Utagawa Kunisada-c1850-Horibe Yahei-Horibe Yasubei

An is a large wooden war mallet used by the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

class of

feudal Japan The first human inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago have been traced to the Paleolithic, around 38–39,000 years ago. The Jōmon period, named after its cord-marked pottery, was followed by the Yayoi period in the first millennium BC whe ...

. The ōtsuchi had a shaft of about 6 ft (182.875372 cm) much like the ono (war axe). It was mainly used for door breaching.''Pauley's Guide - A Dictionary of Japanese Martial Arts and Culture''
Author Daniel C. Pauley, Publisher Samantha Pauley, 2009 P.131

References

Hammers Polearms of Japan Samurai weapons and equipment Japanese martial arts Weapons of Japan {{Blunt-weapon-stub