At the beginning, they were the principal power of the foot soldiers, and their task was to attack the enemy foot soldiers with nagayari (at the beginning, they were two ken in length, then they later changed to two-and-a-half ken to three ken) by jabbing and hitting.
当初は足軽の主力であり、前線において長槍（当初は長さ二間、その後二間半から三間へと至る）を用いて足軽同士で突き、叩き合う攻撃任務を担っていた。