What is Koshirae? Japanese swords can be roughly divided into two types: Tachi and Uchi-gatana. Aikuchi Koshirae This is a type of sword without a tsuba and is made so that the mouth of the saya and the fuchigane of...
What is Yasurime? Yasurime is a rasp applied to the hiraji and shinogiji of a sword's tang to prevent it from slipping off the tsuka handle. Ancient swords had marks that looked as if they had been simply hammered out,...
Presently it is generally accepted that social status during the Edo period was not completely fixed. A generation earlier, we learned in school that there was a hierarchical system called shi-no-ko-sho (Samurai-Peasant-Artisan-Merchant). But this is now rejected and the word...
In the modern era, people will tend to eat three main meals a day; being strongly advised not to skip breakfast. In Japan, three meals a day had become the norm by the Meiji Era (1868-1912), however, in Sengoku Japan,...
What is Hamon? Even those seeing a Japanese sword for the first time are captivated by the vividness of the hamon (blade pattern). The hamon refers to the part that is tempered with extra heat, so it is actual proof...