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.

Samurai Creed

I have no parents; I make the Heavens and the Earth my parents.
I have no home; I make the Tan T’ien my home.
I have no divine power; I make honesty my Divine Power.
I have no means; I make Docility my means.
I have no magic power; I make personality my Magic Power.
I have neither life nor death; I make A Um my Life and Death.

Samurai Bushido Creed

I have no body; I make Stoicism my Body.
I have no eyes; I make The Flash of Lightning my eyes.
I have no ears; I make Sensibility my Ears.
I have no limbs; I make Promptitude my Limbs.
I have no laws; I make Self-Protection my Laws.

I have no strategy; I make the Right to Kill and the Right to Restore Life my Strategy.
I have no designs; I make Seizing the Opportunity by the Forelock my Designs.
I have no miracles; I make Righteous Laws my Miracle.
I have no principles; I make Adaptability to all circumstances my Principle.
I have no tactics; I make Emptiness and Fullness my Tactics.

I have no talent; I make Ready Wit my Talent.
I have no friends; I make my Mind my Friend.
I have no enemy; I make Incautiousness my Enemy.
I have no armour; I make Benevolence my Armour.
I have no castle; I make Immovable Mind my Castle.
I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword.

Japanese samurai swords, called katana swords are the stuff of legends. While students will first be taught with a boken or wooden mock sword they will eventually progress to a ‘live’ blade if they persist in the art. Celebrities such as Steven Seagal, who trained in Japan with Aikido master Morihei Ueshiba has brought samurai warriors and legends of samurai to the popular mind in the same way that Bruce Lee and Jacky Chan have done with Chinese Kung Fu.

The image of the modern samurai has been popularised in many a Hollywood film with one of the most epic modern tales ‘Star Wars’ using kendo practitioners to enact the light saber battles. There have also been the ancient samurai heralded in recent films like ‘The Last Samurai’. Manga cartoons are one of the biggest exporters of the samurai legends and the Japanese popular culture that has sprung up around them, both in Japan and in the rest of the world is testament to their lingering appeal.

Today there is also a booming industry for katana swords, with some handmade katanas fetching thousands of dollars to dedicated collectors or practitioners.
Most martial arts equipment stores will sell a version of the katana blade, whether a live blade or a boken, and there are many cheaply produced blades available for purchase in almost every country. The prized handmade katanas are rarer, and usually for sale to an exclusive clientele at auction or through dedicated sellers either online or by order.

Whilst the true art of the finest blade swords has been lost in history, many swordsmiths today are trying to regain the lost knowledge in order to make real samurai swords like those of legendary swordsmith Masamune.

The art of samurai sword making is also being evolved by some smiths, who have incorporated modern technologies into the process. Swordsmiths like Howard Clark have produced fine quality blades that are in such demand he stopped taking order in 2003.

So whilst the real Japanese samurai have long since vanished, we can see their enduring ghosts in the ever present fascination with their weapons and way of life, and their reincarnation in popular films, television and fiction.

According to historical chronicles, that was the sound of Japan during much of the five hundred years from 1100 to 1600, a period whose essence can be captured in the single Japanese word arasoi, “strife. ”

It was a period of almost continual warfare between powerful clans (uji) and warrior families (buke); a time of desperate marches, pitched battles and long campaigns. It was an era which saw the roads frequently clogged with columns of troops, at times stretching miles in length—the
generals (taisho) and captains (sho) and behind them the mounted and walking warriors. Among them were the archers, masters of the longbow; and the swordsmen whose long-sword even today is considered the finest fighting blade ever produced by man. With them were the spearmen, the specialists in the halberd, and the experts in the many other weapons of war. These were the most complete fighters ever to walk the earth, the supreme warriors, the stern, quiet men who in years to come would be known by the one word which has become synonymous with martial expertness—samurai.

Before the sword became so closely identified with the samurai, the bow was his principal weapon. The most renowned archers belonged to the immensely powerful Minamoto clan. It was said that Yoshiie of the Minamoto (1041-1108) “shot arrows from horseback like a god… He galloped like the wind. ” Tametomo* Minamoto was such a strong archer that, attacked by two men in battle and finding himself with but one arrow remaining, he shot it completely through the first man and into the second.

To dissuade the Japanese warrior families from military incursions into their country, Korean emissaries brought one of their famous iron war shields to the court of Japanese Emperor Nintoku. A samurai bowman named Tatebito respectfully asked if he might test the invincible shield. He pierced it with his first arrow.

Power is important, but accuracy matters too. A valuable bird belonging to the shogun Yoritsune escaped from its cage. A bowman quickly fired an arrow which gently grazed the bird, bringing it fluttering to earth without even one damaged feather.
Mongol invaders who twice returned home after being repelled by armies of samurai recited tales of the wonderful warriors who “struck like bolts of lightning. ” A Chinese historian who witnessed a battle recorded that the samurai brandished their swords with such miraculous speed that all that could be seen was a “blur of white steel. ”

The samurai were members of the Japanese professional warrior class, whose history spanned the thousand years between the ninth and nineteenth century and which ruled Japan during much of that time.

* In Fighting to Win, Japanese names are given in their Western form—first name first, then the family name.
service of the illustrious families of Japanese history, including the Fujiwara, Taira, Minamoto, Hojo, Ashikaga and Tokugawa.
Of the samurai generals, five stood above the rest. Masashige Kusu-noki was the most revered samurai in Japanese history, a national hero whose name even today is synonymous with unswerving loyalty and bravery. Nobunaga Oda was a sixteenth-century samurai whose motto was “all the country under military control. ” He used his samurai forces to unify Japan militarily. Yoshitsune Minamoto was a brilliant twelfth-century general and master swordsman whose tactic of surprise attack helped to defeat the forces of the powerful Taira clan. Yoshitsune’s retainer, Benkei, is renowned for his skill not with the sword or the bow but with the naginata, the curved blade on a pole, or halberd, which was popular among many samurai of the time. So confident was Benkei of his skill that he wrote a battlefield lament ending,

“Oh how I long For a foe worthy of my hand. ”

The greatest rags-to-riches story in the annals of Japanese history is that of Hideyoshi Toyotomi, a peasant who became a samurai under Nobunaga, eventually commanded an army of two hundred thousand men and became the beneficent ruler of Japan in 1582. The crafty leyasu Tokugawa (Toranaga in the novel Shogun) was the fifth great samurai general. Ieyasu was a ruthless warrior whose decisive victory in 1600 at the battle of Sekigahara, in which two hundred and thirty thou-sand men crossed swords, put a permanent end to the large-scale warring among the clans.
The lowest-ranking member of the samurai class was the ashigaru, or “foot soldier. ” Like all samurai, the ashigaru was entitled to wear the daisho, or “two swords”—the long sword and the short sword—but he was denied many of the privileges of the higher-ranking and more skilled samurai—the bushi.

When we think of samurai, it is the bushi we have in mind—the elite fighters who devoted themselves to refining warfare to its highest level, the level of art. Of the bushi, the most highly developed warriors, the elite of the elite, were the meijin, the masters.
The role of the samurai warrior was to fight—with supreme self-confidence, courage, bravery and superb skill with weapons. He pledged himself to the service of a warrior chieftain (bushi no toryo) or lord, daimyo,
who held power in his local province. Since the Japanese extended families of feudal times tended to be located together in the same geographical area, the local chieftain was likely to be related to the bushi by blood or marriage, although this was not always the case.
The bonds of allegiance between the bushi and his lord were to be lifelong. These bonds were held together by mutual respect and were cemented by a demanding code of personal behavior which became known as bushido. For centuries, bushido was a set of unwritten rules of conduct impressed on the samurai in his training. It was put into writing by Soko Yamaga (1622-85), a samurai teacher of the military arts and a scholar as well, in his essay “Shido. ”

In addition to Yamaga’s essay, another famous expression of bushido is Hagakure, a book that is cited in Fighting to Win. Hagakure literally means “hidden in leaves, ” denoting the samurai ethic of modesty, of not blowing your own horn. Written between 1710 and 1716 by Tsunetomo Yamamoto, a retired samurai of the Nabeshima clan, Hagakure is a compilation of the thoughts and observations of a devout bushi.
The principle of duty (giri) was the cornerstone of bushido. The word “duty” evoked powerful motives in the samurai, just as it does in the Japanese of today. For the samurai, duty was an obligation that had to be met, even if it was unpleasant or painful or if it brought certain death.

Self-control was an important feature of bushido. The samurai’s body, mind, emotions and spirit were to be under his control.
Commitment to immediate action, action carried out right now, without waiting or hesitating, formed another basis of bushido.

The samurai lived in a society of deviousness and intrigue, in which cheating was rampant. Bushido was to keep the bushi above such treachery. It was said, “A bushi has no second word, ” and “A bushi never lies. ” Because of their honesty, samurai were often specially selected by merchants and landowners as couriers, to carry large sums of money.

Bushido also emphasized the need for constant self-improvement. For the samurai to rest on his laurels and to continue without correcting errors and mistakes was incompatible with bushido.

As a part of this urge to improve, the samurai borrowed whatever he could find of value — weapons, techniques, knowledge — wherever he could find them. When he discovered a useful insight in a Chinese or Indian Buddhist classic, he incorporated it into his life. When he was beaten by an opponent he treated his defeat as an indication that the victor had something to teach him. In 1543, when two Portuguese sailors showed Lord Tokitaka the first firearm (teppo) any Japanese had ever seen, Tokitaka thought it was “the wonder of wonders. ” Typical of the samurai and the Japanese, his initial reaction of awe was followed by the request to be taught.

Through an interpreter, Tokitaka said to the sailors, “Incapable though I am, I should like to learn about it. ” The appellation “copycat nation” that has been applied to Japan is a disparaging way of describing this admirable trait of pragmatic openness to new learning and fresh approaches.
The ideal samurai bushi was a well-rounded individual—a man of war who was also a man of learning. Bushi were anything but simpleminded toughs.

On the contrary, they were well-educated men who belonged to the highest class of Japanese society, the cultured elite who contributed directly to the advancement of the fine arts of theater, poetry, calligraphy and painting. The slogan bunbu ryodo, the “united ways of the pen and sword, ” refers to the samurai gdaj of developing martial and literary abilities.

Courtesy: David J Rogers – Fighting To Win – Samurai Techniques For Your Work And Life

Learn techniques of Aikido – an introduction

It is very well regarded that Aikido one of the most popular martial arts in the United States and across the World today.  The art of Aikido can be best associated with the actor Steven Seagal – he made it very popular by using these techniques in a number of his movies.  Aikido is technique that is very rich  and it has a long history – and it is an art which originally started in Japan in the early 40s.

The founder of Aikido was Morihei Ueshiba – he was born on December 14, 1883.  As Ueshiba grew up in a rapidly modernizing Japan, he witnessed many instances of  local thugs vandalize his family.  It was then that the  young Ueshiba decided that he will make himself into a strong person and will seek revenge against these thugs.  He was strong willed and was devoted and he spent every waking moment to his physical training and the techniques of martial arts.

Ueshiba received a number of certificates in jujitsu, fencing and spear fighting.  Despite the fact that he was very impressive in his abilities, he found himself unhappy with the skills he had acquired. Ueshiba knew that there was more to the art of self defence and even offence and he began to look into various aspects of religion and hoped to find a greater significance for his life – and all this while he was pursuing martial arts.
Ueshiba then founded the martial art of Aikido – this by combining both the religious beliefs he had learned and honed and his exceptional training in the martial arts.  Then, the style was called Aikibudo, it was renamed to Aikido only in 1942.

This new style was very different and incorporated several different styles of aiki-jujitsu, jujitsu and sword fighting techniques.
Even though many people think that Aikido is the ultimate martial art, it is really an art based on religion and harmony.

Aikido uses techniques such as joint locks, throws and weight manipulation to achieve it’s goals.  This form of martial art is very effective and such were the intentions of Ueshiba from the start.  Aikido consists of several techniques and many of them have been the result Morihei Ueshiba’s creative innovation.
There is really  no unified  philosophy or belief  in the martial art world of Aikido.   Aikido is rich in heritage and religion but at the same time it believes in the harmony and peace of the spirit.

By achieving a much higher level of spiritual power, Ueshiba always believed that the human body can be capable of doing anything.  Even though the reason for his learning martial arts was  revenge, he clearly stated that Aikido was not only about fighting but was a way to reconcile with this  world and bring all human beings together.

Over the past 70 years, Aikido was introduced in America and with amazing results.  The actor Steven Seagal is by one of the most popular spokesperson for this art – and he is showing the world the power and harmony of the Aikido art.

There are many martial arts schools around America that offer Aikido to study. Aikido will not only teach you self defense, but it will also teach you harmony of the spirit and how to find inner peace as well.

Learning Japanese is fun. If you’ve seen Japanese cartoons, if you’ve watched any of theiroutrageous game shows, you’ll easily come up with this conclusion. After all it was the Japa-nese who introduced Pokemon, Super Mario, and Street Fighter to the world. The Japaneseare also responsible for introducing the concept of ninjas to the world, and who doesn’t likeninjas?

Teaching yourself Japanese can also be serious business however. The Japanese are alsoknown to be dead-serious about things, especially when it comes to business (if you caughtthat pun, you’re as morbid as I am!) However, seriously though, if you want to know how tolearn Japanese, it would be a good idea to look a little deeper into Japanese culture and so-ciety. After all, who wouldn’t want to have the ability to communicate with the same peoplewho gave the world Zen Buddhism (which is such a hot topic right now!) and haiku? And didI mention ninjas?

Okay, so you’ve convinced yourself that you want to know how to speak Japanese. Admit-tedly, the Japanese language has its difficulties, as with all languages. I think teaching your-self how to write Japanese can be difficult, as they use an extensive set of characters. Andthey can look difficult to write. I mean for me honestly just looking at Japanese characters,even without trying to understand them, I feel like I’m looking at paintings. Indeed calligraphyis a traditional art form that is revered and popular in Japan. And some Japanese characters,like Chinese characters, are ideograms, meaning they’re sort of simplified pictures meant torepresent whole words. I’m talking about the Kenji script which is a body of around 1,000characters based on Chinese but don’t worry—as a beginner you are expected to master theHiragana and Katakana scripts first.

For the most part Japanese writing, as with Japanese speech is based on syllables. Thesesyllables are combinations of 5 vowels and 15 consonants which translate to the less than200 characters used in Hiragana and Katakana (do not confuse this with the katana, the tra-ditional Japanese sword!) But think of it this way: master these and you will have masteredthe pronunciation of virtually all Japanese words. There are no awkward combinations of let-ters to consider, which English obviously has a lot of.

The Japanese language also emphasizes politeness and respect. Apart from casual speech,the teineigo (polite language), sonkeigo (respectful language) and kenjMgo (humble language) are variations on Japanese language used by the speaker or writer depending on dif-ferent contexts of authority. Don’t fret though—as a beginner, master the teineigo as that willbe quite sufficient for most conversations.

Once you have mastered the syllables and the polite language, you can move on to gram-mar, which you will find is quite simple. Verbs have no gender and no singular/plural form.Sentence structure is loose so long as proper grammatical “particles” are affixed to nouns to denote their function in a sentence. Verbs usually come last. Teaching yourself how to speak Japanese will be the easier part of your journey towards becoming a true ninja (well knowing the names of your moves and weapons is the first step, isn’t it?)

As you’ve surmised, here’s how to learn Japanese efficiently: master the more difficult partsof the language, especially the writing. Once you move on to grammar, you may begin merci-lessly spewing bad-ass, grammatically correct one-liners at your enemies.

Would you like to identify the quality of any weapon without even knowing what to look for in the first place?

Here  we will cover  parts of a sword briefly and also talk about the  best metals to choose when forging your sword.

Here is the common terminology:

Kissaki- The tip of the blade is the Kissaki and it is sometimes known as the “Sharp pointy end”

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Boshi-  The Boshi is the curved edge of the metal that leads from the Kissaki to the cutting side of the  weapon.

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Hamon - The Hamon is the particular wavy pattern that is created on the sword and is usually caused by the cooling process when the weapon is forged.  This has very  little to do with the actual quality of the sword- though it is an important value when it comes to the aesthetics – the more exotic the designs, the prettier it is. This is something you should look for especially if you are a collector of such swords.

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Mune- The back of a katana – the side that is not the cutting side is called the Mune

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Hi - The groove that runs down the spine of the Katana is called the Hi – it also called Blood Groove in english

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Ha- Of course, now that we talked about the non cutting edge, the cutting edge of a katana is called Ha.Obviously since the major function of a Katana to damage the opponent, this is it’s most important function.

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Habaki- The Habaki is nothing but a blade collar. (This is a band of metal that is wrapped around the bottom of the sword and tends to add stability and provides aesthetics)

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Tsuba- This is the hand guard of the Katana, and it is used to separate one’s fists from the offensive blade of an opponent.

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Tsuka- is the handle – this is the place on the Katana where the posessor holds the sword.

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Tsuka Ito- The wrapping which goes around the handle is called Tsuka Ito and it provides the grip and also aesthetics.

Kashira- This is the  pommel also called the Butt End of the sword.

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Tang- The portion of the blade that runs through the handle, there are a few variants.

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Full Tang- is for the real sword fighters since the blade goes all the way through the handle, whereas, in Half Tang, it only goes halfway through the handle and hence does not give a lot of stability – the collectors can go with a Half Tang.

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There are many types of metals and that are used in the process of smithing and forging a sword.

On the most simplistic level, we have just two  “Stainless Steel or Carbon Steel”

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Stainless Steel- These kinds of are swords used primarily in decoration only. Stainless Steel swords are not suitable to use in combat or even for practice.

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Carbon Steel- are the weapons that are  more usable and are able to survive tough handling from the owner- cabon steel swords will hold up fine in combat.

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