It is not possible to talk about Samurai without talking about their swords. During the ages they radically changed in form and, at the end, even in meaning. This article will not discuss ideals related to the sword, rather focusing on the change of the shape during the centuries, changes mostly due to practical reasons.
Japan entered the iron age quiet late in front of other civilizations and the China's influence,directly or thru the Korean peninsula, greatly influenced the first swords produced in Japan. Already in the VI century b.C. we have the insurgence of a Japanese taste in fittings but the design of the blades was still strongly influenced by the continent, being the fighting tactics equally imported from China and mainly based on masses of footsoldiers with spears and shields. When these tactics changed due to the fight against Emishi for domain of the Kanto plain, the advantages of a curved sword for horseback fighting begun evident to the japaneses, that already showed their tendence to practicality and skillfullness in adopting foreign items adapting and upgrading them to their needs. Is generally agreed that the fully developed Japanese sword appearance was around the 940 a.C., period in which we find the most ancient extant swords with all the characteristics needed in the "ideal" japanese sword : single edge differentially hardened with strong curvature. Some of these ancient blades already shows another peculiarity of the japanese sword : a softer steel inner core wrapped by harder steel. It's debated if all such ancient blades are made the same way, but at least some shows that this technology was already used in this period.
The japanese swords are divided in periods as follows :
- Jokoto 上古刀 pre-938,
- early Koto 初古刀 938 ~ 1319,
- middle Koto 中古刀 1319 ~ 1460,
- late Koto 末古刀 1460 ~ 1596,
- Keigen-Shinto 慶元新刀 1596 ~ 1624,
- Kanei-Shinto 寛永新刀 1624 ~ 1658,
- Kambun-Shinto 寛文新刀 1658 ~ 1684,
- Genroku-Shinto 元禄新刀 1684 ~ 1764,
- early Shinshinto 初新々刀 1764 ~ 1818,
- middle Shinshinto 中新々刀 1818 ~ 1854,
- late Shinshinto 末新々刀 1854 ~ 1868,
- Gendaito 現代刀 1868 ~ today.
There is another term we usually find when talking about japanese swords : Shinsakutô 新作刀. This means "recently made swords" and is referred to swords made by a living smith and after 1952 when the 1945 ban of forging swords ended. It's basically a sub-group of Gendaitô, because if the smith pass away, for the NBTHK (Nippon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai) Shinsa (judgement) the sword begins Gendaito.
Another important type of catalogation of japanese swords is according to schools (GoKaDen) and roads that hold the schools.
The first important change occurred after the attempts of mongol invasion in the XIII century. The blades becomes more sturdy on the upper part, the "Ikubi-Kissaki", a sort of very small point, was replaced with other, larger types that left more room to repairs after damages.
A second one, only temporary, was the one made in Nanbokucho era, when every type of blade begun greater, longer and heavier, sometimes even too much.
The most important change, anyway, occurred in Momoyama era, when the Katana finally replaced the Tachi as main sword of the Samurai. The difference between a Tachi and a Katana is, to make an incredibly difficult thing the easiest possible, the position of the Mei (signature). The signature must be on the part of the blade that faces outside. So as Tachi is worn edge-down and Katana is worn edge-up, the signatures are placed in opposite positions. In absence of a signature the mounting is often the only difference between the two types of swords. Obviously this change was more a slow evolution rather then a sudden revolution. So we have a lot of blades that are "in between" that can't be easily put in a specific category. The wearing of DaiSho (Daito/Shoto,long/short sword, meaning Katana and Wakizashi) begun in this period. Basically a backup blade was always carried by Samurai, but the fashion of having a matched pair of mountings for main and backup sword started here. This is a very crucial change in the japanese sword history and, as already said, is the result of an evolution. To explain the (slow) switching from the ancient fashion to the new one we've to deal with the meaning of the term "Wakizashi". It's made by two words "Waki" (side, secondary) and "Zashi" (from Sasu, "to insert"). In the sword context it means "to insert between the Obi", i.e. a sword to be worn inserted between the Obi. Tachi requires another verb, "Haku", to wear "hanging" from the waist. Backup swords were carried by Samurai from the very beginning of their history, and they were usually inserted "between the Obi". So Wakizashi in ancient times referred to any sword that was secondary to the Tachi and worn inserted in the Obi with no reference to its lenght. In Koto times back-up blades spread from Yoroi-Doshi (armor piercing daggers), Chiisagatana (shorther then Katana) and Koshigatana, all always worn inserted in the Obi but the Koshigatana, that a few times was worn hanging from Obi. The length, in these times, wasn't an issue to qualify a blade as "Wakizashi" and the term "Daisho" in the meaning of "Daito and Shoto" (pair of long and short swords) wasn't in use yet. There is a document quoting that Oda Nobunaga wore (with the kanji used for the meaning "inserting between obi") a set of dai-sho. So is safe to say taht was between Tenbun and Eiroku (circa 1532 through 1569) that this fashion was adopted by Samurai, most likely aving already been adopted by lower ranks troops a little earlier. During the Momoyama were fixed the first official criteria to differentiate types of swords according to their lenght creating the categories we find later on, Katana, Wakizashi, Tanto and imposing who were allowed to wear what type of sword, but these regulamentations weren't really fully applied. The stirct regulamentation was, anyway, only a matter of time. In Shoho 2, (1645 a.C.) "The Order Regarding Dai-sho Katana and Hair Style" fixed the maximum length of katana to be 2 shaku and 8 to 9 sun (84.84 cm - 87.87 cm), and wakizashi to be 1 shaku and 8 to 9 sun (54.54 cm - 57.57 cm). In Kanbun 8 (a.d 1668) the Tokugawa Shogunate issued the famous Muto Rei, (No Sword Order), a law that firmly prohibit the commoner class carrying/wearing any swords longer than "ko-wakizashi" (i.e., small wakizashi) unless specifically permitted by the government. According Muto Rei, "ko-wakizashi" is defined as a sword with blade length shorter than 1 shaku and 5 sun (45.54cm).
Others edicts followed to fix balde lebghts for high-ranking Samurai and Hatamoto when on duty in Edo and in the mid-Edo period we can find what is generally accepted as the standard lenghts for japanese swords blades .
- Tanto - to be shorter than 1 shaku (= 30.3cm)
- Wakizashi - to be from 1 shaku (= 30.3cm) to 1 shaku 9 sun 9 bu (= 60.297cm); but more
specifically,
- Ko-wakizashi (i.e., small wakizashi) to be from 1 shaku (= 30.3cm) up to 1 shaku 4 sun 9 bu (= 45.147cm);
- Chu-wakizashi (i.e., mid size wakizashi) to be from 1 shaku 5 sun (= 45.45cm) to 1 shaku 7 sun 9 bu (= 54.237cm), and
- O-wakizashi (i.e., large size wakizashi) - to be from 1 shaku 8 sun up to 1 shaku 9 sun 9 bu (= 60.297cm);
- Katana - to be 2 shaku (=60.6cm) and longer.
Blade lenghts are always measured steight between the Hamachi and the Kissaki.
Since the official adoption of the metric system in 1891, the traditional length units of "shaku," "sun" and "bu" are no longer used. The legal designations of Tanto, Wakizashi, and Katana by their length under today’s Japanese laws are as follows
- Tanto - to be 30cm or shorter;
- Wakizashi - to be longer than 30cm but shorter than 60cm;
- Katana (and Tachi) - to be 60cm or longer
This legal classification sometimes doesn't matches with the academical one that is more complex, impling the way in which the blade was originally intended to be worn (Tachi or Katana) and its purpose. An academically called Sunnobi-Tanto, because it is always a little longer then one Shaku (30.3 cm) is legally speaking a Wakizashi.
The following layout shows the main (NOT all) "Sugata" (shape) changes of the japanese sword with period and lenght (in shaku, 1 shaku = 30.3022 cm or 11.93 inches) from right to left, first line first. Obviously an infinite number of possible mix are found, but these are the most common ones. When you're reading about a Samurai fighting in the late Kamakura, most likely his sword had the shape you'll find hereunder. Thanks to Valdek Laur for it.
