Facinating how so many clues can be gleaned into the story behind the sword by telling you the changes it went through over the ages.

Always enjoy the knowledge that you drop in these videos thanks John

Hi John, thanks for the info.

Just wanna add that a lot of this can be ascertained because the nakago was not a part of the sword that is included in maintenance and cleaning. Rusting and patina of the nakago serves to better "grip" the tsuka, on top of the roughing filework of the nakago and already snug fit a well carved tsuka would provide. So I get that you don't want any rust on your katanas, but please don't polish the nakago. It's not meant to be oiled and shined.

Very interesting ⚔️

So was it an odachi back then? I believe I've read that in Kamakura - early Muromachi periods odachi were quite popular, but then most of them got shortened