War and Military Atlas

How Battles Were Fought
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Uchigatana

Medieval

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The uchigatana is a type of Japanese sword worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan, descended from the tachi and becoming its replacement as the primary battlefield sword. The term appears in literary works as early as the Kamakura period, but the weapon became widespread during the Muromachi period, and by the Momoyama period it had displaced the tachi almost entirely, later becoming a defining element of samurai status when worn in pairs as part of the daisho.

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