Japanese Sword Lengths

[Marcus Wolfe]

I was looking up 'Nodachi' on Wikipedia and found THIS

I followed the links to Otachi, Ōkatana.

 

While the Otachi site says

"To qualify as a odachi, the sword in question must have a blade length over 3 feet (91.44 cm)."

There was no specifications as to the blade length of Nodachi or Ōkatana.

 

I was wondering what the blade length would be for either.

[doomjockey]

Well it says it right here:

 

Nodachi approximately translates to "field sword". However, some have suggested that the meaning of "nodachi" is roughly the same as ōdachi meaning "large/great sword".^{[citation needed]} A confusion between the terms has nearly synonymized "nodachi" with the very large "ōdachi". Thus, while the original use of the term may have been to refer to any type of long battlefield sword (daitō), including the tachi, it is frequently misapplied to any type of oversized Japanese sword.

 

A nodachi is can be any type of field sword of no specific length.

 

An odachi specifically refers to larger swords, and are usually at least 3 feet/90cms in length.

 

But remember that a sword's classification is not defined by its length alone. The style and function of the blade also greatly decide its classification. Example: a 3 foot long blade with a sharper curve and shorter hilt could probably be classified as a large tachi (or even katana) instead of odachi.

 

So your answers:

 

Nodachi: variable long lengths usually (but not always) shorter than 90cms

Odachi: at least 90cm

I'll add that the legendary Sasaki Kojiro famously wielded an odachi thought to be at least 3 feet long so I'd say the measurment is at least archetypal of that kind of blade.