Tachi
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The tachi is a Japanese sword, which has a strongly curved blade and is longer than a katana. It was used on the battlefield before katana did, so it is considered to be older. The Tachi word translates as "the soul of bushi" (soul of samurai). When katana began to be widely used the tachi sword became a court sword for ceremonies. It looks very richly decorated with traditional cord wrappings and specially designed handle. The length of a tachi blade was around 30.70 inches. First tachi swords were very long; they reached 12.14 feet overall and 7.22 feet for the blade. It is believed that they were meant for ceremonies. Because of its length the tachi was a cavalry sword and was mainly worn by horsemen. The strongly curved blade also made comfortable to apply slicing blows. Even if the tachi is a very long sword it is light enough to be handled with a single hand. The tachi had a long enough hilt to handle it with two hands. It was especially useful for warriors who were not riding.
The tachi was worn hung to the belt with the cutting-edge down unlike katana which was worn with the cutting-edge directed upward. If a tachi had unusual size it was renamed. As example, if the tachi was less than the standard length a ko- was added (kodachi). If the sword was longer than the standard than an o- was added (odachi). It is worth mentioning that the museum exemplars of tachi swords have one or more chips along the back of the sword while the cutting edge looks almost untouched and mirror polished. The experts explain that Samurai made minimal moves with his tachi to eliminate the opponent. Thus when it was about both swords to collide, they both turned their swords and let only the blunt back (mune) of the blades hit one another. The cutting edge was used for finish touches, namely for cutting the human body. This is why the cutting edge looks almost untouched.