Sword measurement in ancient documentation

Hi all.

I'm requested by a friend of mine of Samurai Archives to ask if anybody knows about the measurements of this sword accordingly to the translation he made from an ancient test. I'm under the impression it's a bit exaggerate and possibly a sword used as standard, and especially the tickness should be very exaggerate, anyway if anybody has seen or have sources about this sword I would be grateful to be contacted.

Quote :

Shinchokoki

Battle of San no Yama-Akatsuka (excerpt)

When the armies were approximately five or six ken (9-11 meters) (1ken=1.8 meters) apart, the archers on both sides fired arrows. Arakawa Yojûrô was struck deep beneath the visor of his helmet and fell from his horse, dead. Enemy soldiers immediately grabbed his legs; others grabbed his scabbard, and began to drag him. Yojûrô’s allies grabbed his head and upper body to keep the enemy from taking his body. Yojûrô’s ornamented daito was said to be approximately 1.8 meters long, and the scabbard width measured about 15-18 centimeters. The enemy pulled on the ornamented scabbard, while Yojûrô’s allies pulled the sword, his head and upper body, and pulled his body free of the enemy.

...unquote

Thanks for your time.

Carlo,

I would have seen a slight possibility of the sword having been something huge as a ceremonial item or maybe nagamaki or other polearm made into a katana...except for the fact that it mentions he was mounted on horseback at the time, which makes it highly unlikely he had a sword of such great length in a scabbard. The simple act of drawing it while mounted would have been quite a task, as would wielding it.

I would be looking at those measurements again, or perhaps putting it down to some form of exaggeration.

Not to say there aren't always exceptions to every rule, and there may well have been weapons that don't fit into the neat categories we place them today.

Without further info, I'm afraid it is impossible to tell for sure.

Brian

I have just read the section of Shinchokoki. The translation of the measurement is correct, as far as the original text had no typo.

IMHO, the sword seems to be an O-dachi according to the description of the text.

length (maybe total): 181.8 cm

width (of saya): 15.1 - 18.2 cm

Machida version of original text (the part is p. 11): 192 kB

http://www.page.sannet.ne.jp/gutoku2/sintyokouki_1.pdf

Well, as far as lenght goes, I can accept the measurement but if I

get correctly the meaning of width, seems to me a bit out of range

even for an Odachi...

This is only a possibitily, but we can see the tail of the saya （equipped with shirizaya [尻鞘]) on the attached photo.