Sword [.1], sheath [.2], and small knife, not yet found [.3]. [El.B 27/02/2008]

Collection type: Object
Description: Sword [.1], sheath [.2], and small knife, not yet found [.3]. [El.B 27/02/2008]
Long description: The sword [.1] has an iron guard (tsuba) decorated with a tanuki (Japanese racoon-dog) standing on its hind legs and the moon behind clouds. It also has a scabbard sleeve (habaki) of copper, spacers (seppa) on each side of the guard, a metal ring round the handle (fuchi) and a buttcap (kashira) with a floral pattern. The handle is bound with white rayskin and with gold silk braid over it. There are two palm ornaments (menuki) in the shape of flowers. The sheath [.2] is of wood and lacquered black. The knife has a figure of a sage on the handle. [El.B 27/02/2008]
Geographical reference: Japan
Asia > Eastern Asia > Japan; Dewa Province
Person: Maker Gassan; Field collector Walter Molyneux Dingwall; PRM source Reginald George Dingwall
Date / Period: Archaeological period: Late Muromachi, uncertain Date made: 1500-1560?, uncertain Date made: Before 1898
Date collected: 1898
Acquisition information: Donated: 1946
Materials and processes: Material Fish Skin, Material Silk Yarn Animal, Material Copper Metal, Material Lacquer Varnish Plant, Material Steel Metal, Material Wood Plant, Process Forged (Metal), Process Carved, Process Bound, Process Inlaid, Process Lacquered Varnished
Dimensions: Length: max 720 mm, Length: max 935 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1946.12.68
Research and responses: Related Documents File - Excerpt from notes by Colin Langton, 1998: 'The forging features of this blade points to its place of manufacture as ECHIZEN province, the use of different styles of HAMON and BOSHI on each side of the blade are definately features of the work of smiths of this province . . . The blade dates from the early 19th cent, it is of ordinary quality there are small forging flaws (KIZU) towards the back edge of the blade due to incomplete folding of the steel.' [Notes include sketches and idenitification of features on the blades]. [GI 18/1/2002]
Japanese swords can perhaps justly be described as the finest cutting swords ever made, and it is well documented that the very best blades were capable of cutting up to four men in half through the waist with a single stroke, or cutting steel rifle barrels in half without damage. The production of such blades took months. All five elements of the traditional Japanese cosmology – earth, metal, fire, water and wood – contribute something to the creation of the sword, and several different artisans worked separately on the forging, sharpening, making of the guard, and production of the other sword furniture. The swordsmith himself (kaji) was the most respected and prominent of these artisans, and, even though the artisan class were conventionally ranked below the agricultural class, the importance of the sword meant that the kaji often became highly celebrated individuals. During the final stages of forging a sword, the kaji dressed in the ceremonial costume of a court noble (kariginu & yeboshi), and consecrated his forge (kajiya) as a Shinto shrine, hanging a straw rope talisman (shime-nawa) over the doorway to ward off evil and negative influences. At the beginning of each day of this final forging process, the kaji purified himself with cold baths, as well as abstaining from sex, eating meat, eggs or dairy products, and drinking alcohol. He invoked the spirits to assist his work, and nobody except himself and his assistant were permitted to enter the forge (Robinson, 1961: 25). At the end of the Kofun Period (3rd-7th Centuries AD), the slightly-curved, single edged cutting sword appeared in China and Japan, and crystallised very rapidly into more or less the form exhibited by all later Japanese longswords. In the 6th century AD, Chinese swords were considerably superior in manufacturing to Japanese swords, but by the 11th century AD, Japanese forging, sharpening techniques, and artistry, had superseded those of the Chinese. Swords became a major Japanese export to China, and this relative difference in quality remained the same until the sword’s abandonment at the end of the 19th century. The period between 1250-1350 AD is regarded as the peak of Japanese swordsmithing. There was a second major peak in smithing around the beginning of the Tokugawa Period in the late 17th century (the Shinto or ‘New Sword’ Period), followed by a similar decline into display and gaudiness which is demonstrated by the later Tokugawa armours. During the late 18th century Shinshinto or ‘Recent Sword’ Period, Kawabe Suishinshi Masahide led an archaistic revival in functional swordsmithing, which remained at a high level of quality until the Meiji Restoration in 1876. In this year, the Emperor passed the Sword Edict, which prohibited the carrying of swords, and effectively signalled the abolition of the Samurai class. This virtually eradicated the art of swordsmithing overnight. Officer’s swords of the Japanese military in World War Two (showa-to) were generally low-quality mass-produced artefacts, taken from castings of historic weapons. Today the Society for the Preservation of Art Swords (Nippon Bijutsu Token Hoson Kyokwai) maintains interest and knowledge in swords among the Japanese people, organises periodical forging competitions, and so on (Robinson, 1961: 15-25). The katana is the classic Japanese longsword, and was the exclusive prerogative of individuals of samurai class. The katana has been described as ‘the living soul of the bushi’, and ‘the pride of warriors and theme of poets’ (Robinson, 1961: 15). The katana has no fittings for slinging from a belt, but has small wooden lugs which secure it when it is slid through the waist-sash. It is worn edge-upwards, which historically permitted rapid drawing. The making of a katana blade could occur in one of two basic ways: The entire blade was made of high-grade ‘pattern-welded’ steel. This steel was forged by taking two fairly thick flat plates of steel (one hard and brittle, the other soft and flexible), and welding one on top of the other. This was then heated and beaten out to length, folded back on top of itself, and welded again – creating four layers in the steel. This operation was repeated 15-20 times, until the steel itself became a ‘filo pastry’ of steel, containing several thousand microscopically-thin layers. Experimentation had shown kaji that folding more than 20 times tended to begin homogenising the two steels into one, which reduced their dynamic tension of elasticity and sharpness. Once this was done, the blade was beaten into the desired shape. The result was a wood-like grain on the flat of the blade, known as mokume. Alternatively, the katana could be made using a composite method, where a soft flexible core (shintetsu) of iron was strip-edged (uwagane) with a V-sectioned fillet of high-grade laminar steel manufactured in the manner above. Once completed, the blade was passed to the professional sharpener, who brought it into the final shape with rasps and abrasive stones. Up to twenty different grades of stone were used in increasing fineness, until the mirror-like polish was achieved. Then the blade was passed to the manufacturer of fittings for the attachment of the multitude of hilt parts, and the manufacture of the scabbard (saya). The tsuba (circular/sub-rectangular hand-guard) was an aesthetically important part of any sword, and their manufacture became a distinct art in Japan from the 15th century onwards. Research Conducted for DCF Cutting Edge 2006/2007 [AM].

Search terms: Weapon, Figure, Sword, Sheath, Knife