Extra wide and heavy Satsuma Wakizashi

[Tengu1957]

Shin Shinto Satsuma Wakizashi
Signed Sesshu Motonaga
Dated 1810
This is the widest and thickest Wakizashi I have ever held in hand 
4 cm wide. 0.76 cm thick. 45 cm long 
It's also incredibly heavy , I have put up a normal sized Edo period Wakizashi for comparison. 
It has Koshirae I haven't received yet. I am looking forward to seeing what it looks like 

Many thanks to Mike Yamasaki for selling this to me.

[Mister Gunto]

Beautiful blade! You can tell it's got some heft to it. 

[IBot]

Gary,   We tend to allocate all swords into the tachi / katana / wakizashi / tanto classifications, forgetting that during the past, some swords were classified differently. I have a blade, in an Edo period mount, that is dated to the second year of Onin (1468), signed:  Bishu Osafune Saemonjo Norimitsu. The nagasa of this blade is 596mm and like yours is heavy despite a wide groove on each side that occupy most of the shinogi ji. It is clearly meant to be used single handed - a Katateuchito I believe.

Ian Bottomley

[Vermithrax16]

Love Satsuma blades, looks terrific!

[Tengu1957]

9 hours ago, IBot said:

Gary,   We tend to allocate all swords into the tachi / katana / wakizashi / tanto classifications, forgetting that during the past, some swords were classified differently. I have a blade, in an Edo period mount, that is dated to the second year of Onin (1468), signed:  Bishu Osafune Saemonjo Norimitsu. The nagasa of this blade is 596mm and like yours is heavy despite a wide groove on each side that occupy most of the shinogi ji. It is clearly meant to be used single handed - a Katateuchito I believe.

Ian Bottomley

Ian , thank you for the information. I have also read that sometimes Sumo carried these really thick O-Tanto or Wakizashi as a symbol of status , is there any truth to this ?