Ken - The Sword
It was said the sword is the soul of the samurai. Certainly many Samurai swords today are
judged to be some of Japans "National Treasures" which is an indication of the importance
they hold to the Japanese nation. Also, if you search the Internet or on-line auction sites
etc, you will see that swords in general and Samurai swords especially, have an inspirational
hold over many people even today. From the time-consuming construction of the blade - a work
of art in it's own right, to the fittings (Koshirae "furniture") that hold it, the katana
is a functional work of art with the power of life or death and holds a special place in
many peoples hearts and minds.
Sword Engineering
The Samurai sword has its origins from the swords of China, however the Japanese swordsmiths
evolved techniques to improve this standard weapon of war. One of the critical aspects of
this was the differentially hardening techniques that wraps a softer, more flexible metal,
inside a core of harder metal that allowed an incredibly sharp edge to be held. Thus the
combination of soft and hard yielded a revolutionary weapon of war.
The "trademark" curve (or sori) of the samurai sword was actually a mistake - a by-product
of the new metal forging technique of differential hardening and caused the blade to curve up in
order to relieve some of the stresses. It was subsequently found that drawing a curved sword while
on a horse, was a lot easier than drawing a straight sword, so instead of trying to correct
the "problem" it became a feature of Japanese swords from that point on.
Types of Sword
Commonly referred to as the Katana, there is actually quite a progression of different samurai
sword types. The most commonly referred to are the Katana (daito = long sword), and
Wakazashi (shoto = short sword but also called companion sword), which, when worn
together are called daisho. The Katana is worn edge up in a plain scabbard thrust through
the obi (belt).
Another similar sword is the Tachi which has a scabbard designed to be slung from the obi
and as such is worn edge down/curve up. Actually a Tachi sword blad can be a katana if the blade is
remounted in the koshirae that allows it to be worn edge up.
The other most common sword type is the Tanto. The Tanto is shortest sword - shorter than
the wakizashi, and possibly for many people not so much a "sword" as a "knife". For those who have
seen the sets of 3 "japanese swords" commonly sold today, the tanto is the shortest of the three.
The Tanto was the sword for committing seppuku, but it was not used as a "pocketknife" -
the samurai also had a utility knife kozuka that was carried in the sword scabbard with the
handle projecting through the swords tsuba (did you wonder why the tsuba has a hole in one (or
both) side of it?). [For those who are still wondering about these holes, there was also a
kogai which was either a hair arranging tool or split such it could also be used as a
pair of chopsticks. See the link below for more details.].
