there are a few points I'd like to add, if I may *s*

First, for those unfamiliar with japanese history, Tomoe Gozen is known as a woman but also as a fierce warrior, who supposedly lived at the end of the Heian period, and who fought the Gempai War (1180-1185) which marked the transition from Heian to Kamakura. She's been revered by Japanese for centuries now. It seems indeed unlikely that she would have fought in a war with a naginata. The Naginata is a spear that women and youg girls especially learned to use at the time to defend themselves and their house when the men weren't there. It would have been unsuited for war, and therefore, it is much more likely that she used a katana and/or bow.

Now, I've heard another theory which I find interesting, but that I've never had the time to research enough to assess if this could be true or not, and that you've certainy come across too, namely that Tomoe Gozen never existed. While she is described with great precision in the Tales of Heike, there is no formal proof that she did exist, or, if she did, that she was remotely close to the description in the Tales, which is the theory that you defend (although I am not sure I agree with you on the reason why her description would have been altered in that case, and that could make for an interesting debate *g*)

Nota Bene: Baedel Choi, who took the name of Mas Oyama in Japan, died of lung cancer in 1994 at the age of 71, or so I'm told (don't you love google, LOL?). A film has been released not long ago about him, "Fighter in the wind"