Tsuba Katana

Another Japanese Sword Question?

I know shinobigatana (ninjato) were the tsuka, tsuba, saya, etc. of a katana with a blade that was about wakizashi length, but my question is: how were these blades made? Would they simply cut katana blades, or were they already forged that length?

Hi there

Theres lots of myths etc regarding the shinobigatana or ninjato as its called. Ive read so many over the years that the simple anwser is that its just not clean cut as people would like it to be. First off the facts. There are and never have been a straight bladed ninjato. They dont exist historically and there are none to be found in any natural history musiums in Japan FACT! The tsuba was square? Again another load of old rubbish. This image of the sword is based around 80′s tv and the fact that some robbers of that time period were mistaken to be ninja that used cheap forged straight blades because they couldnt afford a decent swordsmith. Theres plenty of books you can read up on this such as the ones written by turnbull etc!

A real ninjato looks just like a normal katana only the blade is about 6 inch shorter but its placed in the conventional katana length saya. The sago or cord is also longer as it was used for lots of different things inc throwing the saya at an attacker whilst running in and cutting etc. The blades would have been forged specifically for the length they are or more often they would be the blade of a kodachi placed in a normal saya. There were more than 80 ninja ryuha operating in the sangoku jidai period of japan. Some where poor farming families whilst others were in fact samurai. Its not a clean cut ninja vs samurai as people like to believe. Its is one of Japans dirty little secrets as no wars have ever been won by playing fair? Some ryu could afford decent forged swords etc. You will often find other koryu ryu ha that have unconventional length swords such as the kuki family etc but there are many others. Forging swords of specialised length for certain ryu was common practice and their kata would relect the length of the blade and how it was used. The standard lenght of the katana didnt come about until much later in Japanese history.

Its also fesable that the poorer ryu may have recovered blades from fallen samurai on the battlefield. These blades could have been damaged and resharpend to suit. So it really depends on the ryu ha itself.

Its common sense that the sword had to look like a convential katana otherwise you would be identified by your blade which just deifies all logic? Yet the ninja nutters and fanboys are still in love with the fake straight bladed piece of hollywood junk. There are 17 traditional kata still practiced called biken no ho jutsu using a ninja biken (the correct name for a ninjato). The different forms use the blade, saya, metsubushi and the wearing of shuko whilst hold the sword etc. And as far as i know there are only one or two manufacturers that still produce a historically correct ninja biken. I have one myself.

Sorry if its not as clean cut as you would expect but it is ninpo afterall. Upon which there is very little written

Best wishes

idai

Japanese Sword Exhibition 2008 Dai Token Ichi Tsuba Katana