A question about swords...

[Rai]

Just wondering, I know theres Katana's and Wakizashi's, but what about the Ken swords? Are those going to be put in to? :O

[Kurisu]

Eh? Ken swords? It would be like asking if in a medieval game based in europe sword swords are going to be included. Ken would mean in this context sword, so your question is basically pointless.

[Svage]

Be nice, in america there are swords refered to as "ken swords" that are of oriental design. if yo are going to shoot someone's questions down, be nicer please. That seemed to me kind of a brush off, and it is his first post. We don't wanna drive off first time posters, then we would never get more action here.

thank you for your support

[Rai]

I just saw Ken as a japanese sword type when I was researching swords they had in japan, be mad at wiki not me. :(

[yuir]

just to point out that Rai is right there are japanese swords called ken's or the full name KEN TANTO now here comes the info:p

Ken are one of the rarer styles of tanto. Ken have double edged blades and were mainly made as Buddhist ritual implements although it is not uncommon to find them mounted and used as tanto. Some ken style tanto were made from cut down yari. Ken style tanto were made in Koto, Shinshinto and Gendai eras; but few were made during the Shinto period (few tanto of any style were made during the Shinto era). Ken blades may have parallel edges or double concave shapes as below. Some of the top sword smiths in history made ken as offerings to various temples. It is not uncommon to find ken with a vajra (double thunderbolt) style hilt in keeping with their use as Buddhist ritual implements.

KEN TANTO
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/yuir/kentanto.jpg

Buddhist Ritual Ken
http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l240/yuir/vajraken.jpg

also welcome to the fourms Rai

also to point two things out before some ones elses does

1.) Ken is a type of blade namely a double edged blade which is normally under one shaku in length (one shaku equals approximately 12 inches)

2.)TANTO is a dagger or knife with blade of 12 inches or less

[Svage]

so there, I didn't know any of that, I just posted to say be nice, not to dispute RAI's comment. Great to have knowledge, and better to learn more. thank you rai for starting this topic so we could learn something more. and welcome to the forums!

[Rai]

Cool, didn't know it was a dagger. :O

[Kurisu]

Well... yeah.

I apologise. I hope you're not offended by what I've written but the last time I checked wikipedia there was no Japanese sword simply called ken sword.

Oh and... sorry for not knowing wrong american expressions :P (again, no offence)

And to give you people yet another reason to call me an annoying smartass: if he was asking for a ken tanto, which would be a kind of tanto, he would've been asking for a ken dagger.

Ok, enough trolling for now.

[Rai]

Well hey what can I say, us americans dont od enough research x)

[Gheari]

Just for all further reference, the term used to refer to all double edged straight blades are referred to as Tsurugi.

The Kusanagi Tsurugi. You should know about it. It's the equivalent of Excalibur, except we all know that it's real.

[Rai]

Oooh are there gonna be Tsurugi's? :O

[Artoriu]

In my opinion, the more sword variety, the better. As long as they are historically accurate.

[Yagyu]

It would be cool to see a nice variety of swords such as
Katana (Duh)
Wakazachi (Duh again)
Tanto
Zanmadoh (Chinese sword used in japan by pirates and barbarians sometimes)
Kodachi
Nodachi
Odachi
O-Katana
Zanbato
Datonouki (my spelling may be off as im writing this from memory)
Tachi (curved more then a katana)
Nagamaki
Uchigatana
shikomizue (cane swords, long live zatoichi)
Ninjato (straight katana used by the ninja)

theres more but those are the only ones i can think of off the top of my head.
lots of other awsome weapons would be cool too.

Is there a list somewhere in he forums on the items that will be included yet?

[Gheari]

I'll correct your romaji and terms as well as expand upon your statements.
Wakazashi
Tanto (not a sword, it's a dagger)
Zanbato (As it was refered to in Japan, it was very close to the nagamaki, which I would not call a sword but a polearm-sword hybrid. It was used as an anti cavalry weapon and had a significant ricasso.)
Zanbato and zhan ma dao are essentially the same thing, the zhan ma dao was just a wider blade.
Dotanuki (not a sword, but a type of forging and the type of blade made by that type of forging)
Ninjato (not a real sword)

And lastly, mine, the chisakatana. The chisakatana is a short version of a katana.

[Yagyu]

You know whats interesting is when i was reading the Tatsumaki Wiki, under the weapon they had Wakazachi but they didnt have a Katana lol, Oversight maybe or im guessing that its just a given. A Samurai game without a Katana is like a western without a 6 shooter.

[Gheari]

I think they didn't include it because the katana is extremely obvious.