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**gastabegree** · 08-19-2009, 11:07 AM

Why is the bokuto shorter then the shinai. The shinai is supposed to essentially be a katana which is represented in form and length by the bokuto, so why then is it longer?

My understanding is that back in the day when it was common for instructors to challenge each other for honour and also for the purpose of recruiting students, that there were no regulations on how long a shinai could be. Some people used very long ones to gain an advantage. Eventually the lengths were standardized to prevent this sort of thing. So the shinai lengths came about really from a competition regulations thing. There's no standard size for Japanese swords, and while a 39 shinai is longer than was commonly used, it's not out of the range of what existed historically.

The bokken serves a different purpose, it is supposed to be a close representation of a sword and so it is made to be an average-sized sword.

08-19-2009, 11:07 AM	#5
gastabegree Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 503 Senior Member	Why is the bokuto shorter then the shinai. The shinai is supposed to essentially be a katana which is represented in form and length by the bokuto, so why then is it longer? My understanding is that back in the day when it was common for instructors to challenge each other for honour and also for the purpose of recruiting students, that there were no regulations on how long a shinai could be. Some people used very long ones to gain an advantage. Eventually the lengths were standardized to prevent this sort of thing. So the shinai lengths came about really from a competition regulations thing. There's no standard size for Japanese swords, and while a 39 shinai is longer than was commonly used, it's not out of the range of what existed historically. The bokken serves a different purpose, it is supposed to be a close representation of a sword and so it is made to be an average-sized sword.
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