The Katana is a curved, single-edged Japanese sword traditionally used by the samurai. Pronounced [kah-tah-nah] in the kun’yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji, the word has been adopted as a loan word by the English language; as Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both “katanas” and “katana” are considered acceptable plural forms in English.

In battle, katana was typically paired with the wakizashi or tanto, a similarly made but shorter sword. Both were worn by members of the Japanese warrior class. The two weapons together were called the daisho, and represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai.

Katana with long blade was used for open combat, while the wakizashi or tanto with shorter blade was considered a side arm, more suited for stabbing and close quarters combat. Samurai may have used the shorter sword for decapitating beaten opponents when taking heads on the battlefield, and seppuku, a form of ritual suicide.

katana-sword

In Japanese, the scabbard for a katana is referred to as a saya, and the hand guard piece, often intricately designed as an individual work of art, is called the tsuba.

Other aspects of the mountings (koshirae), such as the menuki (decorative grip swells), habaki (blade collar and scabbard wedge), fuchi and kashira (handle collar and cap), kozuka (small utility knife handle), kogai (decorative skewer-like implement), saya lacquer, and ito (professional handle wrap, also named emaki), received similar levels of artistry.

Each blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the smith and the construction method. The most prominent is the middle ridge, or shinogi. The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer, sharper, and more fragile edge – or a more moderate shinogi near the center of the blade.

katana sword making

The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic. The tip can be long (okissaki), medium (chukissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-okissaki). In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important.

The kissaki (point) is not a “chisel-like” point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a “tanto point” found on true Japanese swords. A straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional Japanese kissaki.

Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge – though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.

A hole is drilled into the tang (nakago), called a mekugi-ana. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the tsuka and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping out. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. The sword smith’s signature (mei) is placed on the nakago.

Katana Sword Making

Some marks on the blade are purely aesthetic. Signatures and dedications written in kanji and engravings depicting gods, dragons, or other acceptable beings, called horimono.

Some are more practical. The presence of a “blood groove” or HI (also known as “fuller”) does not actually allow blood to flow more freely from cuts made with the sword. There is no difference in ease of withdrawing a blade from the saya, or a reduction of the sucking sound, which many people believe was the reason for including this feature on commando knives in World War II.

Instead, the purpose is to lighten and strengthen the sword blade. The grooves are consistent in structure to an I beam, lessening the weight of the sword yet keeping structural integrity and strength. The basic design principle is that bending causes more stress in material near the edge or back of the blade than material in the middle, due to leverage. Blood grooves remove material from near this neutral axis, which is closer to the blade’s spine if one edge is sharpened. This yields stiffer blades of a given weight, or lighter blades of a given stiffness.

Furthermore the grooves (always done on both sides of the blade) make a whistling sound when the sword is swung (the tachikaze). If the swordsman hears one whistle when swinging a grooved katana then that means that just one groove is making the whistle. Two whistles means that both the edge of the blade and a groove are making a whistle, and three whistles together (the blade edge and both grooves) would tell the swordsman that his blade is perfectly angled with the direction of the cut.

*PLEASE READ THE VIDEO DESCRIPTION FIRST* This is my very first game walktrough for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. This is not meant as a skill run but to show the levels, as much item chests as possible and give tips on weapons and boss fights. Credits for the bossfight strategies goes to OboroShogun and Zmapper33 of gamefaqs. If there are any chests I’ve missed or if there are strategies for bossfights I haven’t mentioned, let me know and I will add the information (with credits offcourse) to the description. Legend: S = Square T = Triangle OT = Obliteration Technique ET = Ultimate Technique Level 1 UT = Ultimate Technique Level 2 FS = Flying Swallow GT = Guillotine Throw Now to the chapter itself: I don’t like this chapter. The boss is boring and the werewolves are troublesome to fight (hit stun effects are whacked with them). The only redeeming factor for this chapter is that it contains my favorite weapon: Dragon’s Claw & Tiger’s Fang Two large Japanese swords, wielded as a pair. It might seem difficult ot hold one blade in each hand, but these swords have been modified to allow them to be wielded together. The tsuba, or hand guard, of each weapon has holes in it to reduce the weight close to the sword hand. This design, known as Musashi-tsuba, was first proposed by legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. No one knows when the swords were forged, but it is rumored that each blade bears the inscription “Muramasa”. Recommended combo’s: S, S, S, S, S (good crowd control) T, T, T …

Part 2 of the documentary on the Gassan school of smiths. If you are interested in purchasing a sword by Gassan Sadatoshi, Gassan Sadanobu or any current Japanese smiths, please contact us through our site at www.thejapanesesword.com

A documentary on the Gassan school of smiths at their forge in Nara. If you are interested in purchasing a sword by Gassan Sadatoshi or Gassan Sadanobu please contact us through www.thejapanesesword.com

Kendo (剣道, kendō?), meaning “Way of the Sword”, is a modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting based on traditional Japanese swordsmanship, or Kenjutsu. Kendo is a physically and mentally challenging activity that combines strong martial arts values with sport-like physical elements. All members of Imprisoned Butterfly are in this video

The very first blades were a basic variant of the Chinese straight bladed, double edged sword called a jian. The very first precursor to the Japanese katana was seen at around 700AD which were straight swords with a curve at the tang only. Around the tenth century saw Japan cleaving close ties with China and begin developing its own social and class divisions and it was in this time that the palace guards and gentry became the first samurai warriors, and with them developed the first real samurai swords.

The legends of samurai tell of the Emperor’s smith Amakuni who made the first fully curved blade after receiving divine inspiration from the Kami. His sword was praised by the Emperor and the tradition of the curved handmade katanas was born.

The golden period for the authentic samurai swords was between 1192 and 1573 in the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. After the near loss of Japan to the veracious Mongol invaders, the need for a virulent national defence was seen, and so sword smiths were kept very busy. The most famous of Japanese katana smiths was in this period and the legendary Masamune’s swords are still the most prized and exquisite handmade katanas the world has ever known.

It was Masamune who first perfected the art of folding the metal to create the beautiful temper line with crystals imbedded in a pearlite matrix. His remaining blades are considered priceless national heirlooms.

The Japanese samurai swords went into a dark period when the gun was introduced and the skills of the previous generation were almost lost. When this turbulent time in Japanese history was over, the Japanese katana once again rose in the exclusive hands of the privileged samurai class.

With the coming of the west and two world wars, the Japanese katana became a symbol of nationalism, and thousands were roughly produced to equip officers of the army. Since the end of World War II there has been an uptake in interest in the traditional art of samurai swords, and many smiths world wide have tried to reproduce the golden methods of tempering the blade perfected by Masamune. However hard they try, and whatever new methods are devised his still remain the ultimate blades.