Help With Blade Measurement

[DanielGJ]

Greetings, could you help me to classify a showato with nagasa of 58'8 cm would be considered a katana, an Owakizashi or a Kodachi? Thank you . Daniel

[Jean]

O wakizashi

[Augusto Motolo]

in WWII the army buy many washizaki from private and use it for make military Gunto, the minimun lengt for the acceptance a private blade was 54,5 cm with a value not superior at 6 time a rinji seishiki blade

[Bruce Pennington]

Agree with both: From The Japanese Sword Index -

 

* Japanese Unit Conversions **

1 shaku = 11.93 inches (30.30 cm)

 

1 shaku = 10 sun

1 sun = 1.193 inches (3.03 cm)

 

1 sun = 10 bu

1 bu = 0.119 inches (0.303 cm)

 

1 bu = 10 rin

1 rin = 0.01193 inches (0.0303 cm)

 

Note: 1 shaku is commonly approximated

to be 12 inches (1 foot)

 

SWORD BLADES CLASSIFIED BY LENGTH

Daito ( katana, uchi-katana, tachi, no-dachi ) - nagasa over 2 shaku

Shoto ( wakizashi, chisa-katana ) - nagasa between 1 and 2 shaku

Tanto - nagasa under 1 shaku

 

So, a waki is in the range of 30.3 - 60.6 cm