Tachi/Katana distinction.

[Sanke]

There's something I've been wondering for some time now, when it comes to the Japanese sword: Is there a clear distinction between a tachi and a katana?

My understanding was that tachi were used on battlefields, had a different style of fittings, were mounted on the belt (rather than thrust through), worn (typically) edge down, and tended to have a larger sori (curvature), whereas katana tended to be worn edge up, were used for self defense/as a status symbol in times of peace, and were usually shorter.

My question is, would you class a sword as a tachi or katana, or are they interchangeable terms? Does a katana become a tachi when mounted, or is it just a mounted katana?

I've heard different versions from various sources (I'll clarify by saying Internet sources, so ranging from semi-legitimate to downright dubious), and was wondering if anyone might be able to shed some light

 

[Sukerkin]

In essence you have captured the core difference, Sanke. "Tachi" refers to a style of suspended mounting, somewhat akin to how Western sabres are hung. It is largely seen when a sword is going to be used from horse-back as it facilitates easier drawing (reducing the risk of cleaving your horses head in twain ). The important thing to note is that the sword is edge down rather than edge up when it is in tachi mounts.

 

[Sanke]

Ahh, I see. Tachi refers more to the style of mounting than to anything else. Cool.
So, rather than having a sword that is definitively a tachi, you might have a sword that has a larger sori, hence and easier draw, which would be designed to be worn in the tachi style, but you wouldn't necessarily call it a 'tachi-type' sword, would that be more or less accurate?

 

[Sukerkin]

One thing to bear in mind is that, altho' the Japanese have been incredibly conservative with changes to their weapons, changes have occurred over time.

The Tachi was an earlier form of sword but there was a lot of overlap between Tachi blades and Katana blades, so much so that it is almost pointless to try to list features that are only present in one form or the other (such as that Tachi tend to have greater curvature, more slender tsuka and no ito). There are Katana with Tachi characteristics and Tachi with Katana characteristics, especially as an awful lot of Tachi were remounted as Katana :lol:.

The one thing I have read of that seems almost universal is the 'side' of the tang that the smiths signature is on. It is on what is called the omote (or 'outside') face and, as Tachi and Katana are worn inverted with respect to each other (edge down or edge up), omote is different for each type. An easy way to figure it out is that the smiths signature will be on the side facing the right palm on a Tachi and the left palm on a Katana. So if you have a Katana mounted blade but the signature faces the right palm then it used to be a Tachi .

This is by no means true in all cases but it is as close as we get to a constant in these matters :lol:.

 

[Chris Parker]

Well, this seems to come up a every now and then, so I'm just going to put down a few answers to these and other questions that have come up more than once. Let's have some fun, shall we?

First off, let's look at the terms themselves.

Katana is written with this character - 刀 -, and it basically just means "blade", and often is used to represent "sword". It is alternately pronounced "To", which is the on'yomi ("sound" pronunciation) of the character (in other words, the way the old Japanese thought the Chinese pronounced the same character, from whom they took the written symbols). For the record, the Chinese pronunciation is "Dao", and refers to "blade", often translated as "knife, or sword". This character is then found in other weapons such as Tanto (短刀 - a knife, literally a short blade), Shoto (小刀 - short sword, literally small blade), or Daito (大刀 - long sword, literally big blade). As a result, a katana really only refers to a bladed weapon or sword, almost regardless of characteristics (at least, on paper....).

Tachi, on the other hand, is written with the characters - 太刀 - , and it literally translates as "thick blade, or sword" (slightly different to Daito, you may notice).

There is then another term which specifically refers to a sword, which is pronounced as Tsurugi, or Ken (which is the on'yomi pronunciation... the Chinese pronunciation is "Jian"), and is written with the character - 剣. This term originally referred specifically to an early straight sword, with two edges, basically copied along with the rest of the Court culture from China to mark the Heian Period (Peaceful Period) of the 10th - 12th Century, but was further applied to the curved blades that began to be seen in the mid-late Heian, most famously blades such as the Kogarasu Maru, attributed to Amakuni.

(Small rant here: The above is written in part in answer to a video of Kacem Zhougari where he claims that To/Katana only refers to curved blades, and Ken/Tsurugi only refers to the older straight blades, and therefore "Kenjutsu" and "Kendo" are inaccurate terms, whereas "Tojutsu" is correct. This is to give credence to his Gyokko Ryu Tojutsu etc that he teaches... I am rather unconvinced of the validity of this teaching, or the validity of his linguistic argument. Okay, rant over.

PS Video here:

Right, rant done now. Promise.)

Right, to the differences. Er... not much, really. As covered, the main way to differentiate a tachi from a katana is the way it is mounted and worn (with the location of the mei, or signature, being the only way to determine whether a particular blade was originally intended to be worn/mounted as a katana or tachi, if it is present!). Some tachi were seen to have a deeper sori, or curvature, but that realistically wasn't actually the case. What they actually had was a differently placed sori, having the greater portion of the curve being nearer the tsuba in a form known as koshi sori (as opposed to nearer the tip, saki sori, or evenly in the middle, torii sori... there was a rare one as well, mainly found in tanto, where the very end of the weapon curved back towards the front, rather than back, known as uchi sori). This koshi sori allowed the tachi to be more easily drawn on horseback (which was also the reason for it's mounting form.... incidentally, a tachi could be mounted and worn edge up in the obi [belt] when it was worn by a gunner, mainly to keep it from dragging or knocking on the ground when they knelt to fire their guns). The blade itself may also not be much longer than a "typical" katana, particularly if it's an early example, as the shorter, lighter weapons were much easier to handle one-handed on horseback once you got too close for the bows and arrows that were actually the samurai's stock in trade and most identifiable weapon.

The longer tachi appeared later in Japan's history, when mounted archery stopped being the dominant form of warfare in Japan, and in close fighting was more common. The curve at this time moved more to the typical katana-style torii sori, while the weapons became more oversized to handle the long reach advantage of the pole-arms such as naginata or yari. It may also be noted that at this time the katana began to be developed, initially being the secondary side-arm to the tachi, and referred to as an uchigatana (striking sword, implying that it was used to strike the final blow in in-fighting), and was worn edge up in the belt. When it became the primary weapon of the samurai (during peacetime, it may be noted), and moved to take the place of the tachi, the wakizashi (literally: inserted at the side, meaning that it was put into the obi on the side of the katana) was developed to take the place of the katana.

In terms of size of weaponry, during the Edo period, the Tokugawa Shogunate issued a range of edicts to control the warriors under them, and amongst them were edicts governing the length of swords, which limited them to less than two and a quarter feet in length. Before that, it was really up to the individual warrior themselves, and the Ryu to which they belonged. For example, the Kage Ryu maintained their favour for oversize weapons, despite the edict. In fact, in stark defiance, they have a minimum length which is nearly half a foot longer than the Tokugawa prescribed length. Other schools such as Shinmuso Hayashizaki Ryu use very long weapons, despite the edicts. All of these weapons are referred to as "katana" in the Ryu that use them. Tachi, on the other hand, were commonly found in the early periods (Heian, Kamakura etc) at even less than two feet blade length. So length is really no indicator at all.

Confused yet?

 

[Aiki Lee]

what about uchigatana? Is that just an interchangable term for katana or tachi?

 

[Sukerkin]

That sword type I have to confess I don't know a good deal about. What little I recall is that it was a shorter bladed weapon than a Tachi or Katana and was normally the sword used by merchants and low status footsoldiers. It was around at about the point of transition between the Tachi and the Katana. But I wouldn't claim to put any of that forward as 'fact' without doing some research on it.

 

[Aiki Lee]

Yeah, that's the extent of my knowledge on the subject as well. I heard the uchigatana's length was what a typical katana's would be and was the common sword of samurai after the mongol invasions due to the difficulty of weilding the tachi on foot.

 

[Chris Parker]

As mentioned earlier, the Uchigatana (striking sword) was the shorter accompaniment to the longer Tachi worn during the late Ashikaga period and early-mid Sengoku Jidai. Like the Tachi itself, the length would vary based on the preferences of the owner themselves. This was when battle moved from being dominantly mounted archery (which is the origin of many aspects of Japanese armour, such as the join being under the right arm, the large crests on the sides of the helmets [fukigaeshi, designed to "turn back", a literal rendering there, the enemies arrows], the large sode shoulder guards to protect under the arms, and so on) to fighting on foot. The dominant weapons encountered were polearms, primarily for their reach, ability to generate power, and relative ease in use (particularly spear). Should you lose, or damage your polearm, though, the tachi was then relied on, and it became longer, with a more regulated sori (torii sori) than it's earlier forms in order to fascilitate easier usage on foot (rather than it being harder to use - small side note, when the Mongols invaded, the dominant form of warfare in Japan was still mounted archery, with the idea of challenging rivals individually after the arrows had stopped, so use of Tachi on foot wasn't really a consideration then).

As the form of warfare did change to fighting on foot, though, and the Tachi "beefed up" to handle the opponents armour, amongst other reasons, they did become rather unwieldy in very close quarters, and as a result, some warriors took to wearing swords in their obi as well, shorter than their primary Tachi, specifically for use in close, basically as a "finishing weapon". The shorter length allowed easier manipulation, getting past the gaps in the enemies armour in order to apply the final blow (whether it was a thrust to a vital spot, or simple decapitation). This sword became known as "the sword to make the final strike", or, the "striking sword"; Uchigatana.

This was, of course, not universal, with many warriors deciding instead to carry a short dagger-style weapon, a Yoroi Doshi (armour dagger) in their obi. This was very well suited to close quarter thrusting past, or sometimes through, the opponents armour, but lost in the case of decapitation due to it's shorter length and lack of sori. However, being so much shorter allowed free-er movement due to not having to worry about a longer saya. Still others eschewed Tachi altogether, instead taking a kind of halfway point, with a small Tachi (called, surprisingly enough, a Kodachi, or "Small Tachi".... go figure!). This was mounted the same way as regular Tachi, but was closer in size to a Wakizashi/Shoto.

As time went on, and Japan moved into the Edo Period, Tachi went out of favour, mainly due to the fact that you just didn't walk down the street in armour. At this point, it may be noted that there were not so many regulations about who could, or could not wear certain weapons; basically, the only thing stopping peasants from wearing swords was lack of funds to purchase them! The Tokugawa Government, in order to help control the caste system that Japan used, began to regulate such things, and this is where the idea of a sword representing a Samurai comes from, as an edict came out that only those of Samurai rank were permitted to wear the long and short sword pairings (Daisho, literally "long and short"). At this point, the Uchigatana became the primary weapon, and was paired with a shorter companion sword, the Shoto/Wakizashi. From a technical point of view, the only real difference between an Uchigatana and a "regular" Katana is whether it was worn with armour, and what other sword it was paired with.

Well, that was fun! Any other questions?

 

[Sukerkin]

Many thanks for those insights, Chris :bows:. It's been a while since I did any 'serious' reading about the period prior to Tokugawa, with regard to sword evolution, so that was an excellent 'refresher course' for me :tup:.

 

[Aiki Lee]

honestly, i wish i had more questions as your responses are always so inciteful.


...oh here's one (-:

Shinken. That's a term I have heard but never really looked into what it means. From my understanding it is a "real" japanese sword. What dfines a sword as real though? Is it how it is made, or it's cutting ability? Is any practical cutting katana used in an iado class a "shinken" or are there other specifications that define it?

 

[pgsmith]

I'll take it...
Shinken translates as "true sword" as opposed to mogito (imitation sword), which is an unsharpened sword used for decoration or for practice. For a long time, shinken referred to a traditional sword made in Japan, as opposed to gunto, which were mass-produced for WWII. However, with the increased popularity of the Japanese sword arts, and the advent of Chinese made Japanese style swords (thank you Paul Chen!) shinken has come to mean any sharp, useable sword as opposed to a dull bladed iaito or mogito. Traditionally made Japanese swords are referred to these days as Nihonto rather than shinken, and it makes the collectors crazy.

 

[Chris Parker]

Yep, Paul's pretty much covered it! That's what I get for trying to get some sleep, I guess....

It may also be noted that, although Iaito typically refers to an unsharpened metal sword, most commonly made of an aluminium/zinc alloy (and thus too soft to take an edge, or any real impact), all the term actually refers to is any sword used for Iai practice (meaning, pretty simply, "iai sword"), and as thus a Shinken can be an Iaito, if that's what you're using it for. It should be noted that that distinction is more to do with the use of the weapon (when referring to it as an Iaito), when talking about the physical object itself, "Iaito" equals not sharp, and "Shinken" equals sharp.

But, as always in all things Japanese, there are distinctions. For example, the term "Mogito" (imitation sword, as Paul said) can apply to an Iaito (alloy blade), unsharpened steel blade (basically a Shinken without an edge), what we may call a "wallhanger", or an "SLO" (sword-like object....), a non-traditionally forged blade, or, in some cases, a Bokken/Bokuto, as it is a device designed to imitate a sword in your training (in some cases, it is a Bokken with a Saya only....).

Phew!