You have decided you want a genuine Japanese sword. You have read about NBTHK certification, antique versus modern, periods and schools — and now you have a number in mind for what you are willing to spend. The question that...

Read more...

In the Shogoin district of Kyoto — a neighbourhood where temple bells and the sounds of daily life have coexisted for centuries — there is a space unlike any other in Japan's sword world. Gallery Tozando does not display relics....

Read more...

The Japanese sword did not become a historical artifact when the samurai era ended in 1876. It continued — transformed in form, deepened in philosophical purpose — into a set of living disciplines practised by millions of people around the...

Read more...

A Japanese sword is not manufactured. It is created — through a sequence of processes that takes months from start to finish, involves the hands of multiple specialist craftspeople, and has not fundamentally changed in over a thousand years. Understanding...

Read more...