The is one type type of traditional Japanese sword (
nihonto) worn by the
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
class of feudal Japan. The
uchigatana was the descendant of the
tachiThe is one type of traditional Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan.-History and description:With a few exceptions katana and tachi can be distinguished from each other if signed, by the location of the signature on the tang...
.
History
From the
HeianThe is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
to the
Muromachi PeriodThe is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
, the primary battlefield sword was the
tachiThe is one type of traditional Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan.-History and description:With a few exceptions katana and tachi can be distinguished from each other if signed, by the location of the signature on the tang...
. Its long blade and sharp edge made it ideal for use on horseback. During the twelfth century
uchigatana started to be used and by the
Muromachi PeriodThe is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
approximately 1336 to 1573 the
uchigatana began to rival the
tachi as the sword of choice by samurai warriors.The word
uchigatana can be found in literary works as early as the
Kamakura PeriodThe is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
, but during that time the
uchigatana was used only by individuals of low status and privates in the ranks.
Most
uchigatana made during the early
Kamakura PeriodThe is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura Shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo....
were not of the highest standard, and because they were considered disposable, virtually no examples from these early times exist today. It was not until the
Muromachi PeriodThe is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate, which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi shogun, Ashikaga Takauji, two years after the brief Kemmu restoration of imperial...
(considered by some to be a kind of Dark Age in the history of the Japanese Sword), when the
samuraiis the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
began to use
uchigatana to supplement the longer
tachi, that
uchigatana of high quality began to be made. Between the Momoyama period and the
Edo PeriodThe , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
, the
tachi was almost totally abandoned and the custom of wearing a pair of long and short
uchigatana together,
(the daisho)The is a Japanese term for a matched pair of traditionally made Japanese swords worn by the samurai class in feudal Japan.-Description:...
(literally “big-little”) became the dominant symbol of the Samurai class.
Description
The length of the
uchigatana during the 1500s is said to be from 60cm to no more than 70cm, with a stout
sugata, a steep
saki-zori, and it could be used as a one handed sword due to its thin
kasane and short
nakago (tang) making it relatively light.
As opposed to the
tachiThe is one type of traditional Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan.-History and description:With a few exceptions katana and tachi can be distinguished from each other if signed, by the location of the signature on the tang...
the
uchigatana was worn edge-up in the belt, this and usually being slightly smaller than the
tachi was the main difference between the
tachi and the
uchigatana. Since the
uchigatana is worn differently than the
tachi, the signature (
mei) carved into the tang (
nakago) of the
uchigatana is also opposite to the
tachi mei, making the words still upright instead of upside down as when one wears the
tachi in the manner of the
uchigatana.
Uchigatana became popular for several reasons, the
uchigatana was more convenient to wear and did not get in the way of using a polearm as much as a
tachi, also the frequency of battles fought on foot and the need for speed on the battlefield, were major reasons for the
uchigatana being rapidly accepted and indicated that battlefield combat had grown in intensity. Since the
uchigatana was shorter than the
tachi, it could be used in more confined quarters, such as inside a building.
Use
Unlike the
tachi, with which the acts of drawing and striking with the sword were two separate actions, unsheathing the
uchigatana and cutting the enemy down with it became one smooth, lightning-fast action (this technique was called
battojutsuis a Japanese term meaning techniques for engaging a sword. It is often used interchangeably with the terms iaijutsu, battōdō, or iaidō, although each term does have nuances in the Japanese language and different schools of Japanese martial arts may use them to differentiate between techniques...
otherwise known as Battokiri).
The curvature of the
uchigatana blade differs from the
tachi in that the blade has curvature near the sword’s point (
sakizori), as opposed to curvature near the sword’s hilt (
koshizori) like the
tachi. Because the sword is being drawn from below, the act of unsheathing became the act of striking. For a soldier on horseback, the
sakizori curve of the
uchigatana was essential in such a blade, since it allows the sword to come out of its sheath (
saya} at the most convenient angle for executing an immediate cut.