The wakizashi is the shorter of the two blades a samurai carried, roughly 26 to 29 inches overall against the katana at 40. It was the one worn indoors, where a long sword was impractical or impolite, and it is the one most people should buy first: easier to store, easier to handle, and easier to hand to someone who has never held a sword.
The blades on this page
Overall lengths run 26 to 29 inches with blades between 18 and 20.5 inches. The plain steel pieces are 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC, including one with a clay hardened hamon and a brass habaki, one with a black ribbed grip and a brown leather saya, and three with black lacquered wooden saya and cord sageo. The Damascus blades run 58 to 60 HRC: one with a ladder pattern blade and a brown leather wrapped handle and saya, one with a grey saya, a navy cord wrap and brass fittings, one with a triquetra engraved brass tsuba over a brown leather wrapped tsuka and a hardwood saya, one with a deep curved single edge and a Celtic knot engraved collar, and one at 28 inches with a black lacquer saya and a cord wrapped tsuka. Two sets sit at the top: a three blade short sword set with three lacquered scabbards and cord wrapped handles in black, red and ivory, and a two piece daisho pairing a katana with its wakizashi. Prices run from 285 dollars to 649 dollars.
Where it sits in the pair
The two swords worn together are the daisho, and the wakizashi is the shoto, the short one. Our page on the wakizashi covers what it was actually used for, and the comparison across katana, wakizashi and tanto sorts the lengths and the names out. The full range is in wakizashi, and if you want blades of this length from other traditions, look at short swords.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
