Chokutō Swords (直刀) - Early Japanese Swords
Chokut ō ( 直刀 ) - Early Japanese Swords Three Chokutō blades: two tachi and a ken from the Met Museum. As the name suggest it, the topic of this article would be about Japanese swords , but not the average Japanese sword people usually think about. In fact in this post I will cover the various blades used to shape Japanese history before the Samurai were born, before Japan was united and prior to the creation of the famous Nihontō. But before discussing the topic, I have to explain a little the nomenclature used in this article. Although in the West people usually associate the Chokut ō with one single type of sword, like for example the Katana, the Chokut ō is an umbrella term used to indicate an entire family of swords, namely the ones with straight blades. The terms itself, 直刀 , means straight blade ; inside this category we find the Tachi (written with the characters 大刀 which by the Kofun period were read tachi instead of the modern daitō and it should not to be