An or is a type of traditionally made used by the

samurai The samurai () were members of the warrior class in Japan. They were originally provincial warriors who came from wealthy landowning families who could afford to train their men to be mounted archers. In the 8th century AD, the imperial court d ...

class of feudal Japan. The Chinese equivalent of this type of sword in terms of weight and length is the '' miaodao'' or the earlier ''

zhanmadao The ''zhanmadao'' () was a single-bladed anti-cavalry Chinese sword. It originated during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) and was especially common in Song dynasty, Song China (960–1279). General characteristics The ''zhanmadao'' is a ...

'', and the Western battlefield equivalent (though less similar) is the ''

Zweihänder The ''Zweihänder'' (, literally "two-hander"), also ''Doppelhänder'' ("double-hander"), ''Beidhänder'' ("both-hander"), ''Bihänder'', or ''Bidenhänder'', is a large two-handed sword that was used primarily during the 16th century. ''Zwe ...

''. To qualify as an ''ōdachi'', the sword in question would have a

blade A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...

length of around 3 '' shaku'' (). However, as with most terms in Japanese sword arts, there is no exact definition of the size of an ''ōdachi''.

Etymology

The character for means "big" or "great"; means "field". The ''dachi'' here is simply the voiced compounding version of the term , the older style of sword that predates the ''

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

''. The second character in ''tachi'', , is the

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only on ...

for "

" (see also ''dāo''), and is also the same character used to spell ''katana'' (刀) and the ''tō'' in ''nihontō'' (日本刀 "Japanese sword"). The word ''tachi'' itself is derived as the stem or noun form of verb . The

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

spelling is an example of

jukujikun are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

, applying a semantically based kanji spelling without regard to the usual phonetic values of the characters.

History

''Ōdachi'' became popular in

Kamakura period The is a period of History of Japan, Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura, Kanagawa, Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the G ...

(1185－1333). Until the middle of the Kamakura period, high-ranking samurai mainly fought on horseback with '' yumi'' (bows), but as group battles by foot soldiers increased from the late Kamakura period, the importance of weapons possessed by those who did not have horses and did not have sufficient training in bows increased. Until then, they mainly used '' naginata'' with a long handle, but they also started to use ''ōdachi''. The Kamakura period was the first time that samurai ruled Japan, and powerful men were valued, and those who wanted to show off the honor of being a warrior preferred to use ''ōdachi''.Kazuhiko Inada (2020), ''Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords''. p39. ''歴史人'' September 2020. p.39. In the

Nanboku-chō period The , also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, was a period in Japanese history between 1336-1392 CE, during the formative years of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi (Ashikaga) shogunate. Ideologically, the two courts fought for 50 ...

in the 14th century, huge Japanese swords such as ''ōdachi'' were at their peak. The reason for this is thought to be that the conditions for making a practical large-sized sword were established due to the nationwide spread of strong and sharp swords of the Sōshū school. In the case of ''ōdachi'' whose blade was long, it was impossible to draw a sword from the

scabbard A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, dagger, knife, or similar edged weapons. Rifles and other long guns may also be stored in scabbards by horse riders for transportation. Military cavalry and cowboys had scabbards for their saddle ring ...

on the waist, so people carried it on their back or had their servants carry it. Large naginata and kanabō were also popular in this period.日本刀の歴史南北朝時代
Touken world However, infantry units gradually came to be equipped with ''

yari is the term for a traditionally-made Japanese blade (日本刀; nihontō) in the form of a spear, or more specifically, the straight-headed spear. The martial art of wielding the is called . History The forerunner of the is thought to be a ...

'' (spears) in addition to ''naginata'', and because ''ōdachi'' was disadvantageous for mountain battles and surprise attacks, and only a few powerful men could use it effectively, this trend ended for a short time. Furthermore, from the

Sengoku period The was the period in History of Japan, Japanese history in which civil wars and social upheavals took place almost continuously in the 15th and 16th centuries. The Kyōtoku incident (1454), Ōnin War (1467), or (1493) are generally chosen as th ...

in the latter part of the

Muromachi period The , also known as the , is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially established in 1338 by the first Muromachi ...

to the Azuchi-Momoyama period, as tactics shifted to fighting with ''yari'' and ''

tanegashima is one of the Ōsumi Islands belonging to Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The island, in area, is the second largest of the Ōsumi Islands, and has a population of 33,000 people. Access to the island is by ferry, or by air to New Tanegashima Airp ...

'' (guns) by a large group of infantry, ''ōdachi'' became even more obsolete. As ''ōdachi'' became useless, it was often replaced with a ''tachi'' and ''katana''. Samurai with Odachi sword on horse

Even so, sengoku-daimyo in the Sengoku period dared to equip their own troops with ''ōdachi'' in order to show off their strength and bravery.

Uesugi Kenshin , later known as , was a Japanese ''daimyō'' (magnate). He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period ...

had men more than six ''shaku'' (approx. ) tall equipped with an ''ōdachi'' guard around his horse. The

Asakura clan The is a Japanese samurai kin group.Edmond Papinot, Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003)"Asakura", ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 3 DF 7 of 80/nowiki> retrieved 2013-5-4. ...

made a troop called ''Rikishizei (力士勢)'' equip with an ōdachi with a blade length of 5 ''shaku'' (approx. ), and fought well against the troop of

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods. He was the and regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. He is sometimes referred as the "Demon Daimyō" and "Demo ...

in the Battle of Anegawa. The ōdachi was used as a weapon, but because of its magnificent appearance, it was often used as an offering to

kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

, a

Shinto shrine A Stuart D. B. Picken, 1994. p. xxiii is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more kami, , the deities of the Shinto religion. The Also called the . is where a shrine's patron is or are enshrined.Iwanami Japanese dic ...

. For example, Ōyamazumi Shrine, which is said to be a treasure house of Japanese swords and armor, is dedicated to the national treasure Ōdachi, which was dedicated by Emperor Go-Murakami, and ōdachi, which was dedicated by Ōmori Naoharu and killed Kusunoki Masashige.大山祇神社（愛媛県今治市）
Touken world In the peaceful

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

, ''ōdachi'' was no longer regarded as a practical weapon and came to be recognized only as an offering to the kami of Shinto shrines. According to the historical book ''Wakan Shuyo'' (), the had a blade length of 3 ''shaku'' (traditional Japanese feet) and 9 ''

sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

'' (traditional Japanese inches; approx. ) and ''ōdachi'' had a blade length of 3 ''shaku'' 3 ''sun'' (approx. ), but in fact, they were not strictly distinguished between ''nodachi'' and ''ōdachi'', and it is thought that the term ''ōdachi'' indicated a long ''tachi'', and the term ''nodachi'' indicated an ''ōdachi'' used in field battles (in keeping with the name, since the initial literally means "field").

Production

''Ōdachi'' are difficult to produce because their length makes traditional

heat treatment Heat treating (or heat treatment) is a group of industrial, thermal and metalworking processes used to alter the physical, and sometimes chemical, properties of a material. The most common application is metallurgical. Heat treatments are a ...

more complicated: The longer a blade is, the more difficult (and expensive) it is to heat the whole blade to a homogeneous temperature, both for annealing and to reach the hardening temperature. The

quenching In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, gas, oil, polymer, air, or other fluids to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, suc ...

process then needs a bigger quenching medium because uneven quenching might lead to warping the blade. The method of polishing is also different. Because of their size, ōdachi are usually hung from the ceiling or placed in a stationary position to be polished, unlike normal swords which are moved over polishing stones.

Method of use

As battlefield weapons, ōdachi were too long for

to carry on their waists like normal swords. There were two main methods in which they could be carried. One was to carry it on one's back and unsheathe before battle starts. The other method was simply to carry the sheathed ōdachi by hand. The trend during the

Muromachi The , also known as the , is a division of History of Japan, Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Ashikaga shogunate, Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate ( or ), which was officially establ ...

era was for the samurai carrying the ōdachi to have a follower to help draw it. An exception does exist, though. The ''Kōden Enshin-ryū'' taught by Fumon Tanaka use a special drawing technique for "short" ōdachi allowing it to be carried on the waist. The technique is to pull out the sheath rather than drawing the blade. While this move is also used in other schools, for example,

Yagyū Shinkage-ryū is one of the oldest Japanese schools of swordsmanship (''kenjutsu''). Its primary founder was Kamiizumi Nobutsuna, who called the school Shinkage-ryū. In 1565, Nobutsuna bequeathed the school to his greatest student, Yagyū Munetoshi, who ...

, Shin musō Hayashizaki-ryū and Iaidō, only Enshin-ryū seems to have used it to improve the drawing speed of an ōdachi, the other schools having used it with classical katana. The Kage-ryū style is also used to draw from the belt, using blades of approximately 2.8 shaku (. Ōdachi swordplay styles differed from that of other Japanese swords, focusing on downward cuts. One possible use of ōdachi is as large anti-cavalry weapons, to strike down the horse as it approaches. Alternatively, it could be used as a cavalry-on-cavalry weapon comparable to the Chinese

, with the long reach, increased weight and slashing area of the blade offering some advantages over spears, lances, and smaller swords. File:Hiyoshimaru meets Koroku on Yahagibashi, showing nodachi or odachi.jpg, Edo period ukiyo-e shows an ōdachi worn on the back of a samurai. File:Samurai wearing a nodachi (field sword).png, A wood block print of a samurai carrying a ''nodachi/ōdachi'' on his back File:Nodachi.jpg, A sheathed ōdachi

Notable ''ōdachi''

''Ōdachi Norimitsu''

One of the longest ''ōdachi'' is the ''Odachi Norimitsu'', with a total length of . It was forged by the Japanese master bladesmith Norimitsu Osafune in the former Bishū province in August 1446. It is kept in the Yahiko jinja (弥彦神社) in the village of Yahiko, Nishikanbara District, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. A special attribute is that this blade was forged from one piece, similarly to the conventional Japanese

; it was not forged from multiple pieces or sections. This required the skill of a master bladesmith. The blade, ''hada'', and ''hamon'' are authentic. This ''ōdachi'' has a ''bo-hi'' (fuller). Norimitsu was a famous line of swordsmiths that began in the ''Oei Bizen'' school (1394) and continued until the end of Bizen. Around 2000, it was polished and named "''Kibitsu maru''" by the priest of Kibitsu Shrine in

Okayama Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Okayama Prefecture has a population of 1,826,059 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 7,114 Square kilometre, km2 (2,746 sq mi). Okayama Prefecture ...

Specifications

These are the specifications of the ''Ōdachi Norimitsu''. *Total length: *''Nagasa'' (cutting edge): *''Sori'' (curvature): *'' Nakago'' (tang): *Blade thickness (maximum): *'' Habaki'' (collar to hold blade in scabbard): *Weight: *''Mei'' (blade signature; 銘): Bishu Osafune Norimitsu (備州) *Location: Kibitsu Shrine, Okayama. *Production date: August 1446 (

) *''Sugata'' (blade shape): ''Shinogi-zukuri'', ''maru-mune'', ''bo-hi'' with ''maru-dome'' *''Hada'' (grain pattern; 肌): ''Itame'' *'' Hamon'' (temper pattern): ''Ko-gunome'', ''choji'' with ''tobiyaki'' and ''kinsuji''.

''Haja-no-Ontachi''

The longest known ''ōdachi'' is the ''Haja-no-Ontachi'' (Great Evil-Crushing Blade). Its length is with an overall weight of . In 1859, this ''ōdachi'' was donated to the Hanaoka Hachiman Shrine in Yamaguchi during an imperial memorial ceremony by parishioners who sympathized with imperial patriots. It is kept in the Treasure House which is not open to the public.

Sources

* Nick Evangelista: ''The Encyclopedia of the Sword''. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995, p. 419, . * Stephen Turnbull: ''The Samurai Swordsman: Master of War''. Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, 2008, .

Footnotes

External links

Richard Stein's Japanese sword guide

{{Swords by region Japanese sword types Samurai swords