War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Weapons Systems

Japanese sword

Medieval

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

A Japanese sword, or nihonto, is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were produced as early as the Yayoi period, roughly 1,000 BC to 300 AD, though the term most often refers to the curved blades made from the Heian period, 794 to 1185, onward to the present day. Commonly known types of Japanese sword include the katana, tachi, odachi, wakizashi, and tanto, which differ from one another in size, shape, field of application, and method of manufacture.

Sources
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.