![]() ![]() In the case of katana, there's no real need for the o- designation something longer would usually be made as a tachi, and something way longer would usually be made as or at least referred to as an odachi (commonly misnamed as "nodachi"). Posted: Sat 29 Sep, 2007 11:32 am Post subject: It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science." - Albert Einstein ![]() "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It actually goes quite beyond mountings in clarifying many of these points. Some nagamaki perhaps, and some martial arts call larger swords by other names ( choken in the case of the Kage Ryu), but really they're all pretty similar.Ī katana of 30"+ nagasa is usually just referred to as a "really long katana."Īnother essay on the finer points of semantics and nihonto taxonomy, I encourage you to check out Dr T and Guido Schiller's article: The Mountings of the Japanese Sword. Traditional Japanese smiths don't really push these boundaries with regard to form you're not likely to see something too difficult to classify as one of the above. T mentions that during the Edo period, the "o-" and "ko-" classifications did in fact have official and specific meanings regarding wakizashi lengths. ![]() Takeuchi's Historical Classification of Wakizashi and the Taxonomy of Nihonto Based on their Blade Length and Function/Purposes. katana (keep in mind tachi were usually longer than katana for functional reasons as well).įor a superb essay on exactly this topic, from which I shamelessly based most of that paragraph, please read Dr. Some terms, like sunnobi tanto or kodachi, on the other hand, do separate by function and are therefore more meaningful, or else separate by mounting/provenance as in the case of tachi vs. The "large" and "small" o- and ko- prefixes are often used by modern collectors as subjective adjective descriptors rather than strict academic classifications - they don't really separate weapons by function or cultural meaning very much. Posted: Fri 28 Sep, 2007 9:54 pm Post subject: ![]()
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