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The specific term for katana in Japan is uchigatana (打刀, うちがたな, lit. 'striking sword') and the term katana (刀) often refers to single-edged swords from around the world. [ 5 ] Etymology and loanwords
A tachi is a type of sabre-like traditionally made Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. Tachi and uchigatana generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on the location of the mei (銘), or signature, on the tang.
Other types of Japanese swords include: tsurugi or ken, which is a straight double-edged sword; [19] ōdachi, tachi, which are older styles of a very long curved single-edged sword; uchigatana, a slightly shorter curved single-edged long sword; wakizashi, a medium-sized sword; and tantō, which is an even smaller knife-sized sword.
A diagram of a katana and koshirae with components identified. Fuchi (縁): The fuchi is a hilt collar between the tsuka and the tsuba.; Habaki (鎺): The habaki is a wedge-shaped metal collar used to keep the sword from falling out of the saya and to support the fittings below; fitted at the ha-machi and mune-machi which precede the nakago.
nagakatana (長刀, lit. long sword) – any sword with a blade longer than a tantō, particularly exceptionally large ones (e.g. nodachi). Also called chōtō. nagamaki (長巻, "long wrapping") – a large sword with a usually katana-sized blade and a very long handle of about equal length.
The Chinese equivalent of this type of sword in terms of weight and length is the miaodao or the earlier zhanmadao, and the Western battlefield equivalent (though less similar) is the Zweihänder. To qualify as an ōdachi, the sword in question would have a blade length of around 3 shaku (90.9 cm (35.8 in)).
The official full name for the blade and its mountings designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs is Tachi Mumei-Ichimonji (Yamatorige) Hitokuchi tsuketari Uchigatana-Goshirae (太刀 無銘一文字（山鳥毛） 一口 附 打刀拵, "An Unsigned Tachi by the Ichimonji School (Yamatorige) with Mountings for a Katana-Type Sword").
Apprentices to sword-guard makers must have grown in numbers, and probably feudal lords outside the capital invited these men to work for them. From the Muromachi period until the nineteenth-century edict prohibiting the carrying of swords, Shoami guards in a wide range of styles were being produced all over Japan. In fact, so numerous are the ...