Ninjato, also known by the names of ninjaken or shinobigatana, is the most common name for the famous Japanese sword that a ninja carried. It belongs to the category of short swords, crafted with far less care than katana or tachi of the samurai. Ninja favors the straight ninjato due to its smaller size compared to the samurai katana.

Ninjato’s design

This sword comes in different shapes and sizes according to Ninja Master Dr. Masaki Hatsumi. They were much shorter than the traditional daito katana used by the samurai of feudal Japan. The shift of the weapon is straight but with a slight curve to the sword. The straight bladed, square tsuba (hand guard) is merely a product of the modern imaginative conception. There are historical accounts showed how a ninjato, unlike the katana or wakizashi, was used as a cutting weapon and not a stabbing one. It is not determined if ninjato had a kissaki or sword tip to be used as a stabbing point.

The typical ninjato carried by a ninja was very likely to have been a wakizashi shortsword fitted with a katana-length handle and placed in a scabbard or katana-length saya. The concealment of ninjato serves as a deception of one’s opponents into miscalculating how quickly it could be drawn thereby permitting one to swiftly use a battoujutsu than expected. It helps that the design of a ninjato is similar to a common sword. The extra space in the saya may also be used to conceal or store equipments or goods, namely blinding powders, tubes that act as snorkels, or shuriken. An advantage of using ninjato and other short swords was the increased ease of fighting at close quarters. Thus, ninjato is an irrevocable requirement of an assassin or intelligence gatherer.

Ninjato’s usage

Ninjato was used in a variety of ways in fighting. The weapon is razor sharp but is considered to be more of a chopping and thrusting weapon unlike its counterpart katana. The skill in wielding such a sword is very different than kendo (the martial art using a katana in combat). The art is much more fluent in employing the back of the weapon for parries, blocking, and attacking mainly the hands, ankles, and neck of the opponent.

Ninjato in modern culture

In the comic book Usagi Yojimbo, the warrior rabbit character Usagi Yojimbo uses Ninjato as his weapons of choice.  Usagi has also appeared several times in Teeane Mutant Ninja Turtles ( in the comic book, both of the animated series and the toy line), and the Turtles have appeared in Usagi Yojimbo as well.

Fictional works depicted Ninjato as a scabbard, which is often mounted across the back with the handle facing up. IT is combined with sword’s shorter length presumably allowing for a quicker draw. Further projections of this resulted to depictions of the weapon as wielded underhanded.

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