So (if I attached the picture right) this is the one and only sword that I was able to get a decent picture of while I was in Japan in May. There were a couple of Katana and a tachi that I shot at the Edo museum but as they had a no flash rule they pics turned out blurry. But I was able to get this monster. It looked to be about 6' long total and was displayed at a temple in Nikko.

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Gorgeouse! Do you know anything about it?

I agree with Allen, that's a wonderful sword! but it seems to be lacking a tsuba. do you know what time period it might be from?

Unless it's a gendai piece, which I personally doubt, then it is almost certainly from the Nambokucho era (~1330-1390 A.D. or so) when nodachi were popular.

Great sword, great pic. :) I still have an irrational love of nodachi... maybe one day...

You're right it was lacking a tsuba and unfortunately there was little to no information about it that either I (or my Nihongo Sensee for that matter) could translate. I'm not up to speed on my Nihonto vocabulary but the blade had some weird geometry too. I can't recall what the style is called but the spine thinned dramtically at the last third of the blade. I know there's a diagram of this style floating around but I can't find it.

Kanmuri-otoshi might be what you're thinking of, although in that form the "thinning" usually begins closer to the base (i.e., lasts for more like 2/3 of the blade instead of 1/3).

Close. But I ran a search for Kanmuri-otoshi and found unokubi-zukuri which I think is what it was because I remember it widening again at the kissaki. It was really interesting to see on a blade that big. Thanks for the help on the vocab.

I can't tell if I'm looking at the habaki or the fuchi but one of those is missing as well(I think the habaki).