When people picture medieval female warriors, they usually reach for sagas and legends. Medieval Japan offers something rarer: a recognized warrior tradition tied to the samurai class. The term often used is onna-bugeisha—women of warrior families trained for combat, most famously with the naginata, a blade on a long shaft well suited for defending gates, corridors, and narrow approaches. They were not a single standing regiment like a modern unit. They were a social reality: women expected to p

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