One Of My Favorite Swords

One of my favorite swords I own is a 600 year old tanto. From an antique sword collector's perspective, it's nothing special:  there are tens of thousands if not more tanto that are 500 years old still around, many made by famous smiths, in pristine condition./ and/or owned by someone important.

Mine is not in particularly good shape.

(This last pic compares the size to a Nagamaki Naoshi katana)

The jigane and hamon suggest it might be from the Uda school, one whose heyday was before 1400 AD (NBTHK kanteishou divide the Uda school into Uda and Ko-Uda, with the latter being before 1400)

However, my tanto combines many of the aspects I love:

• it's old
• it's wide
• it was likely made from a broken nagamaki, my favorite shape
• The aikuchi (no guard) fittings are attractive, complete with kogatana (utility knife) and kogai (multipurpose tool)
• it was used on the set of Shanghai Noon to cut off Jackie Chan's Manchurian Queue!