The Nambokucho era (1336-1392), also known as the Northern and Southern Courts period, saw changes in fighting styles and samurai swords. During this time, there was a Northern Imperial Court in Kyoto, established by Ashikaga Takauji, and a Southern Imperial Court in Yoshino, established by Emperor Go-Daigo. Nambokucho jidai, the era’s name in Japanese, translates to “South and North courts period”.
The two courts fought for almost sixty years, with the North becoming victorious is 1392. However, the North was actually under the control of the Ashikaga shoguns and did not have much independence. The South also had authority over the Japanese imperial regalia and court noble Kitabatake Chikafusa’s book Jinno Shotoki. Thus, despite their defeat, the Emperors of the Southern Imperial Court have been regarded as the rightful Emperors of Japan since the 19th century.
Big blades
Years and years of incessant war during the Nambokucho period naturally increased the demand for the samurai katana. Also, the shape of the blades changed, the battle scheme became group combats, and a new fighting formation emerged: foot soldiers surrounding a leader on horseback.
Foot soldiers became important in combat once more, and this new arrangement called for a different type of sword. As a result, very long tachi (long swords) were made, which measured between 85 cm and 1.5 m in length. The longer handmade samurai swords were employed by foot soldiers to break enemy spearmen lines and cut horses’ legs.
These tachi had great mihaba (width); thus, the kasane (thickness of the blade) was lessened to decrease the sword’s weight, and the kissaki (point) became bigger, known as o-kissaki (large kissaki). Thin kasane, notare (wave-like hamon (temper pattern)), and hitatsura (full-tempered hamon) were characteristic of the Nambokucho period. It is commonly believed that swords of this era had the sharpest blades in Japanese samurai history.
Since these lengthy tachi were too long to wear, they were normally carried by followers who accompanied the samurai warrior. If a samurai needed his sword, he would simply take it from his follower. However, a follower would sometimes get killed or become separated from his samurai, so samurai also carried kodachi (small tachi) from the obi (belt sash) of their samurai armor. This led to the manufacture and popularity of the uchigatana (fighting katana) which had a length of roughly 70 cm and was used alongside the longer tachi.
Big blades became the trend, and tanto (daggers or knives) increased in size as well, reaching around 35 cm in length; regular tanto are usually less than 30.48 cm. Other features of the Nambokucho era tanto were hira-zukuri (a blade without a ridgeline), a great mihaba, a thin kasane, and a curve in the middle of the blade.
Later, it was realized that fighting on horseback was actually disadvantageous, and shortly after the Nambokucho period, the large samurai swords disappeared.
