Otegine

Японское имя:

御手杵

Otegine is one of the Three Great Spears of Japan, along with Nihongou and Tonbokiri. His blade was forged by Gojou Yoshisuke, also known as Shimada Yoshisuke, under direct orders of the daimyou Yuuki Harutomo.

It is said that Otegine's name came from the shape of its sheath, which resembles an ancient Japanese pestle. But another theory says that Harutomo used Otegine in battle once, and he reached to pierce the head of 10 soldiers onto it. While heading back to the castle, (with all the heads still skewered), one of them which was placed at the center, fell down, making the set look like a pestle.

Out of the Great Spears of Japan, Otegine is the longest. With his blade mounted on a pole, it reaches 380 cm in length. Its 22.5 kg of weight can easily raise to the 37 kg range if it remains under the rain. This far exceeds the characteristics of a normal spear. As for the blade, it's said that it's not meant for cutting but for stabbing, because its cross-section shows a triangular shape which makes it more suitable for that task. All of this makes Otegine pretty unpractical in battle, so historians believe that the spear could have been used as umajirushi, both in battle and Sankin-Koutai ceremonies.

Otegine was passed from Yuuki Harutomo's hands to his adopted son, Yuuki Hideyasu, the second biological child of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Later, after Hideyasu's death, the spear became part of the Matsudaira family, and remained there until the bombing of Tokyo in 1945. When this attacked happen, the fire consumed Matsudaira's mansion with Otegine inside. Although they managed to retrieve the spear, there was only a irreparable piece of molten metal. However, a replica of Otegine was completed in 2003 and now it is exhibited in Yuuki's City Museum.

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