Who doesn’t know about Ninjas? Don’t give me a surprise here. Almost everyone is impressed with the Ninjas and the swords they carried to counter their enemies. Ninja swords are sometimes referred to as Ninjato and Ninjaken. They are believed to be a favored weapon for the Shinobi amid the period of wars in Japan. It has been determined by several contemporary Ninjutsu practitioners that sword was the primary weapon used by the Ninjas and was highlighted in the popular culture. Nowadays there are replicas of their swords available in the markets. Also, some of them are displayed in the museums.
Ninja Swords - A General Description
Generally, Ninja swords are described as short pieces having straighter baldes, similar to Shikomizue which is a camouflaged weapon and appears as a walking cane or stick. The major difference among these two is just that the Ninja swords feature a guard, typically of a square shape. A Ninja sword is believed to be thick, straight, and heavy, and with length less than 60 cm. Even though the researchers have continued confusing with the existence of these swords, there are several other claims, These claims suggest that the weapon’s description was based on their need to create their swords or other weapons themselves.
How a Ninja Sword Looked Like?
As mentioned above, the length of a typical Ninja sword was about 60cm. However, it has thick, heavy and short blade. The guard had a squared shape. Even with the conflicted existence of these swords, a few people determine that the general description of this sword was because of Ninjas’ construction of their own weapons. Ninjas were the warriors who used slabs of steel or iron with the cutting edge grounded on the stone. In addition, they established their swords with a lot straighter blades. Till that time, the creation of straight blades was pretty easier compared to the construction of curved and refined blades.
One more possible reason for such sort of description was that Ninjas were claimed to mimic Fudo Myo-oh who was a Buddhist deity of the clan of Ninjas. He was the one who brandused a short, straight bladed sword which was a pure resemblance of the chokuto. Stephen Turnbull, a historian specialized in the Japanese history described the weapons of Ninjas. He determined that the most significant item used by them was the sword. The most common sword among them was the very famous Katana. It was a fighting sword that Ninjas used. However, it had a slightly curved blade. On the other hand, the Ninjas always preferred straighter and shorter blade for their convenience.
The History of Ninja Swords
The history of Ninjas is not very straightforward, specifically, the existence of the Ninja swords is pretty unclear despite the fact that Ninjas used particular swords for their battles and missions. But, the swords amid the earliest periods did not have any real, solid physical evidence. The fighting swords that were more associated with the Ninjas were mostly constructed amid the Edo era. However, the swords used before the Edo era and amid the warring era in Japan have not been acquired or found.
How Were the Ninja Swords Used?
The Ninja Sword are believed to be very short weapons that were used for battling in the narrow areas and spaces. The main purpose of these swords was to stab the enemies rather than slaying them. And this is the reason why these swords did not mostly feature the curved blades, similar to a katana used by the Samurais. In addition, the purpose or function of these swords were not restricted to just stabbing the enemies. They were also used for several other functions in order to enable these warriors to accomplish their missions.
A long strap of 3 meters in length was normally wound on the Ninja swords. Also, the huge square shaped guard performed some specific purposes. The guard was used for climbing the walls. The Ninja warriors first tended to lean their weapons against the walls and then hold the strap strongly. The Ninjas would then put one of their feet on the guard of the sword and push up for reaching the top of the wall. However, at times they would just pull the sword up through the use of strap and then spy on their enemies below.
The Most Interesting Secret
The final and the most interesting secret regarding the Ninja swords was that they did not take the old-fashioned shapes of the swords. Sometimes, the Ninjas used a walking cane or a stick which conceals the blade inside the handle, just like the modern walking canes and walking swords. However, this was more used during the emergencies. This was aso pretty useful in undercovering the missions since the enemies would not realize that the Ninjas are around. They tended to disguise themselves as weak, sickly or older people, wounded people or handicapped. Hence, this was an amazing secret of their strategy to use the swords.
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