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Just read this on Wikipedia and I thought it was interesting. I don't know if the difference in how his sword is makes him either very old, very strong or a royal gaurd... check it out.
The name of Isshin's zanpakutō has not yet been revealed. Isshin has only used it once as an example of how every captain-level shinigami must compress the sizes of their zanpakutō, as they would otherwise be swinging swords the size of skyscrapers, when he spoke to Grand Fisher.[5] He also implies that he has abilities on-par to that of a Captain-level shinigami. It is also worn with the edge down like a tachi, instead of the edge up like a katana. The end of the hilt has a tassel similar to Ichigo's original zanpakutō.
The tachi (太刀:たち, tachi?) is a Japanese sword, often said to be more curved and slightly longer than the katana. However Gilbertson, Oscar Ratti, and Adele Westbrook state that a sword is called a tachi when hung from the obi (belt or sash) with the edge down, and the same sword becomes a katana when worn edge up thrust through the girdle.[citation needed] The "tachi" style was eventually discarded in favor of the katana. The daitō (long swords) that pre-date the katana average about 78cm in blade length; larger than the katana average of around 70cm. As opposed to the traditional manner of wearing the katana, the tachi was worn hung from the belt with the cutting-edge down, and usually used by cavalry. Deviations from the average length of tachi have the prefixes ko- for "short" and ō- for "great" attached. For instance, tachi that were shōtō and closer in size to a wakizashi were called kodachi. The longest tachi (considered a 15th century ōdachi) in existence is more than 3.7 meters in total length (2.2m blade) but believed to be ceremonial. During the year 1600, many old tachi were cut down into katana. The majority of surviving tachi blades now are o-suriage, so it is rare to see an original signed ubu tachi.[citation needed]
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