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Katana can also be known as dai or daitō among Western sword enthusiasts, although daitō is a generic name for any Japanese long sword, literally meaning "big sword". [10] As Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both katanas and katana are considered acceptable forms in English. [11]
The dachi here (太刀) is simply the voiced compounding version of the term tachi (太刀, great sword), the older style of sword that predates the katana. The second character in tachi, 刀, is the Chinese character for "blade" (see also dāo), and is also the same character used to spell katana (刀) and the tō in nihontō (日本刀 ...
A Japanese sword (Japanese: 日本刀, Hepburn: nihontō) is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1,000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794–1185) to the present day when speaking of "Japanese ...
These ancient Japanese swords are also known as jokotō (上古刀, ancient sword). [8] chōken (長剣, long sword) – Commonly used as a calque for the broadest definition of (European) long swords. chōtō (長刀, lit. long sword) – either a nagakatana (due to long blade) or a naginata (due to long handle). [9]
The kyoketsu-shoge (Japanese: 距跋渉毛) [1] is a double-edged blade, with another curved blade attached near the hilt at a 45–60 degree angle. This is attached to approximately 10 to 18 feet (3–5 m) of rope, chain, or hair which then ends in a large metal ring.
A tachi is a type of sabre-like traditionally made Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. Tachi and uchigatana generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on the location of the mei (銘), or signature, on the tang.
The nagamaki was a long sword with a blade that could be 60 cm (24 in) or more and a handle of about equal length to the blade. [3] The blade was single-edged, resembling a naginata blade, but the handle (tsuka) of the nagamaki was not a smooth-surfaced wooden shaft as in the naginata; it was made more like a katana hilt.
Earlier 10th through 12th century sources refer to "long swords" that while a common medieval term or orthography for naginata, could also simply be referring to conventional swords; one source describes a naginata being drawn with the verb nuku (抜く), commonly associated with swords, rather than hazusu (外す), the verb otherwise used in ...