military loyalty revealed that the sword, worn by everyone from generals to privates, was the weapon that was used the least often, even though it was the weapon most often used on the battlefield.It's not like there were no opportunities to use the sword. However, he only drew his sword when he ran out of guns, bows and arrows, spears, etc. and had no choice but to defend himself with the sword, or when the battle was nearing its end and he wanted to“capture enemy's head'' as proof of his military prowess. Swords were used less often in actual battles than we think today.
