The reason for Machi-Okuri

[Alex A]

Just out of curiosity, had a spare hour this morn looking for points of view with regards specifically WHY blades were shortened in this manner. Lots of info on how it was done with diagrams and a write ups but little as to why.

 

Looking for points of view. The logical reason is simply so a longer tsuka could be fitted to a sword to enable TWO hands on the blade. agree ?

 

Bare in mind that just because a blade has TWO ana, this does not automatically make the blade Machi-okuri.!, there are other reasons why you may see two ana.

 

Some info on the particular swords where machi-okuri was common. KATATE UCHI (single hand swords)

 

"Late Muromachi Period

 

By the late Muromachi period, fighting methods had changed from cavalry to mass infantry style warfare. Shorter blades, known as uchigatana, with a cutting edge of around 63.6 cm in length that were intended for one-handed use became popular. As opposed to tachi that were worn suspended from the belt, uchigatana were worn thrust through the sash with the cutting edge uppermost. Following the Onin war, conflicts broke out in many places prompting the mass-production of blades (inferior in quality to regular Japanese blades). However, specially ordered blades of excellent quality (chumon-uchi) were also produced at this time. The provinces of Bizen (Okayama prefecture) and Mino (Gifu prefecture) became major places of production. Many blades produced in this period have with strong saki-zori, with either a chu-kissaki or an extended chu-kissaki."

 

Now some info from Usagiya, with an image showing Machi Okuri. http://www.ksky.ne.jp/~sumie99/suriage.html

 

"Machi-okuri (= Machi moved)
The tang keeps original, but the machi's are moved upward. It is done to shorten the blade length a little. So the TANG LENGTH IS EXTENDED. Such a small shortening is not called Suriage. It is just a "Machi-okuri". The reverse surface of the tang is ground with file sometimes to get a proper taper of thickness."

 

Now an example of a blade of a "katate uchi blade". Bizen Eisho. This example shows a typical blade of that era which is quite long at at 59cm but the nakago has been altered to allow for a longer grip. The overall length/reach of the sword has not changed, just sacrificed some blade length (an important key point).

https://www.aoijapan.com/wakizashi-bishu-osafune-katsumitsu-saku/ 

 

Look forward to reading any thoughts on this subject.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nihontocollector752]

Many reasons, for instance if a new owner recieved the sword and they needed to adjust the length slightly without suriage then this was an option, if new koshirae was made, if there was damage tonthe original hamachi/munemachi and it could be resolved by machi-okuri, if the nakago was damaged and to keep the balance the nakago needed to be lengthened. Many reasons.

 

[Alex A]

You do remind me of a point that i often think about and there is very little info, how much influence someone had, when ordering a sword/swords with specific requirements. I know some sword schools favoured certain traits in their swords.

 

Anyways, as we move away from Muromachi to Momoyama more peaceful times, the single handed Uchigatana gets left behind.

[Matsunoki]

 

9 hours ago, Alex A said:

You do remind me of a point that i often think about and there is very little info, how much influence someone had, when ordering a sword/swords with specific requirements

 

Hi Alex….just a few rambling thoughts-

If you were a Samurai of some rank or importance I’m pretty certain you could have just about anything that you wanted if it was within the abilities of the smith. After all, swordsmiths depended on the military class (or sometimes shrines) for their livelihood (until the wealthy merchants started wearing flashy Wakizashi and Tanto etc). True, schools had their own characteristics but  even they changed with current fashions or as smiths moved around and gathered around the castle towns.
I feel the same could be said if the customer was a merchant…..I doubt many would turn down a lucrative commission just because it didn’t fit their (current) preferred style of forging.

However if you were an impoverished rank and file samurai you probably had little choice and thus had whatever was going cheaply at the time….unless you were so poor that you had an armoury weapon issued.

The same basic economic rules have always applied at all times worldwide………MONEY TALKS!…..VERY LOUDLY!

Just my opinions.

All the best. Colin