So What Exactly is Shirasaya? There are two types of Japanese sword mountings: the koshirae, also called uchigatana, and shirasaya. The uchigatana koshirae is equipped with a tsuba, a cord-wrapped handle, and a painted or lacquered scabbard. The shirasaya, which...

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A treasure house of swords for actual warfare that are robust and boast outstanding sharpness Mino-den is the most recent of the Gokaden. It originated in the mid Kamakura period (1185-1333) and flourished from the Muromachi period (1333-1568) to the...

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A group of swordsmiths who produced the famous sword, Masamune Soshu refers to the Sagami Province, which is now current Kanagawa Prefecture. Sagami Province flourished as the center of the Kanto Region until the Warring States Period, when Minamoto no...

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High-quality iron sand produces numerous great swords There were master swordsmiths all over Japan, even outside of the Yamato and Yamashiro regions, but Bizen (present-day Okayama Prefecture) was the place that produced the greatest number of excellent swordsmiths. The term...

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