Blue Tachi - Uesugi Kenshin.
Samurai swords have functional 440C stainless steel blades, which are fully tempered and edged, but they are primarily intended for use as collectibles and decorator pieces, generally with eye-catching coloring and detailing.

This Katana called Tachi has a blue snakeskin handle with a menuki and a tsuba in the form of a stylized snake, matched by a blue scabbard with delicate gold marbling. Dragon heads decorate both the end of the handle and the end of the scabbard.

KEY FEATURES:
* Blue finish with gold accents
* Fully wearable
* Maintenance

Name of the warrior engraved on the blade.

Tachi

The tachi is a Japanese sword , often said to be more curved and slightly longer than the katana . However, many reliable sources such as Gilbertson, Oscar Ratti, and Adele Westbrook, state that a sword is called a tachi when hung from the obi with the edge down, and the same sword becomes a katana when hung edge up thrust through the girdle. The Tachi style was eventually discarded in favor of the Katana. The daito (long swords) that pre-date the katana average about 78cm in blade length, next to the katana average of around 70cm. As opposed to the traditional manner of wearing the katana , the tachi was worn hung from the belt with the cutting-edge down, and usually used by cavalry . Deviations from the average length of tachi have the prefixes ko- for "short" and o- for "great" attached. For instance, tachi that were shoto and closer in size to a wakizashi were called " kodachi ". The longest tachi (considered a 15th century odachi ) in existence is more than 3.7 meters in total length (2.2m blade) but believed to be ceremonial. During the year 1600, many old tachi were cut down into Katana. The majority of surviving tachi blades now are o-suriage, so it is rare to see an original signed ubu tachi.

The tachi was used primarily on horseback, where it was able to be drawn efficiently for cutting down enemy footsoldiers. However, on the ground it was still an effective weapon, but awkward to use. This is why its companion, the uchigatana (the predecessor of the katana) was developed.

It was the predecessor to the katana as the battle-blade of feudal Japan's bushi warrior class, and as it evolved into the later design, the two were often differentiated from each other only by how they were worn and by the fittings for the blades. In later Japanese feudal history, during the Sengoku and Edo periods, certain high-ranking warriors of what became the ruling class would wear their sword tachi-style (edge-downward), rather than with the saya ( scabbard ) thrust through the obi (belt) with the edge upward.

Daitō

Wakizashi

A wakizashi (Kanji for " side arm ") is a traditional Japanese sword with a shōtō blade between 30 and 60 cm, with an average of 50 cm (between 12 and 24 inches), similar to but shorter than a katana and sometimes longer than the kodachi . The wakizashi was usually worn together with the katana by the samurai or swordsmen of feudal Japan. When worn together the pair of swords were called daishō , which translates literally as "large and small"; dai or large for katana, and shō for wakizashi. The katana was often called the sword or the long sword and the wakizashi the companion sword.

Wakizashi were made with different zukuri shapes and sizes, and were generally thinner than katana. They very often had much less niku (translated literally as "meat" or "flesh", the measure of how convex the edge is) and therefore cut softer targets much more aggressively than a katana. Its hilt is normally of a square shape but on rare occasion it had none.

A wakizashi was used as a samurai's weapon when the katana was unavailable. When entering a building, a samurai would leave his katana with a servant or page who would then let it rest on a rack called a katana-kake with the hilt pointing left so that it had to be removed with the left hand, passed to the right, then placed at the samurai's right, making it difficult to draw quickly, and reducing suspicion. However, the wakizashi would be worn at all times, and therefore, it made a side arm for the samurai (similar to a modern soldier's use of a pistol ). A samurai would have worn it from the time he awoke to the time he went to sleep and slept with it under his pillow. In earlier periods, and especially during times of civil war, a tantō (dagger) was worn in place of a wakizashi. For particularly strong samurai like Miyamoto Musashi , the blade was sometimes used as an off hand weapon while the favored hand wielded the katana in order to fight with two weapons for maximum combat advantage. Contrary to popular belief, the wakizashi was not often used as a tool in the ritualistic suicide act known as Seppuku . This usage was more commonly assigned to the Tanto .

Kodachi

A kodachi literally translates into "small or short tachi "; this Japanese sword was too short to be considered a long sword but too long to be a dagger . Because of its size, it could be drawn and swung extremely fast. Thus it could be used as something of a shield, while using a form of hand to hand combat to attack. Since this sword was shorter than 2 shaku (about 2 ft.) in length, it did not exceed the blade length limits of non-samurai during the Edo period and could be worn by merchants.

Kodachi length is similar to that of the wakizashi , and though the blades differ greatly in construction, the kodachi and the wakizashi are similar enough in size and technique that the terms are sometimes (mis)used interchangeably.

The prefix "ko" means short, and can be attached to any of the names of the swords to indicate something shorter than "normal". As the prefix "o-" means great/long, it follows that the opposite end of this length spectrum of the tachi is the odachi . Two Kodachi were, and still are in Mijimid martial arts in one scabbard, one with the handle fittings, the second hidden as the bottom of the scabbard, this style was normally carried on the back with the handles pointing to the sides. The Kodachi is carried this way to increase the drawing speed for either hand.

Kodachi size (edited) The kodachi's size ranges between 2ft and 2.75ft long hence the kodachi's size brought on a lighter weight which cut some of its attack ability but instead raised its defense capibility. it is known as "A sword that can be used as a shield" hence the name shield sword