History of Japanese Swords

Oldest Japanese swords on record in Japan are the two that were sent as a present to queen Himeko from China during Wei-dynasty in 240 a.d. In 280 a.d. many more iron swords were imported from China to Japan.

It is alleged that the art of forging a steel sword came quickly after from China and Korea, but the details are unknown. We do know that in the 5th century steel swords were already made in Japan. These were of the immediately, single-edged type called chokuto. The method of hardening the steel that is so typical of Japanese swords was first used in 6th century.

The era of the immediately sword lasted until the 8th century. Then the predominant style of warfare changed from fighting on foot to fighting on horseback. To accommodate horseback fighting the swords became curved. These long, curved single-edged swords were called tachi. There were many intermediate forms between chokuto and tachi. The most general of these were kogarasumaru (a curved, two-edged sword) and kenukigatatachi. The term Nipponto or Nihonto (literally “Japanese sword”) is usually reserved to swords with curvature.

Guide To buy Samurai Swords

The first thing to consider for your new samurai sword is the type and superiority of the sharp edge. If you’re looking for a battle prepared samurai sword you want to be sure and choose a full tang blade, which all of our genuine samurai swords facet as well as all of our battle ready swords. The term “full tang” means that the blade and the part of the sword under the Tsuka (handle) is one long piece of steel. If you get a sword that is not full tang then you’re mostly buying it to sling on the wall and nothing more.

When choosing a sword samurai swords there are basically 3 different styles to consider, the katana sword, the Wakizashi and the Tanto sword. The Japanese Swords the most popular among collectors and martial arts students alike.

The katana sword was the first and is still the most popular of all samurai swords. The blade is typically 29” long with an overall length around 40” and sometimes up to 40".

The Wakizashi sword is the shorter companion blade of the katana sword. We first see the Wakizashi sword during the Muromachi period (1568-1603). The Wakizashi was about 18” long and only allowed to be carried by a samurai. Carrying both the katana and the Wakizashi was popular for the next several hundred years.

The smallest samurai sword would be the tanto sword or dagger. Originally tanto swords were 12” in length or less but it’s not out of the ordinary to come across a Tanto that is 14” long.