Kattana

Katana (刀?) Is a long Japanese sword (daito :). The current Russian standard GOST R 51215-98 katana is characterized as "Japanese large two-handed saber with a blade longer than 60 cm" [1]. In modern Japanese, the word katana also means any sword. Katana - Japanese reading (kunyomi) of the Chinese character 刀; Sino-Japanese reading (onyomi) - that :. The word means "a curved sword with a one-sided blade." The shape of the katana blade resembles a saber, but its handle is straight and long, which allows you to use a two-handed grip. The pommel is missing. The slight curvature of the blade and the sharp end allow stabbing as well. The absence of a pommel makes fencing with one hand extremely difficult, despite the standard (about one and a half kilograms) mass for a bladed hand weapon. Perhaps this is due to the anthropometric data of Japanese warriors (there is another explanation - the Japanese blacksmiths at the time of the formation of edged weapons did not know the method of obtaining high-quality steel; the blades quickly became blunt, and the weapon was effective only with chopping blows, which initially predetermined a two-handed grip. later, when high-grade steel was discovered, the long handle was already established as a tradition). Unlike the tachi, the katana is also a civilian weapon of the samurai, like a sword among European nobles of the XIV-XIX centuries.