Copyright � 2026 by Shane
Tourtellotte
It’s a dangerous world, in most places and most times. Modernity has provided some insulation from that, but you’re going to be moving out of that comfort zone. You will be a very long distance from what you’d consider help, exposed to humans’ greatest predator: other humans.
I’ve already talked about how you can defend yourself reliably in a way that hopefully will not expose you as a time-traveler. There’s something even better than self-defense, though: deterrence. A predator doesn’t want to work too hard for its dinner, literal or figurative, and won’t go out of its way for a challenge. In short, if you don’t want the avid attention of predators, don’t look like prey.
Through a great swath of history, this means being armed, and being seen as being armed. You don’t want to use that display weapon, of course, and you also don’t want that display sending the message that you’re looking for a fight. Some people, a distinct type from predators, will too gladly give you that fight.
I have some pointers in finding that ideal (I won’t say safe, but hopefully safer) middle zone. Of our accustomed three example eras, Sengoku Japan provides the widest-reaching lessons in what you may need to consider1.
Going armed in so dangerous a time and place is only good sense, but you don’t want to go too armed. A single one-handed sword should suffice for general purposes, and it needn’t be too large. Indeed, if it is too large, or if you are carrying two swords, you would be encroaching on the privileges of the samurai2.
Samurai defend their perquisites jealously and zealously. Parading about with equipment they consider it their privilege to carry pricks at their honor; permitting it in their sight could involve loss of face. It invites a confrontation, which is exactly what you’re trying to avoid. Yes, you can legally wear a big sword, or two swords, but you shouldn’t. Keep beneath their notice. Less is more.
This means you’d probably be carrying a tachi, technically a long sword but shorter than the samurai’s standard katana. You will be wearing it hung from the waist, edge-down. A katana is worn through the sash (obi) on the left side, and edge-up. Higher-ranked people will wear it close to horizontal, establishing wide personal space3. If you’re wearing a katana, keep it paralleling your leg, unless you’re impersonating someone of high status -- which sounds awfully dangerous to me.
There are several threatening gestures you will want to recognize, and avoid. Reaching across one’s body to grasp the sword hilt is an obvious one. Pulling the scabbard forward, partway out of the sash, is another, as is gripping the scabbard and pushing the sword’s guard forward with the thumb. These gestures directed toward you could be bluffs, but it would mean a loss of face if he backs down after being challenged, so don’t count on it too much.
Even if your right to carry the sword is not questioned, you won’t be able to carry it everywhere. One checks one’s sword when entering a private home or an estate. If doing so to a social equal or superior, hand the sheathed sword over with two hands, one at the hilt and one at the foot of the scabbard. The blade will face you, and the hilt will be at the recipient’s right hand, so he could grasp and use it immediately: this demonstrates your trust of him. If handing the sword over to a social inferior, you’d pass it over with one hand under the middle of the scabbard.
In the latter Sengoku era, guns will be trickling into Japan from the West. Carrying one will bring the big advantage that you’re likelier to defend yourself successfully if you need to use the display weapon in a fight. It also brings the big disadvantage that you’re likelier to need to fight. Firearms were widely considered cowardly, especially by the samurai whose sword skills would be negated by stand-off lethality. They may be inclined to start something with you, which I reiterate you’re trying to avoid. Better to have your secret non-lethal weapons do your fighting if you need to.
Finally, be aware that, late in the era, even swords may be denied you. Oda Nobunaga, a leading warlord of the time, conducted a weapons confiscation in his lands in 1576. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, did likewise in what was called the Sword Hunt in 15884. Finally, Tokugawa Ieyasu would all but eliminate firearms possession, to restore the honor of the samurai’s sword-wielding privilege.
Elizabethan England won’t be as severe with its weapons restrictions, but it still has some. A 1562 sumptuary law forbade swords with blades longer than 40.5 inches, on pain of forfeiture, fine, and imprisonment. London had officials who checked the length of any sword brought into the city. If you were carrying too much, they would hack off the excess. It beats being slashed open by a samurai, but you should still avoid it.
Your sword will be hung on your belt, called a “girdle” in that era. The girdle was used to carry various possessions, such as the belt-purse holding your money. The girdle was thin, buckled in front, and had several hooks for hanging.
The sword your girdle carries will probably be a rapier, increasingly in fashion through the Elizabethan era5. It was about a yard long, coming in under the statutory limit, and weighted two and a half to three pounds. It was longer, thinner, and a bit lighter than the English sword it was displacing. It also had a sharper point, to make it a thrusting as well as a cutting weapon. It was popular for fencing, which wasn’t meant to be hazardous, as well as regular sword-fights, which were.
Your girdle might also carry a fighting dagger. This could be an ornate status symbol for gentlemen, but was also a practical weapon. It was often used in tandem with the rapier, defensively to parry your opponent’s thrust, but also to add little jabs and slashes of its own. It did, though, fall under that same sumptuary law: the blade could not exceed twelve inches.
Much as these are meant as deterrent weapons, know that you might need to use them. Japan of the same era was an honor culture, but England may be more so. Thin skins and poor self-control abound, not only among warriors but in every class. Fights and brawls break out with regularity, if not predictability. Be very wary about impugning a man’s honesty, courage, etc., if you are not very confident in your fighting ability. People will take offense, and risk their lives -- and yours -- to defend their honor6.
This means, whatever your intent, you may want to have some idea how to handle a sword before traveling back. You might suggest taking a fight you’re challenged to somewhere quiet, intending to introduce your assailant there to Master Taser, but hot blood or curious onlookers who enjoy a good fight might preclude this tactic. The ideal strategy is probably polishing your manners, but it’s always wise to have backup.
In 16th century Japan and England, respectable people could go about armed. Not so in ancient Rome. You didn’t openly carry weapons there, and especially not within the city of Rome itself. Inside the pomerium -- the legal and religious boundary of the city -- carrying weapons was banned.
It was so banned, in fact, that authorities kept banning it. An 81 BC law passed under the dictator Sulla banned weapons carried with the intent of homicide or robbery. Pompey barred the carrying of weapons within the city by private individuals in 52 BC, after he had led his own army into the city. Emperor Augustus permitted weapons in Rome to his Praetorian Guard and urban cohorts, as well as police and fire brigades. He barred the carrying of weapons during assemblies and legal proceedings, and later restricted the wider carrying of weapons to those hunting or traveling, who in both cases obviously needed to defend themselves.
The periodic reiteration of weapons bans tells you how people were ignoring them. The political instability of the dying Republic made Rome a dangerous place, and the hinterland had its more prosaic hazards as well as spillover from Rome.
This doesn’t mean you can brandish weapons with impunity or social tolerance. People unfamiliar to an area -- and that’s you -- are an obvious first target for selective enforcement of whatever laws pertain. If you want or need visible deterrence, think of hiring a bodyguard from the ranks of sword-fighters. They won’t have to display swords: they themselves will be display enough. If you want greater assurance of personal safety, be sure to have one of your period-inappropriate non-lethal weapons in easy reach.
If you’re masquerading as a man of status, the good news is that your toga provides ample room to hide a couple weapons. The bad news is that the toga is one of the most unwieldy garments for fighting ever devised. Remember how many toga-clad Senators attacked Julius Caesar. Only one of them could land a killing stroke. Posing as someone less affluent may be safer. The decision is yours.
Footnotes:
To remind you, women will not be able to carry weapons without notice and severe disapproval in England and Rome, and in Japan only in very limited circumstances, which an earlier section covered.
Those privileges would only be codified in the 17th century, during the rule of Tokugawa Ieyasu, but he was codifying tradition that was already solidifying in the latter 16th century. The letter of a yet-unwritten law won’t protect you from an offended samurai.
Touching a swordsman’s scabbard is an insult, tantamount to challenging him to a duel. I don’t care if his arrogance is insufferable: suffer it and keep clear.
He also confiscated commoners’ guns, so that isn’t a loophole for you.
Its origin was Italian, and anything Italian was all the rage. That’s probably why Shakespeare used it as the setting for several of his plays.
This, ahem, cavalier attitude carried over to the American antebellum South.
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