samurai

why did they carry around 2 swords? im confused. did they do that so if they droped it or somthing else they would have a second sword? isnt one of the swords smaller than the other? im so very confused!

i dont know much either. I know the swords marked them as military. A samurai's sword was his soul(I think). I'm pretty sure that they used both in battle sometimes, sometimes only one. If they were using one sword they would use the longer one(once again, I only think so).

thanks. im less cofused but still a little. [IMG]http://www.fightingarts.com/forums/ubb/wink.gif[/IMG]

Most samurai didn't carry two swords. Swords were a status symble just as much as a weapon. Only a few wore the daisho. It was a mark of the most prestigious of sorts, kind of like the general in there terms. A daisho is the set of two swords, a katana and a wakazashi.

thanks. i guess that the information that i read was wrong. im not cofused. i went to this place online and it said that the samurai carried two swords, a katana and a wakizashi(smaller sword). it also said that the katana was a shorter version of the tachi. is that true? im just curios. i went to this other place just right now. it said that the tachi was a straight sword that the warrors used before. then they didnt like the swords so a sword smith decided to try and make a better sword and made a slightly curved sword called the tachi also. in a different information it said that the warriors didnt like there straight swords because once they came back with broken swords and so a swords smith made a better sword and called it the tachi. the staight swords were called chokutos. i dont know wich ones right. please help me. thanks.

The earliest know japanese swords were straight and thought to have come frm china. The tachi was a curved sword and just a little longer than the katana. The katana is kind of like the little brother of the tachi. The main differences in the tachi and the katana is the length, how it is carried, the fittings and the signature. Any blad over 28"s is concidered a tachi. The tachi is carried hanging with the blade down, katana are carried n the belt blade up. Tha tachi has a slightly curved handle and dfferent montings, the katana has a straight handle. Since the smiths signature is always facing out from the person when the sword is worn, the signature on the tachi would be on the side with the blade edge facing to the right, the katana would have the signature on the side of the blade with the edge facing to the left. The tachi also had a bit more of a curve than the katana.

Actually what I was taught was that that long sword, katana was used to open space battles, but that a daitou or a waki zashi(shorter swords) was used to close quarter combat such as alleyways and such.

The wakizashi was actually a back up for the samurai who wore it. There was a time when more samurai started wearing them but it was during a more peacefull time. The wakizashi was used if the katana was broken or lost. It was also thought of as bad etiquette’ to wear the katana inside so it had to be left at the door. The wakizashi was a way of allowing the samurai to still protect himself inside with out his katana. This might be where the fighting in hallways you were told about came about, since samurai didn't wear the katana inside.

I heard that the wakizashi was used for indoor fighting, since it's shorter length would allow it to move without hindrance. Im not sure if thats right though.

Yes. Like i said, the wakisashi was worn inside since the katana wasn't permitted inside. So most sword fighting inside was with the wakizashi, but this was only one use.

so there were other usses for the wakizashi? what are they? i dont know that much about wakizashis. i only know some stuff on katanas.

Some of the lower ranking japanese that were serving the lord of there land in an official copasity but weren't samurai were not allowed to wear the katana, they used only a wakisazashi if they used a sword at all.

The wakizashi is used in many different styles that incorporate two swords, the most notable of which is Musashi's niten ryu. The wakizashi was often held in the left hand and exploited for its advatage in close-range and defensive capabilities.