Japanese Swords

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 cenruty 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 evidents 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 one made of 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.

The following layout shows the main "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. 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.