The exact use of the kodachi is unknown; it may have been a companion sword to normal sized tachi or it may have been a sword for an adolescent. Kodachi appear to have been produced only in a certain time period by specific schools of swordmakers.[1] Because the blade's length does not exceed the limits of the legal blade length available to non-samurai during the Edo period, the kodachi was commercially available to citizens and was commonly carried by travellers, particularly merchants and caravans, for self-defence against highwaymen, bandits and brigands.