Length of yaris

[Marco]

One of my project is representing the 4th kawanakajima battle with 28mm miniatures.
I bought several ashigaru from perry but I have noticed that the length of the spears seems short (are just a little longer than the height of the whole model).
looking at those of the warlord games they are much more longer and in my opinion more pleasing to the eye.
Do any of you know what length is most appropriate for this period/battle?

[Osmoses]

There's basically two types of yari, the mochi-yari which is like a long spear and the nagae-yari which is closer to a European pike in length (anywhere from 3.5 to over 5 metres). The Perry figures have the shorter yari. Ashigaru spears would mostly be of the nagae-yari type, or at least that's how most wargames rules will treat them. I think the Perry figures are open-handed so you can use wire pikes for these as the spearhead of the nagae-yari was smaller than the mochi-yari.

Comparison pic of a Swiss pikeman with an Oyamada ashigaru from the Takeda army:

[ithoriel]

Not terribly useful as an answer I know but ... it varies. A lot!

There are a whole raft of different yari styles.

Police taking on criminals and homeowners looking for the Sengoku Jidai equivalent of the handgun in the bedside cabinet had yari with shafts about a metre in length.

Ashigaru and Samurai would tend to use shafts 3 - 6 metres in length.

However, the nagae-yari could reach 8 metres in length.

Frankly, go with what looks right to you.

[FierceKitty]

And remember, it's big enough to be a pike, and it looks like a pike, and it quacks like a pike, but WRG says it's not a pike.