Tantō
A tantō is one of the traditionally made Japanese swords that were worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate. Tantō were used in traditional martial arts. The term has seen a resurgence in the West since the 1980s as a point style of modern tactical knives, designed for piercing or stabbing.
Description
The tantō is a sword, but is used as a knife. The blade is single or double edged with a length between 15 and 30cm. The tantō was designed primarily as a stabbing weapon, but the edge can be used for slashing as well.Tantō are generally forged in hira-zukuri style, meaning that their sides have no ridge line and are nearly flat, unlike the shinogi-zukuri structure of a katana. Some tantō have particularly thick cross-sections for armor-piercing duty, and are called yoroi toshi.
Tantō were mostly carried by samurai, as commoners did not generally wear them. Women sometimes carried a small tantō called a kaiken in their obi primarily for self-defense. Tantō were sometimes worn as the shōtō in place of a wakizashi in a daishō, especially on the battlefield. Before the advent of the wakizashi/tantō combination, it was common for a samurai to carry a tachi and a tantō as opposed to a katana and a wakizashi.
It has been noted that the tachi would be paired with a tantō and later the uchigatana would be paired with another shorter uchigatana. With the advent of the katana, the wakizashi eventually was chosen by samurai as the short sword over the tantō. Kanzan Satō in his book The Japanese sword notes that there did not seem to be any particular need for the wakizashi and suggests that the wakizashi may have become more popular than the tantō due to the wakizashi being more suited for indoor fighting. He mentions the custom of leaving the katana at the door of a castle or palace when entering while continuing to wear the wakizashi inside.
History of tantō in Japan
The production of swords in Japan is divided into specific time periods:- Jokoto
- Koto
- Shinto
- Shinshinto
- Gendaito
- Shinsakuto
Heian to Muromachi
During the era of the Northern and Southern Courts, the tantō were forged to be up to forty centimeters as opposed to the normal one shaku length. The blades became thinner between the ura and the omote, and wider between the ha and mune. At this point in time, two styles of hamon were prevalent: the older style, which was subtle and artistic, and the newer, more popular style. With the beginning of the Muromachi period, constant fighting caused the mass production of blades, meaning that with higher demand, lower-quality blades were manufactured. Blades that were custom-forged still were of exceptional quality, but the average blade suffered greatly. As the end of the period neared, the average blade narrowed and the curvature shallowed.
Momoyama to the early Edo period
Approximately two hundred and fifty years of peace accompanied the unification of Japan, in which there was little need for blades. In this period, both the katana and wakizashi were invented, taking the place of the tantō and tachi as the most-used pair of weapons, and the number of tantō forged was severely decreased. The only tantō produced during this period of peace were copies of others from earlier eras.Late Edo period
There were still a few tantō being forged during this period, and the ones that were forged reflected the work of the Kamakura, Nambokucho, or Muromachi eras. Suishinshi Masahide was a main contributor towards the forging of tantō during this age. There are now only prehistoric tantō being used in combat.Meiji to present
Many tantō were forged before World War II, due to the restoration of the Emperor to power. Members of the Imperial Court began wearing the set of tachi and tantō once more, and the number of tantō in existence increased dramatically. After World War II, a restriction on sword forging caused tantō manufacture to fall very low. American and European interest in Japanese martial arts since the war created a demand for the tantō outside Japan from the 1960s through the present time.Types of tantō
Blade types
- Hira: A very common tantō form with no shinogi, the edge bevels reaching all the way from the edge to the back with no separate flats in between, creating an almost triangular cross-section. It is extremely common due to the simplicity of its design.
- Shinogi: This is the most common type of blade geometry for long swords, but tantō made in this form are very rare, usually created from cut-down blades when a longer sword has been broken. Shinogi means the central ridge that runs along the length of the blade between the edge bevels and the body of the blade.
- Osoraku: Osoraku zukuri features an extremely long o-kissaki type point, over half the blade's length.
- Shobu: A common blade type that is very similar to the shinogi zukuri, except that it lacks a yokote, the distinct angle between the long cutting edge and the point section, and instead the edge curves smoothly and uninterrupted into the point.
- Unokubi: An uncommon tantō style akin to the kanmuri-otoshi, with a back that grows abruptly thinner around the middle of the blade, but in the unokubi zukuri it regains its thickness just before the point. There is normally a short, wide groove extending to the midway point on the blade.
- Kanmuri-otoshi: These tantō were shaped in hira or shobu style but from about half way to the tip the back edge was sharpened though this second edge was not particularly sharp. They had a groove running halfway up the blade and were similar to the unokubi style tantō.
- Kissaki-moroha: A rare blade type with a double-edged point. Unlike the later kanmuri-otoshi the tip had a distinct shape unlike any other tanto: the back edge would curve slightly downwards so that the point was lower than the back of the blade whereas other tanto had the point in line with the back of the blade. Often they had a wide groove in the base half. The most well known historical blade of this type is the tachi Kogarasu Maru, "Little Crow", one of the National Treasures of Japan.
- Moroha: A rare, double-edged tantō type that has a diamond-shaped cross-section. The blade tapers to a point and contains a shinogi that runs to the point.
- Yoroi toshi or yoroi doshi: tantō that have particularly thick cross-sections for armor-piercing duty.
- Katakiriha: An asymmetric tantō form, sharpened only on one side to create a chisel-shaped cross-section.
- Kubikiri: A very rare type; the sharpened blade is on the inside curve rather than the outside. It has no sharpened point, making it difficult to use in battle and enshrouding the weapon in mystery. Kubikiri can be roughly translated to "head cutter". According to one myth, they were carried by attendants of samurai for cutting off the heads of fallen enemies. There are other speculations existing about the kubikiri's possible uses. Perhaps they were used by doctors or carried by high-ranking officials as a badge is worn today. They could also have been used for cutting charcoal or incense, or used as an artistic tool for pruning bonsai trees.
- Hochogata: A tantō form that is commonly described as a short, wide, hira. The hochogata was one of the blade type that the legendary swordsmith Masamune favored.
Mountings (koshirae)
- Aikuchi: The aikuchi is a where the fuchi is flush with the mouth of the sheath. There is no handguard. Aikuchi normally have plain wooden hilts, and many forms of aikuchi have kashira that are made from animal horns.
- Hamidashi: The hamidashi is a that features a small handguard.
Other tantō
- Kaiken tantō: The kuaiken is a generally short tantō that is commonly carried in aikuchi or shirasaya mounts. It was useful for self-defense indoors where the long katana and intermediate wakizashi were inconvenient. Women carried them in the obi for self-defense and rarely for jigai. A woman received a kaiken as part of her wedding gifts.
- : The fan tantō is a common tantō with a blade entirely concealed within a fan-shaped scabbard. The blade was usually low quality, as this tantō was not designed to be a display piece, but rather a concealed weapon for self-defense.
- : Japanese spearheads were often altered so that it became possible to mount them as tantō. Unlike most blades, yari tantō had triangular cross-sections.
- : This is also not truly a tantō, though it is often used and thought of as one. Ken were straight, double-edged blades often used for Buddhist rituals, and could be made from spearheads that were broken or cut shorter. They were often given as offerings from sword smiths when they visited a temple. The hilt of the ken tantō may be found made with a vajra.
- Modern tantō: Modern tactical knives have been made by knife makers Bob Lum, Phill Hartsfield, Ernest Emerson, Allen Elishewitz, Bob Terzuola, Strider Knives, Harold J. "Kit" Carson, Benchmade, Camillus Cutlery Company, Spyderco, Severtech, Ka-Bar, SOG Knives, Columbia River Knife & Tool, and Cold Steel. These "American Tantō" designs which are often folding knives, feature a thick spine on the blade that goes from the tang to the tip for increased tip strength. The handle shape may be altered slightly to provide better ergonomics.
Use in martial arts
Image:Yari tanto.JPG|Edo period yari tantō in koshirae. A spearhead converted to use as a tantō.
Image:Ken tanto.JPG|Ken tantō, a double-edged straight sword in wooden mounts "shirasaya".
Image:Yari tanto 1.JPG|Edo period yari tantō. A yari converted to use as a tantō.
Image:Kwaiken tanto.JPG|Kwaiken tantō.
Image:Fan tanto.JPG|A tantō disguised as a fan
Image:Aikuchi tanto.JPG|Edo period tantō with an aikuchi mounting.