Basontou

The Basontou(バソントゥ) is a guandao owned by the Tao Family.

About
The Basontou is a guandao, a type of Chinese pole weapon that is used in some forms of Chinese martial arts. It was used by Bason during his lifetime and after his death, it came into the possession of the Tao Family. Because the blade and jewels are over 100 years old, they are considered antiques. In the present time, only the spearhead and its jewels remain intact.

It was given to Tao Ren who used it with a collapsible polearm. While traveling to Japan and when not in use, Ren carries Basontou and its polearm in a briefcase to prevent it from breaking. Ren used the Basontou as a weapon while using Hyōi-Gattai with Bason and later as a medium for his first two Over Souls. After Asakura Hao incinerated the polearm, Ren began using the Bâo-Lèi Sword as his main medium instead. During his fight with Nichrom it was shown that Ren had replaced the polearm, and briefly used Basontou as a medium during the fight.

Years after the Shaman Fight, Ren passed down the Basontou to his son, Tao Men who also came to use it as a medium for his Over Soul with Bason.

Anime/Manga Difference
In the anime, its name and status as Bason´s former weapon were never mentioned.

Trivia

 * While it has been referred to as a halberd by those unfamiliar with the weapon, a more suitable European counterpart would be the glaive.
 * Over the span of the series its blade head has undergone several design changes, with its initial appearance identical to some real life examples. By contrast in the current art style it is much more simplified and angular.
 * For a good portion of the series when it still retained a more curvy and elaborate blade it suffered from perspective and proportion issues at times, curving up way to much with the notch running down too deep and the back spike almost as long as the main blade, giving it a 2 pronged appearance.


 * While most commonly believed to have been invented by the legendary general Guan Yu of the Three Kingdoms era and subsequently named after him (guandao literally meaning "Guan's blade"), it is actually an anachronism created for the famous novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is no evidence of such a weapon even existing in Guan Yu's era while historical texts made no mention of him wielding any polearms.
 * It's proper name is yanyuedao (偃月刀; lit. "reclining moon blade") and did not see wide use until the much later Song dynasty.