Talk:Ookurikara/@comment-121.54.32.137-20150301194225/@comment-115.73.15.56-20150305084736

He was and has been a tachi; one of the posters suggested that possibly he was shortened from >2 shaku 8 sun (84.84cm) to 2 shaku 2 sun 2.5 bu (about 74.16cm) - either way he is still within the modern category of a tachi (2 shaku [~60cm] < tachi < 3 shaku [~90cm]).

The thing is, apparently Ookurikara lost his signature upon shortening, so he isn't really a 無銘/mumei (originally having no inscription). It's possible that he was... too uncaring to mention his circumstance - 大磨上無銘/oosuriagemumei (referred to cases that swords lost their inscription for most parts/completely due to shortening). Also, he got shortened as it was a trend to reduce length of long swords in the cusp of foot soldiers dominating the battlefield in case that the masters still wanted to use them in practical combat.