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Weapons of the Samurai
SWORDS
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SWORDS
Few swords are as distinctive and famed as the samurai sword. Yet like the samurai, the origins of the katana are obscure. Legend has it that a certain Amakuni invented the katana sometime in the late 7th Century though there is scant historical evidence of the event. Prior to at least the 8th Century, Japanese warriors carried straight-bladed swords imported, at least conceptually, from China. The average length of these swords was between two and four feet, and at least two examples excavated thus far were clearly imported from China. These swords were often doubled-edged, and made first of bronze, then of iron, and were frequently decorated. In fact, the manner of decoration assists archeologists in determining the place of origin for these ancient blades.
The distinctive curved blade of the samurai appeared by the Heian Period, sometime before 1100. The curve is thought to have been developed in tandam with the mounted samurai warrior, to allow for a sweeping stroke from horseback. Additionally, though perhaps as a happy coincidence, the curve allows for a concentration of force during a strike, narrowing the focal point of the blow.
Construction By the 10th Century, the process by which the classic 'samurai sword' was made had largely been developed and would continue to be perfected for about another four hundred years, although the 'classic' period of sword smithing is often said to have been between the 12th and 14th Centuries. While it is perhaps beyond the scope of this brief overview to delve too deeply into the act of sword crafting, some generalities may be of interest. To begin with, the occupation of sword smith tended to be hereditary, passing from father to son, and often involving closely guarded production techniques. The importance of the swordsmith's job may be gleaned from the fame accorded to the masters of the profession: Masamune, Muramasa, Yoshimitsu, ect... The creation of a blade often carried religious connotations borne out in the observance of Shinto rites of purification and the like, to include, occasionally, the wearing of white during the task. The sword smith, once thus readied, would select the metal to be used and commence forging. A reasonably common technique is as follows...
1) Iron and steel of good quality was obtained, though little regarding this area of early swordsmithing has come down to us. Later sword smiths smelted the metal for four days, and then beat the raw iron into strips.
2) A strip of steel was welded to a stick of iron, followed by enough steel strips to provide the sword with its required dimensions. This would form the 'soft' exterior of the blade.
3) The blade was split down the middle, then folded and re-welded.
4) 2 was repeated, interrupted by immersions into water (the exact tempature of the water tended to be a trade secret), an extraordinary number of times. In theory, this could result in a blade composed of over four to ten MILLION layers of metal.
5) The above was repeated for what would form the hard exterior of the blade.
6) The hard and soft pieces were combined to form the finished sword blade, with the blade itself being 'soft' and surrounded by the harder grade metal. The techniques for this varied, with the sammai type involving a plate of steel being sandwiched between plates of iron. Another design called for the soft plate to be set into the hard, with the hard plate then folded over the soft. At any rate, this was the secret of the samurai sword. The hard and soft combination allowed for a weapon that was not too hard and thus brittle, nor too soft and thus weak.
7) The blade was tempered. The sword was encased in clay, which was then removed from the actual blade. The sword was heated, and then quenched in water, with the sword smith's primary goal being a uniform hardening of the blade. When this difficult process had been completed, he removed the remainder of the clay covering, which might reveal a pattern of waves up the length of the blade. This is one of the trademarks of the Japanese blade, and was occasionally used by the smith to add a personal touch to his project.
7) The blade was then filed down and ground on a certain stone called the toishi for as many as fifty days. The swordsmith then added finishing touches, which might include his signature. (A number of amusing annecdotes survive over lesser swordsmiths attempting to forge the name of their mentor or another great swordsmith.)
9) At this point, the sword was sent to a polisher, who would perform the lengthy task of putting a shine to the sword. According to the 16th Century observer Bernadino de Avila Giron, these men were held in high regard.
10) The sword would then be sharpened.
11) The sword would finally be tested, a function occasionally carried out on dead bodies or condemned criminals. In the first case (the more common of the two), the task would be fulfilled by a 'barakunin', as it required, at least in concept, contact with the dead. Less bloodthirsty owners might only require that the sword be put through its paces on constructs of bamboo. This last was probably the norm when it came to swords destined for the 'general' population, as opposed to a particular owner.
12) If everything checked out, the sword was fitted with its hilt, guard, scabard, ect...
USE For much of the history of samurai warfare, the sword was relegated-at least in practice-to a secondary role, eclipsed first by the bow and later the spear. That the sword was an important part of a samurai's kit cannot be disputed; Tokugawa Ieyasu is recorded as describing the sword as the soul of the samurai. At the same time, Asakura Toshikage cautioned his successors against seeking out priceless swords, as 'even a sword worth 1000 gold can be easily defeated by a hundred spears worth 10 gold." On the other hand, the famous foreign observer Francis Xavier noted of the Japanese, "They greatly prize and value their arms, and prefer to have good weapons, decorated with gold and silver, more than anything else in the world."1 Nonetheless, the art of swordsmanship was integral to the Japanese warrior ethic, and the wandering swordsman, while very much popularized by modern films and novels, became a staple during the later Sengoku Period. The practice of swordsmanship seems to have become such a craze during the early Edo Period that even Miyamoto Musashi himself made a disparaging remark on the matter in his work, the Book of Five Rings: 'The field of martial arts is particularly rife with flamboyant swordsmanship, with commercial popularization and profiteering on the part of both those who teach the science and those who study it. The result of this must be, as someone said, that 'amateuristic martial arts are a source of serious wounds."'2 The study of swordsmanship was nonetheless a link to a gradually fading martial past, and allowed the Edo Period samurai an opportunity to distinguish themselves in a manner apart from their day-to-day humdrum existence. Yet even this was subject to the reality of Tokugawa feudalism: many samurai, despite their privileged position in society, fought an endless war with poverty. To the great chagrin, no doubt, of the peacetime theorists who produced most of the primary writings on 'Bushido', many samurai were even reduced to selling their swords. Risking censure for this act, they would either glue a sword handle to a scabbard or construct a replacement blade out of tinfoil.
The manner in which the katana was employed differed greatly from Western conventions. Ideally, the sword drawn in anger needed only to be used once - in a sweeping and decisive deathblow. The remarkable sharpness of the blade allowed for the possibility of a dramatic result: stories abound of men cut cleanly in two with one stroke, the sword leaving the scabbard only long enough to do its bloody work before returning back to rest. Yet this sort of vicious attack, while a staple of modern movies and 'anime', was necessarily rare. Most Sengoku daimyo house codes included stiff penalties for weapons drawn in anger, to say nothing of their Edo Period equivalents (see here for one example). Of course, this did not at all preclude the existence of the 'wandering swordsmen' mentioned above, though it does dampen the image of the 'sword-happy' samurai, ready to cut down a man at the slightest insult. In fact, it was considered poor form to kill 'even' a commoner unless the doomed man in question had acquitted himself quite badly. Generally speaking, a blanket rule applied: a man who wounds another will be himself wounded - that is, killed. Particularly outrageous actions with a weapon could even incur the demise of the guilty party's family as well. This seeming contradiction - the maintenance of order versus the warrior ethic - plagued justices throughout the Edo Period, and provides us with the stirring tale of the 47 Ronin.
The samurai sword survived the demise of the samurai themselves at the end of Edo Period and endured a symbol of Japan's martial heritage, being worn proudly by the officers of Japan' military forces until the end of World War II. It is perhaps therefore telling that today the construction of the legendary katana is closely regulated in Japan, in a final muting, perhaps, of the spirit of the samurai it represented.
Variations. The primary forms the Japanese sword took included the katana and tachi (virtually indistinguishable to the untrained eye), the wakazashi (short sword), and the no-dachi (great sword). The katana/tachi and wakizashi formed the daisho, or two swords of the samurai, with the wakizashi being frequently issued to the common soldiery as a defensive weapon. The wakizashi was otherwise a bit adrift when it came to a practical purpose. It was not favored for combat, suicide, or executions, and was largely a symbolic item (or a weapon of last resort). Samurai visiting someone's house, for instance, would often be permited to retain his wakizashi even as he left his katana at the door - therefore symbolizing that a samurai was never without his sword. When it was used in anger, however, a stabbing motion was preferred (as opposed to the sweep of the katana). One might think of the wakizashi as the samurai's side arm, a secondary weapon and somewhat symbolic.
The no-dachi was something of an oddity. Often approaching four feet in length and worn slung over the back, this impressive if unwieldy weapon began appearing in the early Muromachi Period. Ashikaga Takauji, for example, is recorded as owning a no-dachi. The history of the use of this weapon is hard to determine, but an interesting annecdote survives regarding the Korean Campaigns of 1592-93 and 1597-98. In that overseas adventure, samurai are recorded as bringing no-dachi with them into battle solely to intimidate the Korean soldiery. That the no-dachi must have been an intimidating weapon is without question, and this may have been half the strength of the weapon.
1. Cooper They Came to Japan pg. 41
2. Miyamoto The Book of Five Rings pg. 8
Sources
Bottemly, I. and Anthony Hopson Arms and Armor of the Samurai Crescent 1988
Bryant, Anthony Early Samurai 200 - 1500ad Osprey 1991
Ratti and Westbrook Secrets of the Samurai Castle 1999
Yamamoto Tsunetomo Hagakure Kodansha 1983
