Wantō (湾刀): Early Curved Japanese Swords
Wantō (湾刀): Early Curved Japanese Swords A classic example of a curved warabitet ō, the most common style. If you have ever tried to approach the study of Japanese swords , you might have encountered the incredible amount of different theories and the huge (and occasionally hostile ) nomenclature that pervade such field. In order to make things clear and at the same time pay omage to this long tradition, today I'm going to talk about the Wantō (湾刀), the first c urved Japanese swords . This specific name is an umbrella term used to refer to every Japanese curved swords, although in this s artilce I'm going to present the very first types of said family, namely the warabitet ō ( 蕨手刀 ) which differs from the usual curved Japanese sword of the later periods and all the variations that sprung from this so iconic and yet forgotten Japanese swords. As a premise I would love to point out that this is definitely not my area of expertise, and it tooks several month t