Tonbogiri

The is one of three legendary Japanese spears created by the famed swordsmith Masazane, said to be wielded by the daimy%C5%8D Honda Tadakatsu

Honda Tadakatsu

' , also called Honda Heihachirō , was a Japanese general of the late Sengoku through early Edo period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu.- Biography :...

. The spear derives its name from the myth that a dragonfly landed on its blade and was instantly cut in two. Thus Tonbo (Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...

 for "dragonfly") and giri (Japanese for "cutting"), translating this spear's name as "Dragonfly Cutter/Cutting spear".

The is one of three legendary Japanese spears created by the famed swordsmith Masazane, said to be wielded by the daimy%C5%8D Honda Tadakatsu

Honda Tadakatsu

' , also called Honda Heihachirō , was a Japanese general of the late Sengoku through early Edo period, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu.- Biography :...

. The spear derives its name from the myth that a dragonfly landed on its blade and was instantly cut in two. Thus Tonbo (Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none have gained general acceptance...

 for "dragonfly") and giri (Japanese for "cutting"), translating this spear's name as "Dragonfly Cutter/Cutting spear".

Dragonflies

Dragonfly

A dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...

 are believed to symbolize the samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

, mainly for their simplicity and courage.

This spear makes pop-culture appearances in Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege, released in Japan and Europe as , is an action-adventure game developed and published by Capcom. It is the third game of the Onimusha series and was released for the PlayStation 2 on April 27, 2004. It was later ported to PC Windows on December 8, 2005.-Plot:The game opens...

, Samurai Warriors, Kessen

Kessen

is a PlayStation 2 launch title produced by Koei and published by Electronic Arts. This was the first DVD-ROM format game for the PS2. It was initially the only real-time wargame game available for the PlayStation 2....

, Final Fantasy XI Online, Scion

Scion (role-playing game)

Scion is a series of role-playing games published by White Wolf, Inc. The first core rule book, Scion: Hero. was released on April 13, 2007. The second volume, Scion: Demigod, was released on September 12, 2007, and the third, Scion: God, was released on January 23, 2008. The Scion Companion...

and AdventureQuest

AdventureQuest

AdventureQuest is an online single-player RPG developed by Artix Entertainment in 2002. It was released on October 15 of that year. It is written in Adobe Flash, and features animation...

.