Wakizashi with Orikaeshi-Mei

[Ludolf Richter]

Has anyone heard of a shortened Wakizashi,where the Mei was folded into the new Tang (Orikaeshi-Mei) ?There is a nice Shinto/Kyoto Wakizashi with that feature on an German auction to come:shortened from probably 51-52 cm (the standard length used by this swordsmith) to now 42.5 cm.I remember certain restrictions for non-samurai for the length of their Wakizashi but couldn't find the source in my books.Ludolf

[paulb]

In 1638 the length of wakazashi was limited to a max of 51.4cm by the Tokugawa government.

If a non samurai had a valuable blade over this length and they wanted to remain within the law it does not seem unreasonable that they would try and retain the mei in this way.

Having said that I dont ever remember seeing one before.

[Ed]

Yes, I have a Hizen Tadakuni Wakizashi with Orikaeshi-Mei.

It can be seen at this link: http://yakiba.com/kat_daishotadakuni.htm

[Ludolf Richter]

Thanks Paul and Ed!Why was "my" Waki (probably from Kanbun era)

shortened 9 cm below the maximum prescripted length?!I had hoped that there were different lengths prescripted for Samurai and non-Samurai.

The Daisho looks great:a dream for an Nihonto collector!$ 26.000 seems a little bit to cheap:yesterday a Shinshinto Tachi,made by Ishido Unju Korekazu in 1862,was sold at an auction for nearly Euro 20.000 and a Koto Tachi without papers,signed Hisakatsu,for nearly Euro 23.000.Ludolf

[Ludolf Richter]

I just got this information from Google: non-Samurai with "Ko"-Wakizashi length not longer than 45.54 cm!Ludolf

 

II. Civilian Control and Classifications of Nihon-to in Feudal Laws: The length based definition.

 

More than four decades after Tokugawa Iyeyasu had restored the peace and order in Japanese society, the Tokugawa Shogunate also issued several orders to prohibit chonin class from carrying long swords. One of such orders was Dai-sho katana no Sumpou oyobi tohats futsumoh no Sei [The Order Regarding Dai-sho Katana and Hair Style] issued in July, Shoho 2 (a.d.1645). This law also specified the maximum "blade length" (again, measured in terms of the distance from ha-machi to kissaki) of katana to be 2 shaku 8 to 9 sun (= 84.84cm - 87.87cm), and wakizashi to be 1 shaku 8 sun to 9 sun (= 54.54cm - 57.57cm) (Kokubo, 1993; Ogasawara, 1994b).

 

Then in March, Kanbun 8 (a.d 1668) the Tokugawa Shogunate once again issued Muto Rei, [No Sword Order], an executive order to firmly prohibit the commoner class carrying/wearing any swords longer than "ko--wakizashi" (i.e., small wakizashi) unless specifically permitted by the government (Iiyama, 1995). According Muto Rei, "ko-wakizashi" is defined as a sword whose blade length is shorter than 1 shaku 5 sun (= 45.54cm).