Why so fascinating?

A Time to explain why this craft, the craft of the Japanese sword, is not just the appreciation of a weapon. Indeed it is a weapon and one that for over a thousand years has been refined to the point where it is generally agreed to be the supreme art and craft of the Japanese. 

This adventure started when one Christmas my wife bought one for me, the thing was at the time a curio, something to hang above the fire and forget after a few years. When cleaning it I found that the Hilt (Tsuka) came off, on the metal tang (Nakago) was inscribed several characters of course in Japanese. 

At the local Library I could find nothing that helped enlighten me so off to the city museum where I knew some Japanese art existed and was sure someone would step forward and translate the inscription, wrong again. When I finally met the curator he did not seem a little interested in my problem and referred me to a man who over the next decade showed patience and amusement at this man who had just stumbled onto what he knew was not only the most fascinating of arts and crafts field, but almost certainly along with Chinese, the most complex and difficult to understand. 

The language to a 'Gigen' (Foreigner) is a wonder. How do the Japanese children learn the alphabet or the calligraphy?. Every character has several meanings, combine two characters and yet another is formed. Early on it was obvious that the archaic language/script used with Nihont (Japanese swords) was again a different language to that used by today's man in the street. Growing suspicion that this was a worthy hill of knowledge to climb, dawned on me. 

Twenty plus years of study, dozens of books and semi intellectual debates with others in the field, have drawn me to the conclusion that this subject is so vast, so complex, that we in the west settle for degrees of knowledge and with few exceptions, will never achieve great expertise. In fact, in tranquil moments I wonder how many Japanese understand this centuries old craft. 

Without going into the production, myth and legend of the weapon (although I could given the slightest encouragement) let me show you one aspect that show how just one part of a weapon (less than a quarter of it in some cases) tells the man who made it, where he was, the date, what rank he was and how he drew the inspiration for the particular blade that he had made that day. 

The Oshigata (Rubbing's) attached read as follows....... "Teishitsu Gigei-in Gassan Sadakazu Saku (with Kao-personal seal) Etchu Kuni go Fukuyama no ju Norishige sha" and is dated on the Nakago mune (Ridge of the tang) "Taisho Gen en Hachi Gatsu Kichi Jitsu" This translates as, "Made by Gassan Sadakazu, Imperial arts and crafts expert in August 1912, as a copy of the work of Norishige of Go Fukuyama Province. 

Now this tells us that this man was not just a blacksmith, the Imperial arts and crafts expert section elevates the man to the position that would now be described as 'Living national treasure'.  By the date this was made, carrying swords had been banned by the Emperor, manufacture of these weapons was by few highly skilled men for connoisseur collectors who wanted an example of the work of famous earlier smiths. Norishige, whose work he copied in this example, had been dead for several hundreds of years. Born in 1876, Sadakazu made this in 1912, six years before he died, or did he? 

Japanese have strange ways of acceptance, this was almost certainly made 'Diasaku' e.g. made by his pupil/adopted son, Gassan Sadakatsu. A common event for a pupil to be allowed to make a blade and sign his tutors name, the interesting thing is that with this full knowledge of who manufactured it. It was considered and accepted as the work of the Master and not the pupil. 

Thousands of books and millions of words have been written on the subject of the construction of these weapons, so, as I am sure you will be relieved to read, I am not going down that route unless by demand.  

For our purpose it is sufficient to say that this is not just a weapon of death. Centuries of skill, dedication and testing produced the finest metal working piece known to man. It has with it a group of people who by western standards of today were cruel and arrogant, wrote eloquent poetry before committing suicide, had a loyalty to their code of conduct and to their Lord, seldom - if ever - seen in other countries. Were educated in the arts and thought little of personal danger in the defence of their realm. OK shut up ...

Greyman