Hello all, I have a sword which I have often wondered about due to its dimensions. To clarify: the Nagasa is 44cm exactly; it is 2.4cm across between the machi and 1.6cm at the yokote; it is 0.6cm wide at the mune machi and widens from 0.4 to 0.5cm towards the tip; the sori is almost 1.8cm; but the thing that makes me wonder the most is the fact that from the mune machi to the very tip of the nakago is only 10.9cm which is not much with the habaki on (8.7cm). I was originally led to believe that the blade was suriage but over the course of many close inspections I have come to believe that this cannot be the case and am therefore left with the conclusion that it must have originally been made with this rather short nakago. At first I wondered if this might be explained by it being a mass produced blade as it appears (to me, but that doesn't really mean much to be honest) to be, possibly, from very late Koto or early Shinto (most probably the latter) but the quality seems to be ok at least (not that I would really know though) and I was then left questioning if it was simply made for someone with small hands? I wondered also if the fairly strong sori might support this idea? I, personally, have never seen a boy's day sword but I am now wondering if this might be the answer. Might anyone have any idea whether or not these blades have certain tell-tale dimensions or aspects that might explain my blade? Or, if not, might there be anything else that does explain the rather peculiar (and probably quite impractical) dimensions of my blade? I'd be extremely interested in any thoughts or suggestions.
Cheers