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A tantō (短刀, ' short blade ') [1] is a traditionally made Japanese knife [2] (nihontō) [3] [4] that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate.
Gassan school yoroi-doshi tanto. Signed "Yoshiteru", c. 1865, 0.5 in (13 mm) motogasane, (blade thickness) at the hamachi (the notch at the beginning of the cutting edge), 10 in (250 mm) nagasa (cutting edge), "ayasugi hada” which looks like a series of undulating rolling waves.
shōtō (小刀, lit. small sword) – any type of Japanese short sword, the smaller in a pair of daishō. Commonly a wakizashi. sori (反り, curvature) – curvature of the sword measured as the greatest perpendicular distance between the back edge (mune) and the chord connecting the back edge notch (munemachi) with the point of the blade. [40]
The term wakizashi did not originally specify swords of any official blade length [10] and was an abbreviation of wakizashi no katana ("sword thrust at one's side"); the term was applied to companion swords of all sizes. [11] Antique Japanese daishō, the traditional pairing of two Japanese swords which were the symbol of the samurai, showing ...
A range of Japanese blade types, from left to right: Naginata, Tsurugi or ken, Tantō, Katana and Tachi. The mainstream of the swords from the Kofun period to the Nara period was the straight single-edged sword called chokutō, and the swords of Japanese original style and Chinese
Historically in Japan, the ideal blade of a Japanese sword has been considered to be the kotō (古刀) (lit., "old swords") in the Kamakura period, and the swordsmiths from the Edo period (1603–1868) to the present day from the shinō (新刀) (lit., "new swords") period focused on reproducing the blade of the Japanese sword made in Kamakura ...
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Enormous tachi called seoi-tachi (shouldering swords), nodachi (field swords) and ōdachi with blades 120–150 cm (47–59 in) long were forged. [ nb 3 ] [ 31 ] The high demand for swords during feudal civil wars after 1467 ( Sengoku period ) resulted in mass production and low quality swords as swordsmiths no longer refined their own steel ...