Sugata of tachi through the Historical periods

[WillFalstaff]

Hi all,

 

I’ve been combing through my books, but having a toddler makes one have very little spare time to do in-depth research (ex: I had to stop mid-way through this post to go play cars). I’ve been trying to figure out what the trends were for tachi sugata, from Kamakura to Late Edo. Specifially, I wanted to know the changes in the width of the blade from about the middle, all the way up to the kissaki. 

 

I have a couple of cheap wakizashi length blades that are clearly suriage in bad to ‘meh’ condition (and yet, razor sharp!). On the ‘meh’ blade, I can make out some of the hamon, no hada, and it has a partial mei. The other one is in fairly poor condition so no details on the blade and it’s mumei. Both have quite small kissaki. These are just study pieces, but I’m trying to figure out what their original lengths may have been - katana or tachi. I’m leaning towards tachi, but I could be talking out of my demon hole. 

 

First, the ‘bad’ sword

blade length: 52.6 cm (20 7/8 in)

kissaki width: 1.5 cm (5/8 in)

 

 

[WillFalstaff]

(bad sword continued)

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by WillFalstaff
wrong pic

[WillFalstaff]

And the ‘meh’ sword

 

blade length: 50.3 cm (19 13/16 in)

kissaki width: 1.7 cm (11/16 in)

[David Flynn]

signed Katana mei.

[WillFalstaff]

An obvious point I completely glossed over, David. 

 

What still strikes me is how iddy-biddy the kissaki (as well as the sakihaba) is, and also the width of the blade(s) all the way to the nakago. Both of these must have been very slender katana (or tachi) originally. 

 

From reading Connoisseur's, Nagayama-san states:

"Late Nanbokucho period (1368-1391): The sugata is the same as that of the mid-Nanbokucho. The ha-watari is long, the torii-zori is shallow, the sakihaba in particular is narrower, and chu-kissaki are common . . . In addition, from the late Heian or early Kamakura period through the late Nanbokucho period, there were some exceptional swordsmiths who created sugata similar to those of early-Kamakura swords.

 

"Early Muromachi period (1392-1428): Shinogi-zukuri tachi or katana, ha-watari of less than 75cm, chu-kissaki, a deep torii-zori with a tendency toward saki-zori, and a narrow sakihaba. In this period, the shape of the katana is similar to that of the tachi." 

 

 

If anything these cheap junk (at least considered as worthless in Japan) blades are valuable study guides. I would never have gone down the rabbit holes I have if I didn't set out on this detective story. 

 

One thought I just had: could these have been cut-down boy's swords? 

Any input from those lucky dogs that have held Nanbokucho period katana/tachi is very welcome. 

 

 

More pics

 

 

[WillFalstaff]

Here's a comparison of nakago sizes. The top two are the blades in question. 

All of these are either tanto or wakizashi. Of the lower two; one is ubu wakizashi as far as I can tell (though I have thought it could have been a very well executed suriage with a gimei - this might be a flight of fancy). The lowest one is a nagamaki-naoshi. I've been using these lower two wak's to compare the top two. 

[David Flynn]

Don't forget,  the Japanese made copies of all periods.  This is one of the Nihonto Minefields.

[WillFalstaff]

Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of Muromachi and mid-Edo period slender katanas too.