Samurai Sword

The popular myth about the creation of the samurai sword goes as follows: According to the history from Yamato Province, Amakuni forged the first Katana in 700 AD. Amakuni, the head sword smith, was employed by the emperor to make swords for the army. Amakuni took great pride in his work so when he saw that half the swords that the army had were broken he took it personally and swore he would make a sword that would not break. He and his son gathered up the swords and studied them and they prayed for seven days to the Shinto gods. After this they gathered sand ore and refined it. For the next thirty days they worked on the new design of the sword. The resulting sword was curved with a single cutting edge compared to the original straight sword. The soldiers thought the new design was ludicrous but after using them in battle they quickly changed their minds since none of the swords were broken.

The actual history took quite a bit longer. Early samurai would fight on horseback, and they're weaponry in addition to samurai swords was bows and arrows. As time progressed the Samurai ended up fighting less from horseback and mostly from the ground. All Samurai wore two swords (daisho). One was a short sword and a longer one for fighting. The short sword was used for close fighting and also suicide. Bushido, "The Way Of The Warrior", is the credo that samurai lived by. Because of Bushido some samurai would commit suicide instead of being captured since they didn't want to lose face and be humiliated by being captured. The swords of the samurai were often named and were considered the "soul" of warriorship.

The long sword (daito - katana) was more than 24 inches long. The short sword (shoto - wakizashi) was between 12 and 24 inches long. Originally the swords were straight and took after the designs from Korea and China, known as chokuto. The samurai needed tougher and sharper swords and that resulted in the curved bladed swords, Tachi, that they use today. The straight swords were replaced at the end of the 8th century.

The hardest part of the samurai sword to make is known as Kissaki. This is the tip of the sword and was hard to polish and forge by hand. Only the most skillful artisans were able to do this. The better the Kissaki the more valuable the sword.

There are three main types of samurai sword. Katana, are the longest of the swords and were used for outdoor combat. Wakizishi, this is shorter and used for indoor combat. Tanto, the smallest knife was also used for indoor combat.

The forging of katana samurai swords peaked during 1190 - 1337. Many of these swords are now national treasures in Japan. Thousands more are traded and collected today. Although not used in battle any longer samurai swords are highly prized possessions.