Suriage For Balance

[Guest Rayhan]

Wouldn't it make sense that if a sword was to be balanced then Suriage would be a viable method? 

 

They were passed to different owners so what suited one would not suit the other and as the sword was at the nucleus of daily life in the periods of Shogunates it would be less emotional and more logical to shorten a sword so it was measured and weighted for optimal use. 

 

In the Azuchi-Momoyama and well into modern day Iai is a style that flourishes and more reasonably sized swords are needed so wouldn't suriage be a natural recourse?

 

Oda Nobunanaga shortened swords to the 23 t 25 inch nagasa lengths presumably for this reason? his fighting style suited this length of sword, or vice versa? Or maybe he did it to remove all provenance of previous ownership...who knows?! But...

 

Generally we consider that swords from the Muromachi period are best when Ubu and Zaimei (For the record I agree as a collector and only advise that Muromachi and after should be Ubu and Zaimei) but a Samurai would disagree and say that he wants the balance to be right? right...? 

 

In the Edo period it is all pomp and proper so rare to have this happen but sword smiths probably had time to make very exacting swords to the specifications of clients, no rush to the front lines 

 

So shortening for balance, discussion? 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

It is all about ergonomy, still today. Your physical data, what you do with a tool/sword and how you do it is important, the more, if your life depends on it.

[Ken-Hawaii]

No, balance is generally changed with a tsuba.

[Guest Rayhan]

What about Aikuchi and ins't shortening shifting the fulcrum with relation to the Nagasa, esp in Koto swords, so Tsuba placement is also affected? 

[paulb]

It may be an oversimplistic view but my understanding is that suriage had more to do with changes in the style of fighting and usage (i.e. fighting on foot rather than from horse back) rather than tailoring a blade to match an individuals physique. That is not to say it didnt happen but as Ken suggests I would have thought it simpler to change the tsuba. This would also have the advantage of being reversible should the blade change hands again.

[Gakusee]

It ought to be firstly the fighting style evolution (close combat, on foot as opposed to cavalry style with waist carried tachi on horseback) as Paul suggested but secondarily (after the warring period times changed to a peaceful era) also these two factors: a) prescribed lengths (in Edo period that was decreed) and b) personal height and therefore arm length. Within the certain parameters prescribed by the shogunate one had to tailor the length so that one could swiftly and ably draw it and wield it.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Some swords were of course shortened many times during their lives but the most common remaining size for shortened swords made pre Onin wars seem to be around 67 to 71 cm blade length and 17 to 20 cm nakago length. Sure there are of course some shortened outliers with 80+ cm blades or 25+ cm nakago but the vast majority falls in that bracket above.

 

Yuhindo happens to have one such rare outlier at the moment: https://yuhindo.com/hatakeda-sanemori-katana/

 

While I am no swordsman I'd tend to agree with others that blade size would commonly be dictated by your physical attributes. You can tune the balance with tsuba, as thet range from featherly very open sukashi to thick and bulky ones. Being no tsuba guy either I'd roughly guess the range going from 50 grams to 250 grams in between the extremes.

 

I think one of the reason for sword hunts & length bans etc. in the period Japan were to control that potential opponents do not have access to large amounts of battlefield weapons.

 

Here in the end a funny pic to show difference in somewhat "stereotypical" Enbun-Jōji vs. Eishō (unfortunately both are replicas) that makes it easy to understand why large battlefield swords needed to be shortened.