Other Famous SwordsŌdachi (Nodachi)Important Cultural Property

太郎太刀

Tarō Tachi

Also known as: The Great Blade of Magara Naomoto

Smith

Attributed to Kaneshige (or unknown)

Era

Nanbokuchō period (14th century)

Type

Ōdachi (Nodachi)

Designation

Important Cultural Property

Location

Atsuta Jingū, Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture

Description

Tarō Tachi is one of the longest surviving tachi in Japanese history, with a blade length of approximately 221.5 cm — more than three times the length of a standard Japanese sword. It is associated with Magara Naomoto, a warrior of Echizen Province who served the Asakura clan and was renowned for his superhuman strength and ferocity on the battlefield. Both Tarō Tachi and its companion piece Jirō Tachi (used by Naomoto's son Takaoki, blade length approximately 174 cm) are preserved at Atsuta Jingū in Nagoya. Naomoto is said to have wielded this colossal blade in the Battle of Anegawa (1570) against the combined forces of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, where he fell after a fierce last stand. The sword stands as one of the most dramatic physical relics of the Sengoku period.

Legends & Stories

Among the warriors of the Sengoku period, few are as mythologized as Magara Naomoto, the giant swordsman of Echizen. Tradition holds that he stood over six feet tall and could swing the gargantuan Tarō Tachi — more than two meters of steel — as if it weighed nothing. Enemies who faced him on the battlefield reportedly fled in terror, believing they had encountered a demon. At the Battle of Anegawa in 1570, where the Asakura forces confronted the combined armies of Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Naomoto reportedly fought until several warriors combined to bring him down. His son Takaoki, wielding the slightly smaller Jirō Tachi, also fell in the same battle. Father and son, their legendary blades, and their simultaneous deaths on the same field — the story has all the elements of a warrior epic. Both swords now rest at Atsuta Jingū, shrine of the legendary Kusanagi no Tsurugi, where the greatest sword in mythology and the greatest sword in history share the same sacred ground.