hello all,

i have been wondering what swords (if any) the japanese made around 1000-1300. i know that the katana was created later in their history and was wondering what they had used before. i looked online and couldn't really find anything usefull.

thanks!

-Austin

Start here

http://www.bushidoboutique.net/swordsugata.html

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The Japanese sword starts with Chokuto

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chokut%C5%8D

Until the Heian period the early Japanese swords tended to be heavily influenced by styles used on mainland Asia. By the Heian period Tachi were already taking a familiar form.

a late Heian Tachi
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Here is a Kamakura Tachi from 1322

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http://www.users.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/cgi-bin/vuImag4.pl?i=204

Pretty Katana like already by that point.

Have you checked Richard Stein's nihonto site? It has plenty of information about the evolution of Japanese blades and can point you to the relevant books if you want to study the thing in more detail.