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Katana were used by samurai both in the battlefield and for practicing several martial arts, and modern martial artists still use a variety of katana. Martial arts in which training with katana is used include aikidō , iaijutsu , battōjutsu , iaidō , kenjutsu , kendō , ninjutsu , Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū and Shinkendo .
During this period, the Tokugawa shogunate required samurai to wear Katana and shorter swords in pairs. These short swords were wakizashi and tantō, and wakizashi were mainly selected. This set of two is called a daishō. Only samurai could wear the daishō: it represented their social power and personal honour.
The wakizashi was one of several short swords available for use by samurai including the yoroi tōshi, and the chisa-katana. The term wakizashi did not originally specify swords of any official blade length [10] and was an abbreviation of wakizashi no katana ("sword thrust at one's side"); the term was applied to companion swords of all sizes. [11]
Visual glossary of Japanese sword terms. Japanese swordsmithing is the labour-intensive bladesmithing process developed in Japan beginning in the sixth century for forging traditionally made bladed weapons [1] [2] including katana, wakizashi, tantō, yari, naginata, nagamaki, tachi, nodachi, ōdachi, kodachi, and ya.
However, many of his forged tachi were made into katana by cutting the tang (nakago) in later times ("suriage"). For this reason, his only existing works are katana, tantō, and wakizashi. [3] [4] No exact dates are known for Masamune's life. It is generally agreed that he made most of his swords between 1288 and 1328.
Katana originate from sasuga (刺刀), a kind of tantō used by lower-ranking samurai who fought on foot in the Kamakura period. Their main weapon was a long naginata , with the sasuga as a spare weapon.