50 Fun Facts About Katana

The word 'katana' first appears in which Japanese chronicle of 720?

It combines kata ('one side') and na ('blade'), in contrast to the double-edged tsurugi.

A katana is defined by a blade length of more than two shaku, which is roughly how long?

Anything shorter is a wakizashi or tantō; a shaku is a traditional Japanese foot.

Unlike the older tachi, the katana was worn through the sash with the edge facing which way?

The idea was that a samurai could draw and strike in a single motion.

A signed katana is told from a tachi by the position of its signature (mei) on which part?

The mei is cut on the side that faces outward when worn, and the two swords hang edge-up and edge-down respectively.

The katana's circular or squared hand guard is called what?

The saya is the scabbard, the tsuka the hilt and the habaki the blade collar.

The specific Japanese term for what the West calls a katana is 'uchigatana', literally meaning what?

In Japan the bare word 'katana' often just means any single-edged sword from anywhere.

The katana developed from the sasuga, a kind of what carried by Kamakura-period foot soldiers?

The sasuga was gradually lengthened during the 14th century until it became a katana.

The oldest surviving katana, the Hishizukuri uchigatana, was later dedicated to which shrine?

It was forged in the Nanbokuchō period, the era when long weapons like the ōdachi were in fashion.

The practice of shortening an old tachi by cutting its tang to make a katana is called what?

So many of Masamune's tachi were converted this way that only katana and tantō by him survive.

In the Sengoku period, the main battlefield weapons were the bow, the spear and what?

The tanegashima had arrived from Portugal, and Japanese smiths mass-produced improved copies for the ashigaru.

To which country were at least 200,000 Japanese swords exported around 1500, partly to keep them from pirates?

The Chinese studied them to fight the wokou pirates and developed the wodao and miaodao in response.

Which warlord banned farmers from owning weapons and carried out a nationwide 'sword hunt' in 1588?

Before that, farmers, townspeople and monks in the Sengoku era could all carry swords.

The paired long and short swords that the Edo-period shogunate required samurai to wear are called what?

The short sword was usually a wakizashi; only samurai could wear the pair, which stood for their power and honour.

For formal castle visits, the shogunate prescribed a daishō with a hilt wrapped in what?

In peacetime the swords became increasingly cosmetic and ceremonial rather than practical weapons.

Which great Japanese sword-making tradition was destroyed by a flood in 1590?

The loss shifted production to the Mino school, and the misty 'midare-utsuri' of Bizen blades all but vanished until Kunihira Kawachi reproduced it in 2014.

Roughly what share of Japanese swords designated National Treasures were made in the Kamakura period?

And about 70% of those are tachi; the Kamakura blade has been the ideal that later smiths tried to recreate.

The 1876 Haitōrei Edict did what?

Exceptions were made for former daimyō, the military and police; in 1889 the army chose a one-handed French-style sword instead.

Wartime swords, often oil-quenched and forged with power hammers, are called shōwatō after what?

From 1937 the government required special stamps on the tang to mark them; in Japan they are not considered true nihontō and can be confiscated.

Sword-making and sword martial arts were banned in Japan between 1945 and which year?

Since then smiths must be licensed after a five-year apprenticeship and may make only two long swords a month.

How many long swords per month is a licensed Japanese swordsmith allowed to produce?

The limit keeps quality high, and is one reason so many 'katana' sold worldwide are Chinese-made fakes.

The traditional steel used for katana is called what?

It is smelted from iron sand into layered steels of different carbon content that the smith folds and welds together.

The traditional sword steel is smelted from iron sand in a clay furnace called what?

The sand comes from Shimane Prefecture and a smelt takes 36 to 72 hours.

Before hardening, the smith coats the blade in a slurry mainly of what, applied thinner along the edge?

The process, tsuchioki, is what makes the edge harden while the spine stays soft, and it also produces the curve.

Quenching the heated edge suddenly turns the steel's austenite into which very hard structure?

The slowly cooled spine becomes softer ferrite and pearlite, and the density difference bends the blade into its curve.

The wavy line along the blade created by differential hardening is called what?

The white band you see is actually polish (hadori); the true hamon is a fuzzy line within it that shows when you tilt the blade in the light.

Most katana have the shinogi-zukuri cross-section, whose defining ridge line runs where?

The shinogi lightens and toughens the blade; the yokote is the separate line dividing tip from body.

Roughly how long does polishing a katana take?

The togishi works through successively finer stones to a mirror finish, often leaving the spine matte to show off the hamon.

A Japanese sword is traditionally made by a division of labour among roughly how many craftsmen?

Separate specialists forge, polish, make the collar, scabbard, lacquer, hilt wrap and guard.

The pin that fixes the blade's tang inside the hilt is called what?

Removing it lets the blade be drawn from the hilt to read the smith's signature.

The traditional chōji oil used to protect a blade is 99% mineral oil and 1% what, added for fragrance?

Sweat left on a blade will rust it fast, so it is stored horizontally, edge up, and re-oiled regularly.

Which swordsmith, active around 1264-1343 in Sagami Province, is widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest?

The Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō catalogue of 1719 listed 59 of his blades, more than any other smith.

The Honjō blade, symbol of the Edo shoguns, has been missing since when?

Police handed it to an American identified only as 'Sgt. Coldy Bimore' in January 1946, and it has never been seen since.

The swords of Muramasa gained a reputation as cursed and unlucky for which ruling family?

The likelier explanation is that Ieyasu's Mikawa samurai simply owned so many of them that any misfortune involved one.

The 1719 catalogue of famous swords, the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō, was commissioned by which shogun?

The appraiser Hon'ami Kōchū recorded 249 blades, plus 81 already lost to fires; some daimyō hid swords for fear of confiscation.

What was the shogunate day job of Yamada Asaemon V, author of the 1797 swordsmith ranking book?

The top 'Saijo Ō Wazamono' grade eventually held 15 smiths; Masamune and Muramasa were pointedly left out.

How many swordsmiths have won the top prize of the Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords since 1961?

Three of them, Masamine Sumitani, Akitsugu Amata and Toshihira Osumi, won it three times each; the prize is named after Japan's greatest smith.

The martial art centred on drawing the sword and striking in one smooth motion is called what?

It descends from battōjutsu; its four elements are drawing, cutting, shaking off blood and resheathing.

Kendo practitioners fence with a shinai, a sword made of what?

Bamboo swords and protective armour were introduced by Naganuma Kunisato in the early 18th century.

Test-cutting practice with a sharp katana on rolled straw mats is called what?

For everything else, martial artists use blunt iaitō or wooden bokken.

Iaido master Isao Machii holds a Guinness record for slicing what object travelling at 708 km/h?

He also holds records for the fastest 1,000 cuts and most cuts to a single mat.

The UK's 2008 curved-sword ban exempts blades made in Japan before which year?

The ban followed reports of samurai swords used in more than 80 attacks and four killings in four years.

In Kill Bill: Volume 1, the Bride goes to Okinawa for a sword from which retired swordsmith?

Tarantino named the character in tribute to Sonny Chiba, who had played the historical Iga ninja of that name on Japanese TV.

Which late-18th-century swordsmith led a movement back to the bold Kamakura-style blade, launching the shinshintō era?

He argued that fashionable blades stressed decoration over toughness.

What are the low-quality, mass-produced swords lent to ashigaru foot soldiers from the 15th century called?

The Bizen and Mino schools churned them out, along with spears, during the large-scale wars that followed the Ōnin War.

A katana mounted to hang edge-down like a tachi is known by what name, meaning 'half tachi'?

The style mixed katana-style fastening to the obi with tachi-style metalwork, from the Sengoku into the early Edo period.

Which sword appraiser did shogun Yoshimune order to catalogue the daimyō's swords for the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō?

The completed 1719 catalogue described 249 precious swords, with 25 more added later.

How many swordsmiths were ranked for cutting ability in the 1797 book Kaiho Kenjaku?

Their blades earned the label 'Wazamono'; the very best were 'Saijo Ō Wazamono'.

What is unusual about a katana of kissaki-moroha-zukuri shape?

One edge is shaped like a normal katana while the symmetrical point is sharp on both sides.

The Veritable Records of which dynasty note, in 1430, a smith who mastered Japanese sword-making?

Korea sent smiths to Japan and invited Japanese smiths over as the swords gained fame across East Asia in the 15th century.

Which conflict of the late 15th century mobilised farmer-soldiers in huge numbers and drove demand for swords?

Ashigaru fought on foot, and cheap swords and spears were handed out to them by the thousand.