I think a tachi would be a short sword. Wakizashi were more like long daggers, and only used in conjunction with katana. (Or so the Lone Wolfe & Cub appendices tell me.)
Actually, according to this ideal, illustrated glossary, a tachi and a katana are both considered "daito," or longswords. Wakizashi were considered "shoto," or shortswords. This page (linked off the first one) says wakizashi were really common, and so were tanto - blades under a shaku in length (shorter than wakizashi).
It also says this:
Chiisagatana: Chiisagatana, lit. "short katana", are shoto mounted as katana. Now, one could argue that wakizashi are shoto which are mounted in a similar way to katana, and that's absolutely correct. But we're talking here about the predecessors of the daisho, the formal katana/wakizashi pair. In the transitional period from tachi to katana, katana were called "uchigatana", and shoto were referred to as "koshigatana" (hip-sword) and "chiisagatana", in many cases quite longer than the later "standard" wakizashi.
One can't make out the difference between wakizashi and chiisagatana by blade alone, although a Koto shoto close to 2 Shaku (like the above mentioned O-wakizashi) would be a good indication; it depends on the mountings. Chiisagatana are the early shoto type with koshirae not easily distinguishable from the uchigatana, just shorter, but in any case with a tsuba (another term for chiisagatana is "tsubagatana", "sword with tsuba", as opposed to aikuchi). The ban of carrying swords for non-Samurai wasn't in effect yet, so people from all runs of life, who preferred shorter blades, would have chosen the chiisagatana/ koshigatana/ O-wakizashi/ tsubagatana.
(a "tsuba" is a hand-guard.)
So that first paragraph of mine may well be completely wrong. Yes, yes, it is. |
