Actually this is absolutely false and even the bigger blades used by western knights during the Middle Ages weighed on average from 1.1 Kg to 1.7 Kg. During wartimes were built heavier katanas than during peacetimes, but anyway the samurai swords, as all the other swords, is designed to weigh the less possible because in the battle the most important thing is hitting the enemy and, above all, before all the others.Īsserting that medieval katanas (both Western ones and Oriental ones) were heavy and clumsy is just a myth to dispel. The weight of a katana, with the hilt and the hand guard, usually is around 1 kg, but there are variations, even big ones, among the many models which range from 1,2 kg to 700 gr in some Shinto examples. That’s the reason why, in general, a backward counterbalance is more advisable. A forward counterbalance makes the cutting power stronger, since it allows the collection of more kinetic energy thanks to its greater inertia, but this also makes the sword less nimble and more difficult to use. The katana has a centre of gravity that, in the most balanced models, is placed around 5-6 cm from the hand guard (Tsuba), while in the heaviest models around 10-13 cm from the hand guard. We can find this type of blades even before the 700 A.C. These swords have a symmetrical construction between a vertical axis and a double edge. We can find this shape mainly in the middle of the Muromachi era (mid fifteenth century). Moroha-zukuri (double edge construction):ĭouble edge blades can be both curved and linear, the shinogi, as in the shobu-zukuri ones, reaches the tip and they lack the yokote too.
This kind of blades was very common on Tantos and Wakizashi of the Muromachi era (1336-1573). The katanas under this category are very similar to the hon-zukuri ones since they have a shinogi that goes through all the length of the blade up to the sword tip, but they don’t have a yokote that demarcates them. Blades longer than 1.5 shaku (45 cm) are defined as o-hira-zukuri. This particular shape was very common on Tantos after the Heian era. They also don’t have neither the yokote nor the shinogi. The hira-zukuri swords are flat on both sides of the blade. The production of this kind of katanas began in the Heian era (794-1185). The hon-zukuri swords are the most common ones, they are curved and they have a line that demarcates the tip (yokote) and a ridge, near the back, that follows all its length, called shinogi. Here below are listed some of the main models that we can find in the YariNoHanzo catalogue: Hon-zukuri (or shinogi-zukuri): Among these duels we can find the Iai-Jitsu, a technique consisting in extracting the sword and hitting at the same time, and that was also defined "the art of concluding a fight before it began".īesides the curve we have to consider the different geometry of the many models of katanas that are strictly related to the period of their creation. Indeed when the wars ended the study of the fencing moved from military camps to gyms (Dojo) where the tiniest details of the duels were studied minutely. Finally there is the most recent curve type (Sori), less pronounced than the other ones, in use starting from the Shinto era, it presents the most accentuated bending in the last part of the blade in order to simplify the extraction techniques. There are different types of curves (Sori), a particular and well known kind is the Bizen-Sori (called after the region and the school of the same name), which has a more pronounced curve near the handle.Ī secondo type is the one used above all in the Yamashiro region and it has a quite constant curve along the blade of the samurai sword. The sori is pronounced especially in the oldest models, given that they were used above all on horseback. Usually the blades of the Katanas are around 60-75 cm long, they have a more or less pronounced curve (sori) which simplifies the cutting, since a blade cuts well when is able to flow on the target and the curve supports this action.
0 kommentar(er)
