I've been wondering, her sprite does show her wielding a curved sword and a shield. Yet I can't remember having ever seen a Samurai with a sword&shield combination. Are the wolf-tengu more Arabian or European in their fighting than Japanese?

FWP said:

I've been wondering, her sprite does show her wielding a curved sword and a shield. Yet I can't remember having ever seen a Samurai with a sword&shield combination. Are the wolf-tengu more Arabian or European in their fighting than Japanese?

Not entirely conclusive, I think, but:
http://samuraiantiqueworld.proboards.com/thread/28/use-shields-japan

Huh, interesting.

The author use the Kanji 鐫 (meaning Carving) for the Chisel. So which translation would be more appropriate?

Also, I don't know if the author sense of word is funny (although I'm still pretty average in Japanese myself), but the pun is so...poetic. would make a fine Haiku I think.

FWP said:

I've been wondering, her sprite does show her wielding a curved sword and a shield. Yet I can't remember having ever seen a Samurai with a sword&shield combination. Are the wolf-tengu more Arabian or European in their fighting than Japanese?

Possibly an off-shot of a rather ancient fighting style, from before the Japanese largely abandoned hand shields? Tengu do get extremely old. Depending on how isolated their swordsmanship traditions have been, it may even have evolved beyond a direct human equivalent.

That said, considering that Momiji's sword is canonically depicted as much broader than a katana, and that she apparently wields it one-handed along with a shield, my guess would be that she uses a style similar to Chinese military dao. That would seem more likely than something from further west, at any rate.

RelativelyBest said:

Possibly an off-shot of a rather ancient fighting style, from before the Japanese largely abandoned hand shields? Tengu do get extremely old. Depending on how isolated their swordsmanship traditions have been, it may even have evolved beyond a direct human equivalent.

That said, considering that Momiji's sword is canonically depicted as much broader than a katana, and that she apparently wields it one-handed along with a shield, my guess would be that she uses a style similar to Chinese military dao. That would seem more likely than something from further west, at any rate.

I've always though it looked like a oversized Shamshir.