text: In the Edo period (1603–1867), the hilts of nagamaki were often cut off and made into  or . This practice of cutting off the hilt of a  or  or  or nagamaki and remaking it into a shorter  or  due to changes in tactics is called  and was common in Japan at the time.
  In Japan there is a saying about swords: "No sword made by modifying a nagamaki or a  is dull in cutting" (長巻（薙刀）直しに鈍刀なし). The meaning of this saying is that nagamaki and  are equipment for actual combat, not works of art or offerings to the , and that the sharpness and durability of swords made from their modifications have been proven on the battlefield.
  Description
  The nagamaki was a long sword with a blade that could be  or more and a handle of about equal length to the blade.
  The blade was single-edged, resembling a naginata blade, but the handle (tsuka) of the nagamaki was not a smooth-surfaced wooden shaft as in the naginata; it was made more like a katana hilt. Even the name "nagamaki" ("long wrapping") is given by the tradition of handle wrapping. The nagamaki's handle was wrapped with leather or silk cords in criss-crossed manner, very similar to that of a katana's. The nagamaki is considered to be evolved from the extremely long ōdachi or nodachi swords that are described in fourteenth century literature and pictorial sources.