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odachi vs nodachi
Many people can't tell the difference between an odachi and a nodachi, but the difference in length is that an odachi in the literature refers to a tachi with a blade of 150 centimeters or more, and a nodachi with a blade of 90 centimeters or more; however, it is common to refer to a large tachi as an odachi, and a nodachi as an alias.
Is the odachi the longest sword?
The larger the weapon, the more powerful it becomes, which is the highest pursuit of weapons by many barbarians. The principle of focusing on energy far more than skill makes him a victorious general on the battlefield. However, in Futarasan jinja, Japan, people here worship a giant odachi with a total length of over three meters. This size of weapon is far beyond the scope of normal human use, but what is even more surprising is that this size of sword is not a case in Japan. Who are these swords made for, and what kind of arm are those who play with them.
Today, let's take a look at this weapon, which can also be considered a wonder in Japanese swords. This size cross fitting sword, which looks like it has been ripened, has a simple name - Odachi. As the name suggests, it refers to a very large and long Tachi. The Odachi name in the first picture is called "ねねきりるる", and it is said that the caster is a famous craftsman named さんじこかじむねちか, which is different from the five swords in the world. Mikazuki was made by the same craftsman. This odachi has a blade length of 2.2 meters and an exaggerated length of 3.4 meters, weighing 22.5kg. Legend has it that in Namchongshan, Japan, there lived a type of insect demon. People were harassed by this demon. At this time, the odachi enshrined in Futarasan jinja flew out of the shrine, chasing the insect demon for a long circle, and finally beheaded the insect demon in front of Futarasan jinja. Afterwards, this odachi was given the nickname "ねねきりりる".
Although this story sounds mysterious, it can be seen that the Japanese have a sense of admiration for this huge sword. Indeed, the plot of the Japanese sword can be traced back to the mythological era. According to records in ancient Japanese books, スノオ met Yamata no Orochi in Izumo, and he intoxicated Yamata no Orochi with wine. Then, with the sword in his hand, he chopped off Yamata no Orochi's head one by one, and then, while chopping his tail, The blade of the sword was broken by some hard object, and the snake's remains were curiously cut open to obtain a very sharp sword inside the snake. Later, this sword was used by the strongest hero of the Japanese mythological era, "やまとたけるのみこと", earning the nickname "あまのむら.
From this, it can be seen that the Japanese have had a lot of giant sword plots since a long time ago, and after the forging technology matured, it was naturally impossible to miss this opportunity. There is a misconception among many people about odachi, which is that Nodachi is an alias for odachi. In fact, there is no exact definition of odachi. Initially, odachi referred to a longer and larger sword, but on current scales, if the blade length is over 90 centimeters, it can be called odachi. Compared to the previous average height of 150 centimeters to 160 centimeters among Japanese people, this size is indeed a weapon of considerable size. In modern research, Nodachi is more like a subcategory under odachi, referring to the swords stored in SAYA on the premise of being used in the battlefield in large tachi.
We can see from the speech that there are indeed odachi for practical use, but the size cannot be as exaggerated as mentioned above. Why does the divine society sacrifice such unrealistic swords? As mentioned earlier, the Japanese storyline of the Great Sword has existed since ancient times. Sword is an important cultural totem of the Japanese people, and among the eight million deities in Japan, there are many deities with swords and deities. Therefore, many shrines worship swords as divine bodies of gods. Until now, many ancient swords have been preserved in various shrines. The type of odachi represented by "ねねきりるる" is clearly a sword specifically designed for sacrificial purposes.
Since they do not participate in actual combat, it naturally becomes exaggerated, and in this regard, the odachi used for actual combat still needs to compromise with reality. From a modern perspective, the appearance of the odachi seems very similar to that of the Tachi, which is not a hidden craft, because the odachi is indeed an enlarged version of the Tachi. The difference in design between them is only in size. This type of weapon did not appear late, first appearing during the Kamakura era and mainly active during the Northern and Southern Dynasties in Japan. During the Antuto period, basically after the forging process of Japanese swords gradually matured, the Japanese began a large-scale plan for Japanese swords without stopping. It can be said that Japanese swords were one of the earliest large-scale weapons in Japan, so in terms of design, they were simply thickened and lengthened. During the Kamakura era, the samurai family held power, so samurai often chose weapons of huge size to show their strength. At this time, odachi became their favorite. In addition to the confrontation with the Chinese army at that time, the long spear of the Chinese army also made them very distressed, so the samurai with many clever ideas came up with the operation of using odachi to cut the barrel of the gun. Later, this method of warfare was also practiced in domestic wars.
What's the use of odachi?
The place where Odachi truly unleashes its full power is when dealing with cavalry, relying on the weight of the weapon itself to sweep off the horse's legs and then use it against Roman enemies. Due to this aggressive usage, some odachi have not undergone heat treatment at all, so they often crack when hit on the ground. Overall. Odachi is a practical weapon that fully utilizes its own length and weight advantages to target enemies. But later on, as weapons such as Yari and Naginata matured, the number of users gradually decreased due to factors such as inconvenient carrying and exaggerated weight, as well as requirements for users. During the Warring States period, odachi was even shortened and transformed into katana or wakizashi for use. But even so, there are still people who love odachi.
How to use odachi
Since it comes to the actual combat of odachi, many people's biggest problem may still be how it needs to be pulled out of Saya. It is obviously unrealistic to directly draw the sword and draw the scabbard like Sasaki Kojiro in film and television works. In modern odachi, martial artists have designed a unique position for odachi to draw the scabbard. When pulling out and retracting, they need to hold the entire sword on their back and maximize the arm span in order to pull out odachi. In the past, during actual combat, people usually unsheathed their swords before the battle, or were not worthy of Saya during the war. Those with conditions and status would ask attendants or subordinates to lend a hand and help. Odachi is also a unique presence among various heavy weapons. After saying so much, do you think the practical value of this weapon is high?
