Shōtō
- This article is about Japanese swords. Shōtō also refers to a mainly residential district of Shibuya ward in Tokyo (written 松濤)
Shōtō (小刀) is a length designation for Japanese swords.
The three main divisions of Japanese blade length are:
The length is measured in a straight line across the back of the blade from tip to munemachi (where blade meets tang). Most blades that fall under the shoto size range are wakizashi, however some daito were designed with blades slightly shorter than 2 shaku. These were called kodachi and are somewhere in between a true daito and a wakizashi. A shoto and a daito together are called daishō (literally "big and small"), the traditional armaments of the samurai.