Ninjatō

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A straight-blade ninjaken

The Ninjato (忍者刀, Ninjatō^?), also known as Ninjaken (忍者剣^?) or Shinobigatana (忍刀^?), is the most common name for the reputed sword the Japanese ninja would have carried. It was a shortsword, crafted with far less care than katana or tachi of the samurai. Modern ninjatō are often straight with a square tsuba (hand guard) its not known with exactitude if the ninjatō had a kissaki (sword tip) there are some registers that say that the ninjatō unlike the Katana and Wakizashi was just a cutting weapon and not a stabbing one. This may be a fallacy, as the primary opponent to a ninja would be a samurai, and a samurai in armor would necessitate a primary stabbing weapon. The primary function of the Katana however, was a devastating slash.

According to Masaaki Hatsumi, these swords came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Often, however, they were much shorter than the traditional daitō katana used by the samurai of feudal Japan, straight but still with a slight curve to the sword. The straight bladed, square guard sword (as seen in the image) may be just a product of the modern imaginative conception. The typical ninjatō carried by a ninja would more likely have been a wakizashi shortsword fitted with a katana-length handle and placed in a katana-length saya (scabbard). This may have been used to deceive one's opponents into miscalculating how quickly it could be drawn allowing one to use a battoujutsu strike faster than expected. It also disguises the weapon (that would easily identify them as a ninja) as a common sword. The extra space in the saya may also be used to store or hide other equipment or goods, such as tubes which act as snorkels for shuriken. Another advantage to using such a short sword was the increased ease of fighting at close quarters, an irrevocable requirement of an assassin or intelligence gatherer. Another source for such a sword, would be broken blades left upon a battlefield.