Kaiken (dagger)
A kaiken is a long, single or double-edged dagger without ornamental fittings housed in a plain mount.Uses
It was once carried by men and women of the samurai class in Japan. It was useful for self-defense in indoor spaces where the long blade katana and intermediate sword wakizashi were inconvenient. Women carried them in their kimono either in a pocket-like space or in the sleeve pouch for self-defense and for ritual suicide by slashing the veins in the left side of the neck. When a samurai woman married, she was expected to carry a kaiken with her when she moved in with her husband.
In modern Japan, a kaiken is worn as a traditional accessory for formal kimono, such as a furisode, uchikake and a shiromuku, tucked into their obi.Orthography
Due to pronunciation changes over time, the kaiken is now called a kwaiken; this is also referred to as a futokoro-gatana.
