Sharp Tantos (tantōs), small Japanese samurai swords

In the XIIᵉ century, at the height of the Genpei War, Tomoe Gozen distinguished herself as one of the few female samurai, or onna-bugeisha. A master of the naginata, a skilled archer and horsewoman, she fought alongside her lord and companion, Minamoto no Yoshinaka. Her courage is legendary: at the battle of Awazu in 1184, she confronted and decapitated Uchida Ieyoshi, a formidable enemy warrior. According to the Heike Monogatari, she was "ready to face a demon or a god, on horseback or on foot".
After Yoshinaka's death, accounts diverge: some say she retired to a Buddhist monastery, others claim she remarried. Whatever the case, Tomoe Gozen remains an emblematic figure of female bravery and the bushidō spirit.