Washing Pole

The Washing Pole is a katana in Dark Souls.

Availability
Shiva of the East sells Washing Poles in Blighttown for 20,000 souls. Players must be in the Forest Hunter Covenant to access him.

Characteristics
Washing Poles require 20 Strength and 16 Dexterity to wield. They deal identical damage to Uchigatanas initially, but possess greater reach. Washing Poles do not scale as well with Dexterity as Uchigatanas, however this drawback is somewhat compensated by their additional scaling with Strength.

Due to their unique look and long reach, Washing Poles are very popular in PvP. In particular, the Washing Pole's rolling attack can be very hard to dodge due to its speed and large hitbox.

The Washing Pole is slightly slower than other katanas.

Upgrades
Standard= Requires: Washing Pole, 200 Souls and Titanite

Crystal= Requires: Washing Pole +10, 200 Souls and Titanite

Raw= Requires: Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Lightning= Requires: Washing Pole +10, 200 Souls and Titanite

Magic= Requires: Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Enchanted= Requires: Magic Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Divine= Requires: Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Occult= Requires: Divine Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Fire= Requires: Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Chaos= Requires: Fire Washing Pole +5, 200 Souls and Titanite

Trivia
There is no such weapon termed "washing pole" in real life; however, in the manga "Yaiba", the titular character uses a very long sword he dubs a "washing pole". Inspiration for the Washing Pole may have came from the Chinese Song-era weapon "Zan Ma Dao" (literally translating to "Horse disembowelment blade") which in turn became popular in Japanese fiction. Like the Washing Pole, the Zan Ma Dao features an extremely long blade and handle (being over one and a half meters long in total), useful for its reach but in reality also very unwieldy.

More than likely, the sword's name is a reference to the famous Japanese Swordsman Sasaki Kojirō, who became famous for his rivalry against Miyamoto Musashi. Sasaki Kojirō used a no-datchi (Samurai equivalent of a Bastard Sword) that had been specifically rebalanced so that it could be wielded in one hand, and the traditionally long hilt was shortened to that of a normal katana. The sword was named "The Drying Pole", due to its long length yet incredibly light weight.