Shen Does Use Swords People

Shen, as many people have agreed upon, uses Ninjato. Those people, however, fail to realize that Ninjato are JAPANESE SWORDS. The ninjato (忍者刀, ninjatō), also known as ninjaken (忍者剣) or shinobigatana (忍刀), is the most common name for the sword that the ninja of feudal Japan are portrayed to have carried in movies, on television, and in numerous books written by modern ninjutsu practitioners including Masaaki Hatsumi and Stephen K. Hayes.

While I was originally telling this to a family member of mine who plays league, they said that Shen's Ninjato were not long enough to be considered swords. A Ninjato is around 2 feet in length on average, and while it doesn't look that long in game, in his splash art you will see that it is.