Original 18th Century Edo Period Japanese Ko-Wakizashi Short Sword with Lacquered Scabbard and Kogatana Knife

Original Item: Only One Available. Wakizashi (脇差 "side inserted / companion sword") is a general term for a sword with an edge between one and two shaku long (30 cm and 60 cm), predominantly made after 1600. Generally it is the short blade that accompanies a katana in the traditional samurai daisho pairing of swords, but may be worn by classes other than the samurai as a single blade, also worn edge up as the katana. This very nice example dates from the Edo period (江戸時代, Edo jidai) or Tokugawa period (徳川時代, Tokugawa jidai) of Japanese history. This is the period between 1603 and 1867, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional daimyo. As the blade length is close to that of a tanto, some would term this an "Ko-Wakizashi" (小脇差). It does have the standard Shinogi-Zukuri (鎬造) shape, standard for Katana and other blades, which is usually not seen on such short Wakizashi. This example has most likely been remounted several times, as was common fo