9/2/2023 0 Comments Japanese double sided sword![]() A katana could be no longer than 84.4cm in length, and a wakizashi had to be 51.5cm long. The length of swords was also limited by dictate. In this period, Tokugawa Bakufu or the military government decreed that all samurai were to carry two swords, the katana and the wakizashi. Japan’s civil wars ended in 1638, beginning the Edo Period. In 1588, Toyotomy Hideyoshi forbade farmers from possessing swords and set a ‛sword hunt’ in motion, resulting in swords being forcibly confiscated from all farmers. Farmers, villagers, and monks had leave to bear and own swords. Many tachi were cut down to the size of a katana in order to be used as such, and this is called suriage (磨上げ).ĭuring the Muromachi Period, weapons were easily acquired. The katana was easier to carry and use when fighting on foot. Due to warfare shifting focus to conflict between large armies in which the spear ousted the naginata and in which firearms introduced by the Portuguese were employed, the katana surplanted the tachi. Uchigatana is the correct term for the weapon generally known in the west as the Japanese katana. The term katana is somewhat misleading, in actuality referring to any single-bladed curved sword such as a sabre. Only at the beginning of the 1400s did blacksmiths transfer their mei signature to the other side of the sword’s tang, as their swords began to be carried blade-up like a katana. A katana can be classified as a sword of over 2 shaku (roughly 60cm / 2 foot) carried edge upwards on the waist and which is suited for slashing and stabbing. In the Nanboku-ch ō Period (1336-1393), long weapons such as the two-handed sword ōdachi were popular and the samurai knives gradually lengthened to the length of a katana. In the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), samurai foot soldiers usually carried a naginata glaive as their main weapon with a sasuga knife as a secondary weapon. The katana was developed from the sasuga knives (刺刀) used by lower ranking samurai foot soldiers. Tachi remained in use alongside the katana as a weapon particularly among high-ranking commanders as a symbol of their status in later periods. He made the bend of his tachi less severe and lengthened the point to improve the stabbing and cutting capabilities of the sword. This made it possible to create cutting blades significantly harder (a score of 60 in the Rockwell Hardness Guide) than their European counterparts (Rockwell 48-52), but which had a flexible enough back (Rockwell 40) to prevent snapping. Masamune also developed revolutionary methods of tempering. Masamune – representing the Sōshū style of metallurgy – studied blades bent and broken in battle and devised a style in which softer carbon steel was forge welded around a hard carbon steel core. The Mongols attempted to conquer Japan in the Kamakura Period, which caused the development of sword-crafting techniques. The tachi used by the cavalry is chiefly a one-handed slashing sword which can be used as a two-handed weapon in necessary. One way to distinguish between a katana blade that is traditionally carried edge upwards and tachi is the signature, which are on opposite sides of the blade. Japanese swords were marked by their blacksmiths such that the signature faced outwards when the sword is carried on the belt. ![]() A smith’s mei or signature is engraved on the tang, it can be seen on a blade that has the tsuka or handle removed. The tachi is carried on the waist blade downwards, facilitating easy unsheathing whilst on horseback. The main weapon of mounted samurai was first the bow, and later the spear or naginata glaive: the tachi was a reserve weapon throughout history. This gave rise to the proper tachi sword, used especially by cavalry. When the tang or nakago of the Kenukigata-tachi was developed further, a shaft or tsuka was fixed to it using a mekugi peg. Kenukigata-tachi was also the first Japanese sword with the pentagonal or octagonal cross-section known as shinogi-zukuri. ![]() Instead, the handle had a hollow centre reminiscent of the kenuki, the traditional hair plucking tool. As with the warabitetō, its handle and blade were forged from one piece of metal with no wood used. The Kenukigata-tachi was much closer in form to the tachi, being thinner and longer. Warabitetō was a broad, single-bladed sword whose handle and blade were forged from a single piece of steel, and no wood was used in making the handle. Warabitetō was most likely an early model local to Japan, and from this style of sword the Kenukigata-tachi developed, the forerunner of the tatchi sword. Tsurugi and the single-bladed chokutō had arrived from the Chinese mainland, or had been inspired by Chinese swords. In the Heian Period (794-1185), many varieties of sword were used in Japan.
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