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Your sword is correctly called a wakizashi, the shorter of the two swords - Dai-Sho - worn by a Samurai. The long blade is called a Katana. The very short dagger is called a tanto, often carried concealed, is usually used as a means close defence or suicide.
Japanese swords are genuine minefield to find out about. Before we go any further, can I ask you, no, make that BEG you, DO NOT TRY AND CLEAN IT UP - ANYWHERE - BUT ESPECIALLY ON THE TANG WHERE THE LETTERING IS LOCATED.
Doing so and THEN finding out that your blade is a historically significant item can take, not hundreds, but thousands, even tens of thousands from the value.
When living in Tokyo, my boss and I used to visit the national collection every year, just to see what had turned up meanbetimes. One exhibit was a 'cleaned-up' blade that had been returned to Japan after having been surrendered in 1945. The then-owner had taken a wire brush to the rust on the tang, not realising that to a collector, the rust is as much part of the history as the name. The blade, in untouched state, might have fetched a quarter of a million dollars. It had been reduced to around fifty thousand by applying a wire brush for less than two minutes.
This example seems to have a good polish and therefore eminently sellable - if necessary. Having to have a polish carried out, even on a shorter blade like this one, can be a matter of a thousand dollars or more, even in the US where there are a goodly number of these skilled artisans.
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