Samurai Weapons

Welcome to Samurai-Weapons. where we look at the variety of weapons used by the samurai of feudal Japan.

 

Weapons

 

 

1. Katana - the Katana is the most well-known weapon of the samurai. It is a forged sword with a curved blade that generally has a length of at least 60cm.  It is renowned for its extraordinary sharpness and cutting ability.

2.  Wakizashi - The wakizashi (meaning “side arm”) itself was a samurai’s “honour blade” and purportedly never left the samurai’s side. He would sleep with it under his pillow and it would be taken with him when he entered a house and had to leave his main weapons outside. It is considered as a side sword owing to its shorter length than the main sword.

3. Tanto - The Tantō was a small dagger sometimes worn with or instead of the Wakizashi in a daisho. The tanto or the wakizashi was used to commit seppuku, a ritualized suicide through disembowelment. It is designed primarily as a stabbing instrument, but the edge can be used to slash as well.

4. Nodachi – A nodachi is a large-handed Japanese sword. Nodachi have the same general appearance and design of a tachi though they are significantly longer. The nodachi was carried by foot soldiers and was designed as a weapon for war versus cavalry and open field engagements. Its cutting capability and range exceeded that of a katana, due to its weight and size.

5.  Odachi – Odachi is a long Japanese sword which means “great big sword”.  It is often mistaken as nodachi because both are long swords.  Odachi used to be a weapon however they are too long for practical use. They cannot be used in a battle but it is said that they could have been used as a symbol of an army, such as flags and spears.  Odachi nowdays are used as a symbolical offering to Shinto shrines.

6.  Jutte or Jitte literally means “ten-hand” or the weapon with the power of ten hands.  This spcialized weapon was largely used by law enforcement officers during Edo period in Japan. The modern jutte is about 45 cm long with no cutting edge and a one-pronged tine used primarily as the subject of the Japanese martial art of juttejutsu.

7.  Sai is the Ryukyu name for a traditional Okinawan weapon.  Its basic form is that of a pointed, rod-shaped baton with long, unsharpened projections (called yoku) attached to the handle.  The very end of the handle is called a knuckle.  Sai is portrayed as much more offensive weapons in Hollywood movies in the likes of Elektra, Xena: Warrior Princess and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

8.  Tessen were designed to look like harmless and average folding fans or solid clubs shaped to look like a closed fan.  They are on the contrary folding fans with outer spokes made of ion.  Samurai could carry these to places where swords or other overt weapons were not allowed.  Tessens was also used to fend off arrows and darts, as a throwing weapon, and in swimming.

9.  Kabuto Wari was designed to be used on the battlefield.  It can also be used to break helmets and other armor, as well as against combatants without any armor worn

10.  Yumi is the Japanese term for bows including Daikyu or longbow and Hankyu or shortbow.  They are used in the practice of kyudo or Japanese archery.  They are traditionally made by laminating bamboo, wood and leather.  Serious kyudo practitioners treat yumi as they themselves would wish to be treated.

11.  Chokuto was among the earliest sword in the history of Japanese sword forging.  The main distinctive feature of the chokuto is the blade, curved on the katana and straight on the chokuto.  Chokuto isn’t so useful in battle when used against other lighter swords with curved blades.

12.  Aikuchi means “fitting mouth” is typically used by women samurai from the Edo period onwards used as an emergency and/or suicide weapon.  It was originally used on the koshigatana (a precursor to the wakizashi) to facilitate close wearing with armor then it became a fashionable upper-class moutning style for daggers in the Edo period.

13.  A bokken is a wooden Japanese sword used for training.  It is about the same size and shape of a katana although sometimes hsaped like other swords such as wakizashi and tanto.  A bokken is an inexpensive and relatively safe substitute for a real sword during training for several martial arts.

14.  A chisakatana is a shortened katana that does not have a companion blade.  This short sword is longer than the wakizashi.  The common blade length for a chisakatana was around eighteen to twenty-four inches (or two feet).

15. A kodachi literally means “small or short tachi (sword)”, is a Japanese sword that is too short to be even considered a long sword but too long to be called a dagger. Due to its shorter length than shaku (about two feet), was worn by merchants since it did not exceed the blade length limits of non-Samurai during the Edo period.

16.  The name shikomi-zue is the name of type of mounting of the sword blade in a cane-like mounting (tsue) to conceal that it was sword.  This Japanese short sword is disguised as a cane or walking stick mostly used by the Shinobi.  The Shikomi-Zue could be carried in public without arousing suspicion.

17.  Okatana is a type of katana slightly longer than a regular katana.  Okatana starts with the letter “O” meaning great or long in Japanese.  Okatana were most often katana made for a person of great stature.  Blades of this type were tedious to forge equally from tip to base due to its long length.

18.  Another sword that resembles katana is dotanuki.  It is a very thick, long handled sword used as a Japanese battle sword.  This long sword are not found among the “Wazamono” listings because its artistic features are rather unremarkable due to lack to their lack of the laminated construction that most other Japanese swords have.

19.  Shin gunto translated into Japanese means neo-army sword or new army sword. This long sword is a style of Japanese tachi designated as part of the uniform for officers of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1934 until the end of the Second World War.

20.  The tachi is a Japanese sword more curved and slightly longer than the katana.  Tachi is primarily used on horseback where it was able to be drawn efficiently for cutting down enemy foot soldiers.  It is somewhat awkward to use on the ground although it is considered an effective weapon.

21.  Jin Tachi is a Japanese sword with a more aggressively curved blade, suspended from the Obi (sash) belt with the edge of blade facing down.  When a Nodachi is worn in the Tachi style, it becomes Jin Tachi.

22.  Tsurugi is another Japanese long sword used to refer to any type of broadsword or different weapons of Chinese heroes or simply Chinese swords.

23.  Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword important to Japan’s history.  It is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan.  It was originally coined as Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi (Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven) but its name was later changed to the more known Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

24.  Uchigatana is a type of Japanese sword developed out of the ever-increasing need for speed on the battlefield where a fast unsheathing of one’s sword and cutting down the enemy was a matter of life or death.  Its long blade and sharp edge worn edge up in the belt is ideal for use on a horseback.  With its shorter length, Uchigatana can be used in more confined quarters.

25.  Hachiwari or “helmet breaker” was a type of blunt, knife-shaped weapon that looks like a jutte.  The blade of a hachiwara was a curved triangular rod with a hook on its backside, making it easy to parry an opponent’s sword or hook into an opponent’s helmet.

26.  The yoroi toshi is a Japanese dagger produced to cut through armour  It was later made shorter at 22.7 centimeters from its original length of 28.8 centimeters.  It is worn inside the belt on the back or on the right side with the hilt toward the front and the edge upward.

27.  An iaito is an imitation katana used for practicing Japanese martial art of iaido.  It literally means “mock” or “imitation sword” intended strictly as practice weapons and are not suited for any type of contact.

28.  A shinai is a practice weapon used primarily in kendo and in other martial arts.  Its purpose is to reduce the number of practitioners that were being seriously wounded, maimed and even killed.  It may be styled differently than kendo shinai and represented with different characters.

29.  A suburito is a wooden practice sword possessing significant greater size and weight than those of a typical bokken.   Its main purpose is to perfect hasuji (edge-angle) and tomei (ability to stop the sword).  With its light weight, it is used for practicing suburi or sword swinging and solo kata and not intended for use in contact drills.

30.  Tanren bo is a Japanese bat designed primarily to be used in aikido for strength and suburi training.  It’s a practice weapon with one corner as the edge.  An aikidoka can use it as a heavier suburito, practice suburi, kata, hasuji (edge-angle) and tomei and master the bounce-back of the sword by practicing against tanrenuchi.  It is a less effective tool for learning the katana’s cut and not intended to contact with other swords.

31.  Another Japanese sword is Daikatana or “large sword”.  In Japanese, it is actually read daito and is less-used synonym for uchigatana.  It is used in some fictional works to represent a kind of large katana better known as an otachi.

32.  The ninjato is, also called ninjaken or shinobi katana, the most common name for the reputed sword a ninja is likely to carry.  The traditional ninjato are often straight bars of low-quality steel with an edge ground on them.  They are much more shorter than the traditional daito katana used by samurais of feudal Japan.  The idea behind a shorter sword is necessary for a ninja to carry acting as an intelligence-gatherer.

33.  A zanbato literally means “horse-slaying sword” or “horse-chopping saber” is an especially large type of Japanese sword.  The sword may closely resemble the odachi or nodachi however it difers from the nodachi by having a ricasso measuring 12 to 18 inches.  Zanbato was created by experienced smiths as a way to challenge themselves.