Hanwei Odachi

Introduction

As some may know, I'm a huge fan of odachi and tachi. I do like katana too, but the earlier Japanese swords are my main intrest at the moment and have been for some years now. I remember when this was first announced at 2007, and I drooled this so badly, but just couldn't afford this back then. After many years of waiting I was finally able to purchase this. I've had this sword for bit over 1,5 years now, and as I ordered couple tachi kake for my planned display, I thought it would be nice to make a proper review of this one. I did one really short and bland to SFI shortly after getting this. But I thought I should do a better review of this. Unfortunately the sword is now discontinued by Hanwei, as I think this might be the best thing that Hanwei has made. Of course with my odachi collecting I MIGHT be bit biased on that statement...



Historical Overview

Finally I can write something in this field. Hanwei states in their website that the sword is actually patterned after 14th century original. Now as I have quite good reference library and I have information about several odachi in my books, I have come to conclusion that this sword is based on Tomomitsu Odachi. Press right click to see full sized picture on the second page, or you can look here: japantrip.tripod.com/nodachi/tomomitsu.html Of course this Hanwei sword is not 100% accurate replica, but the Tomomitsu Odachi is so close to Hanwei Odachi measurements, I'm quite certain that's the original it was based on.



Full Disclosure

Bought this with my own money for the full price.

Initial Impressions

That's a big sword! (here is a comparison shot with regular sized katana for easy understanding)



Statistics

Nagasa: 125,6cm
Nakago: 42,4cm
Motohaba: 3,85cm
Sakihaba: 3,05cm
Moto-gasane: 7,5mm
Moto-shinogi-gasane: 9,6mm
Saki-gasane: 5,4mm
Saki-shinogi-gasane: 7,4mm
Sori: 5,8cm
Kissaki: 6,7cm
Bare blade weight: 2065g
Weight in koshirae: 2575g
Steel: ?
Tsuka: 43,5cm
Tsuba: 8,25x7,7cm, thickness 7mm weight 138g
Fuchi: 49x26x14mm
Kashira: 45x26x48mm

Components



Well the sword is very big, when you see it besides a regular sized Japanese sword, it feels bit unreal. This sword has more blade than most swords are in overall length. The blade is quite good, but you can feel slight uneveness in the ji and hi. But at least for me due to the massive size this is perfectly acceptable. It must be very difficult to make and properly heat treat a sword of this size. The blade has the standard Hanwei polish.



Here you can see how nicely aligned the machi are. This is rare feat in production swords, but Hanwei pulls it off, as they make their habaki with a bottom notch. As you can see due to great measurements, 3,85 cm motohaba, and thickness being 9,6mm at shinogi, the habaki has to be custom made for this sword.



Here you can see the lack of curve in the ji. But don't be alarmed, Nambokucho era swords are supposed to have slighter niku. Of course in the production swords this is achieved by the normal flat grind. Of course some curve would have been better than total flatness, but I'm not really complaining as the blade must be very hard to make. The sword is not very sharp, you can press your finger on the edge and not be cut. Of course very large swords like this don't need to be as sharp as smaller swords. And I like my sword edges in such condition that in can at least lightly rub my finger in the cutting edge and not be cut.



As you can see nakago is long and tsuka is long to offer good leverage when handling this large sword. I have bit problems with really small details though. The sword does not have tachi mei, it has a katana mei. Likewise the tsukamaki & tsuka has the omote side on the wrong side. Tsuka has quite good quality rayskin, and it even features emperor node, but it's on the wrong side. Tsukamaki also starts from the wrong side. Tsukamaki is black cotton, and it's of regular Hanwei tightness. Menuki are Aoi emblems.

Tsuba is Aoi gata shape, which is common in tachi. Tsuba is plain black with raised rim and it features o-seppa, which is also common in tachi. Only design in the tsuba are boars eye, heart shaped cut outs.



All the other metal parts have ishime stone pattern. Fuchi is plain with stone pattern, kashira is kabuto-gane style and it features sarute.



Koiguchi is plain stone pattern. Ashi are very big, and have stone pattern with boars eye cutouts. Kojiri is very long, and I like it very much. Saya is kuroro, black shining lacquer.

Conclusion

Well you've probably understood how much I like this, and how unique this is in the production market. In the saya sword is 181cm, so this is something you don't encounter everyday. The most important thing is that this is very well made. As the market is filled with cheaply made Odachi, this is about the only Japanese sword of this size that I would feel comfortable to actually use. Like I said in the beginning in my opinion this is the most impressive thing that Hanwei has ever made, and as I'm Odachi fanboy you can't convince me otherwise .