The (large/great sword) or nodachi (野太刀, field sword) is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword (日本刀, nihontō) used by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The Chinese equivalent of this type of sword in terms of weight and length is the miaodao or the earlier zhanmadao, and the Western battlefield equivalent (though less similar) is the Zweihänder or claymore. To qualify as an ōdachi, the sword in question would have a blade length of around 3 shaku (). However, as with most terms in Japanese sword arts, there is no exact definition of the size of an ōdachi. Etymology The character for ō (大) means "big" or "great". The dachi here is simply the voiced compounding version of the term , the older style of sword that predates the katana. The second character in tachi, , is the Chinese character for "blade" (see also dāo), and is also the same character used to spell katana (刀) and the tō in nihontō (日本刀 "Japanese sword"). The word tachi itself is derived as the stem or noun form of verb . The kanji spelling is an example of jukujikun, applying a semantically based kanji spelling without regard to the usual phonetic values of the characters. History Ōdachi became popular in Kamakura period (1185－1333). Until the middle of the Kamakura period, high-ranking samurai mainly fought on horseback with yumi (bows), but as group battles by foot soldiers increased from the late Kamakura period, the importance of weapons possessed by those who did not have horses and did not have sufficient training in bows increased. Until then, they mainly used naginata with a long handle, but they also started to use ōdachi. The Kamakura period was the first time that samurai ruled Japan, and powerful men were valued, and those who wanted to show off the honor of being a warrior preferred to use ōdachi. In the Nanboku-chō period in the 14th century, huge Japanese swords such as ōdachi were at their peak. The reason for this is thought to be that the conditions for making a practical large-sized sword were established due to the nationwide spread of strong and sharp swords of the Sōshū school. In the case of ōdachi whose blade was 150 cm long, it was impossible to draw a sword from the scabbard on the waist, so people carried it on their back or had their servants carry it.