wakizashi

plural wakizashis

1. A traditional Japanese shortsword, typically 30cm to 60cm (or nearly 12 inches to approx. 23.6 inches) in length, often used as a secondary weapon to a katana.

   Hiro shoves Reason back into the zodiac, jumps in, and starts the motor. He doesn’t have time to untie the boat from the pontoon, so he snaps through the line with his wakizashi and takes off.

   1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 384

   1 more example

   And that was how it went. For five hours. I must have swung a thousand times yet never managed to bring the golem’s health to 0. They had really fast regen. I couldn’t hit fast or hard enough. That changed when Leo showed up. He let me borrow his weapons—a katana and a wakizashi, both made of prismarine. I sliced through that golem like it was butter. Softened butter that had less resistance.

   2020, Cube Kid [pseudonym; Erik Gunnar Taylor], Tales of an 8-Bit Kitten: A Call to Arms, page 61