What is a Dotanuki katana anyway?

I used to have a nice section on the main Ronin site about Dōtanuki blades, and when I designed the new website, I forgot to add it.

So what is a Dōtanuki katana?

Dōtanuki is a Japanese swordsmithing school developed in the Higo province of Kyūshū
during the Kamakura period. The Japanese kanji for dōtanuki translates to, sword that cuts
through torsos. While samurai routinely tested their blades on the bodies of convicted criminals
to judge their cutting ability, dōtanuki blades were renowned for cutting through the bodies of
armored opponents.

The thick wide body blades were forged in both bohi (with groove) and no hi (without groove)
styles, although the solid no hi blades were by far the most common. The dōtanuki's thickness
and durability helped them obtain their vicious reputation during the Japanese conquest of
Korea where they were heavily used by daimyō Katō Kiyomasa's personal samurai. Their
popularity peaked during the Azuchi-Momoyama (1568-1600) period, and began to fade
rapidly thereafter as Japan entered a period of relative peace and stability.

The dōtanuki style was all but forgotten until Japanese manga writer Kazuo Koike reintroduced
it the famous 70's magna series Lone Wolf and Cub. The ronin Ogami Ittō uses a dōtanuki
blade in his quest for revenge on the Yagyū clan.

Jul 11th 2015 Chris Scoggin for Ronin Katana

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