Japanese Gallery (Honkan) Room 14
March 28, 2006 (Tue) - May 7, 2006 (Sun)
Tachi swords were swords hung from the waist with chains or cords with the cutting edge down. Historically, Various kanji characters has been used to represent tachi in written word.
During the Heian period (794-1192), high ranking courtiers who received the "Imperial permit to wear swords" wore richly decorated tachi swords (kazari-tachi) in addition to sokutai formal dress during major ceremonial events. These decorated swords were based on swords imported from Tang China during the Nara period (710-794), known as karadachi. During the Heian period kazari-tachi swords were scarce and valuable, so for usual visits to the court aristocrats wore simpler versions of kazari-tachi known as hosodachi.
In contrast to the ceremonial tachi swords of courtiers, warriors' tachi swords were sharper, stronger, and more suitable for combat. They included practical kurourushi-no-tachi (black-lacquered style) and gorgeous hyogogusari-no-tachi, which were suspended from the waist using armor chains, among others.
Sword mountings consist of hilt, scabbard, guard and other metal fittings. For ceremonial tachi swords, guards in the shape of balance weights were used, while for guards used in combat were shaped to protect the hands. Tachi styles changed with the times as well as according to their uses such as for ceremony, battle, gifts and donation to temples and shrines. During the Azuchi-Momoyama and Edo periods, katana swords and shorter wakizashi swords, which were worn between the waist and obi sash with the cutting edge downward, replaced tachi swords as the prominent styles.
Major works in this exhibition
