Historical development of wakizashi blade length...

[Conny Forsberg]

Hi all,

First of all I would like to give you a brief presentation of myself.

I'm a swedish 50+ male, working as head of the project & development office in a public sector it-organization.

Regarding nihonto and collection of such I'm more or less a complete newbie. My interest in Japanese traditionally made blades is primarily from the craftmanship point of view as well as academic. Being a precision cutter of gemstones I have no problem in understanding and appreciating the amount of skill and experience it takes to forge and polish a quality blade.

In my youth I owned a tanto mounted in a fake fan saya/tsuka. The blade was about 9 inches in Hira Zukuri shape, masame hada and a rather faint gunome type hamon. I guess it was made around 100 to 150 years ago. I had to sell it for economical reasons 20 years ago and it still hurts a bit as it was my first traditionally made Japanese blade.

My intention is to start collecting in small scale after gathering as much good info as possible. Seems abundant here

 

Now to my questions:

Is there a historical development of the wakizashi blade length? Did it go from shorter to longer or do different lengths occur more or less within all periods? When was the longer wakizashi blades most popular (from 20 inches and upwards)?

 

Please enlighten me as I have been searching here and via google with no real luck.

[Jean]

Conny,

 

There is an excellent booklet written by Paul Martin "Guide to Nyusatsu Kantei" in which you have the variation in length of swords through the ages.

 

You can also find it in another book "facts and fundamentals of the Japanese swords".

[John A Stuart]

Hi Conny and welcome. In the Nambokucho period there were tanto that reached over 40 cm and were sunnobi tanto or could be called kowakizashi. In the Muromachi period with the development of the uchigatana we see the lengthening of tanto of hira and now shinogizukuri to close to 60 cm, true wakizashi. This was the formation of what was to become the fashion of wearing daisho in the Momoyama period and onwards through the Edo period thereafter. John

[Dick Tait]

Towards the end of this article there is good reference to the development of wakizashi length

[Conny Forsberg]

Thanks guys, back to reading again. I'll keep an eye open for the books mentioned.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Some info can also be found on The Connoisseurs Book of Japanese Sword, and Yamanaka Newsletters provide the most excellent data about sword lenghts in different eras and schools. There are other good books as well.

 

You might also enjoy this article by Alexander Takeuchi (hopelly the link comes out correctly as I type with my phone) http://www.buildingthepride.com/faculty ... of_wak.htm

[Conny Forsberg]

Thanks for the link Jussi!