How to Wear a Ninja Sword

When it comes to the Ninja, many people have an iconic image of the illusive black clad assassin of lore with strict rules like their Samurai rivals. Samurai are renown for their strict dress codes that dictated everything from hair to what they could wear on their feet and how to carry a weapon. For the ninja, this was not the case.

The Sword of The Ninja

While the use of a sword was very rare for ninja, the ninja-to was the blade that was most often carried. To carry a katana, wakasashi and tanto was strictly controlled as a mark of the samurai class. An average citizen with one was subject to punishment as seen fit by the ruling class of a district. Ninja, though trained to be assassins was by all rights a commoner of poor origins. The ninja-to was much smaller than the katana, measuring only 24 inches or less and made of a poor quality. Because of it's smaller size it was often easier to conceal when carried under a robe.

How They Were Worn

Unlike the rigid and formal Samurai, the common ninja had no such rules. Their ability to survive required them to blend in flawlessly with their surroundings to look like any other person of the working class. Having a blade out in the open was often asking for trouble. How they wore the blade itself usually depended on the task at hand or whichever was more comfortable for the owner.

• Worn at the hip - Wearing a sword at the hip is perhaps the most common way to carry any sword. A ninjo-to would be tucked into it's owner's obi, the sash-like belt worn in Japan during the earlier periods. Because of their curved blade, like their Samurai class cousins, a ninja-to was designed to be drawn in a smooth motion where the blade is facing up when pulled from or placed back in it's sheath. Unlike the Samurai whom flaunted their blades, the ninja needed to keep it concealed. To do this they would keep the sword in line with their body and hidden under a second yakata or kimono.

• Worn on the back - Because of it's small size, the ninja-to was easily carried between the shoulder blades of it's owner. This made it easy to hide under clothes. While drawing the blade was less fluid than drawing from the hip the advantage came with the ability to carry other items in the belt or sleeves without feeling burdened. The position of the blade could face up or down depending on the owner, and drawn from the side.