Katana Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
46 free Katana trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
Katana trivia for martial artists, collectors, anime fans and anyone who has watched a smith fold steel and wanted to know why. The quiz starts with the word itself, first written down in 720, and how the katana grew out of the short sasuga knives of foot soldiers, why it is worn edge-up where the older tachi hung edge-down, and how you can tell the two apart from the signature on the tang. The middle rounds are about the making: iron sand smelted in a tatara furnace into tamahagane, folding, the clay slurry that produces both the curve and the hamon, water quenching, martensite, and the six to eight craftsmen who share the work. Then the history: Hideyoshi's sword hunt, the daishō pair only samurai could wear, the 200,000 blades exported to Ming China, the Meiji edict that ended public sword-carrying, wartime shōwatō, the post-war ban and today's two-swords-a-month limit. Later questions cover Masamune and his lost Honjō blade, the 'cursed' Muramasa, the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō, National Treasures, kendo, iaido, Guinness records and Hattori Hanzō. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our samurai and Japan quizzes.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'katana' first appears in which Japanese chronicle of 720?
the Nihon Shoki
The Nihon Shoki has the earliest known use, and Japanese dictionaries explain the word as kata, 'one side', plus na, an old word for blade: a single-edged sword, unlike the double-edged tsurugi.
Q 02Blades over two shaku, about 60 cm, are classed as katana; what is a blade of one to two shaku?
A wakizashi
A wakizashi, the companion sword whose name means 'side-inserted': a shaku is a traditional Japanese foot of about 30 cm, and anything under one shaku is a tantō.
Q 03Unlike the older tachi, the katana was worn through the sash with the edge facing which way?
up
Edge up: thrust through the sash that way, the sword could be drawn and brought down in a single motion, which counted once battles were fought on foot at close range.
Q 04A swordsmith traditionally cuts his signature, the mei, into which part of a katana?
the tang
The tang, hidden inside the hilt: the mei goes on the face that points away from the wearer, and because a tachi was carried the other way round, the signed side tells them apart.
Q 05The katana's circular or squared hand guard is called what?
tsuba
The tsuba sits between hilt and blade, protecting the hand and helping to balance the sword; the saya is the scabbard, the tsuka the hilt and the habaki the blade collar.
Q 06The specific Japanese term for what the West calls a katana is 'uchigatana', literally meaning what?
striking sword
Striking sword: uchi comes from utsu, 'to strike', for a blade made to be swung at an opponent, whereas in Japan the bare word 'katana' can mean a single-edged sword from anywhere.
Q 07The katana developed from the sasuga, a warrior's backup weapon that was a kind of what?
a short knife
A short knife: warriors whose main weapon was the long naginata kept the sasuga as a spare, and that humble backup blade grew into the katana.
Q 08Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, the team's blue-masked leader, fights with a pair of katana?
Leonardo
Leonardo, named after Leonardo da Vinci, leads the four turtles, and a pair of katana has been his signature weapon across the comics, cartoons and films.
Q 09Many old tachi were later turned into katana mainly by doing what?
Cutting them shorter
Cutting them shorter from the hilt end, a practice called suriage, let an old tachi serve as a katana once fighting on foot favoured a shorter, faster-drawn blade.
Q 10In the Sengoku period, the main battlefield weapons were the bow, the spear and what?
the matchlock gun
The matchlock gun: Europeans brought it to Tanegashima in 1543, and Japan's swordsmiths turned their forging skills to gun barrels, so within a few years it was being made around the country.
Q 11In the 15th century, which country bought Japanese swords by the tens of thousands through the shogun's official 'tally' trade?
Ming China
Ming China: the shogun's licensed tally ships carried swords there in bulk alongside sulphur and copper, and came home with silk and the Chinese copper coins that became Japan's everyday money.
Q 12Which warlord banned farmers from owning weapons and carried out a nationwide 'sword hunt' in 1588?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi told farmers and temples the metal would become nails and clamps for a Great Buddha hall; the real aim was to end uprisings and fix the line between those who farmed and those who fought.
Q 13The paired long and short swords that the Edo-period shogunate required samurai to wear are called what?
Q 21The traditional sword steel is smelted from iron sand in a furnace called what?
a tatara
A tatara is fed iron sand and charcoal for days, then broken apart to get at the steel inside; the old ironworks died out early in the 20th century, and one rebuilt in Shimane in 1977 now supplies Japan's swordsmiths.
Q 22Before hardening, the smith coats the blade in a slurry mainly of what, applied thinner along the edge?
clay
Clay: the thin coat lets the edge cool fast and harden while the thickly coated spine cools slowly and stays tough, and that mismatch is also what pulls the blade into its curve.
Q 23Quenching the heated edge suddenly turns the steel's austenite into which very hard structure?
martensite
daishō
Daishō means 'large and small': a long sword and a shorter companion blade thrust through the sash together, the pairing that became the badge of the samurai class in the Edo period.
Q 14A katana's hilt is covered in samegawa, literally 'shark skin', beneath its cord wrap; which animal usually supplies it?
A ray
A ray, despite the name: the pebbled skin dries very hard, which stiffens the wooden hilt, and its bumps stop the cord wrap from slipping in the hand.
Q 15What wiped out Bizen's Osafune swordsmiths, Japan's most prolific, in 1590?
A flood
A flood: it devastated the Osafune smiths' home villages, and sword orders from across Japan went instead to the rival Mino school, which became the country's largest.
Q 16Most Japanese swords designated National Treasures date from which period, the age of the Mongol invasions?
Kamakura
The Kamakura period: about eight in ten of them date from it, and smiths ever since have tried to recreate the blades of that golden age.
Q 17The 1876 Haitōrei Edict did what?
forbade carrying swords in public
It forbade carrying swords in public, soldiers and police excepted, and former samurai stripped of their badge of rank rose in a string of revolts that ended with the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877.
Q 18Wartime swords, often oil-quenched and forged with power hammers, are called shōwatō after what?
Emperor Hirohito's regnal era
Emperor Hirohito's regnal era was Shōwa: the blades were machine-made without the traditional folding, so in Japan most do not count as true Japanese swords and cannot legally be kept.
Q 19About how many long swords a month may a licensed Japanese swordsmith make?
2
Just 2 a month, or 24 a year, for each licensed smith, while many of the 'katana' sold around the world are copies made in China.
Q 20The traditional steel used for katana is called what?
tamahagane
Tamahagane is smelted from iron sand and charcoal, and the smith folds and welds it again and again to work out impurities and spread the carbon evenly through the steel.
Martensite is very hard but brittle, which is why only the thinly coated edge is cooled fast enough to become it while the insulated spine stays softer and tough.
Q 24The wavy line along the blade created by differential hardening is called what?
hamon
The hamon marks where the hardened edge meets the softer body of the blade, and a finishing step called hadori whitens it so that the pattern stands out against the darker steel.
Q 25Most katana have the shinogi-zukuri cross-section, whose defining ridge line runs where?
along the blade's thickest part
The shinogi is a raised ridge running along the blade's thickest part, between spine and edge: from there the steel can thin to a keen edge while the blade stays light and hard to break.
Q 26A newly forged katana goes to a togishi, whose craft is what?
Polishing the blade
Polishing the blade: the togishi works it over a series of ever finer stones, which sets the blade's final lines and brings out the grain of the folded steel.
Q 27A katana's grip is made for which way of holding the sword?
With both hands
With both hands: the long grip lets both arms drive the cut, and when Japan's army modernised in the 1800s it swapped the katana for a Western sabre held in one.
Q 28The small peg that locks a katana's blade into its hilt is called what?
mekugi
The mekugi is pushed through matching holes in the hilt and the blade inside it; knock the peg out and the blade slides free, which is how a sword is taken apart for cleaning.
Q 29Chōji oil, the traditional rust-proofing wiped on a katana blade, takes its name and scent from what?
clove oil
Clove oil: chōji is the Japanese word for clove, and its oil was long wiped on swords to keep rust off, though mineral oils are now used as well.
Q 30Which swordsmith, working in Sagami Province around 1300, is widely acclaimed as Japan's greatest?
Masamune
Masamune signed almost none of his blades, yet the shogun's catalogue of famous swords listed more of his than any other smith's, and Japan's most coveted swordsmithing prize bears his name.