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The word katana first appears in Japanese in the Nihon Shoki of 720. The term is a compound of kata ("one side, one-sided") + na ("blade"), [6] [7] [8] in contrast to the double-sided tsurugi. The katana belongs to the nihontō family of swords, and is distinguished by a blade length (nagasa) of more than 2 shaku, approximately 60 cm (24 in). [9]
Amakuni Yasutsuna (天國 安綱) is the legendary swordsmith who supposedly created the first single-edged longsword with curvature along the edge in the Yamato Province around 700 AD. He was the head of a group of swordsmiths employed by the Emperor of Japan to make weapons for his warriors. His son, Amakura, was the successor to his work.
Visual glossary of Japanese sword terms. Japanese swordsmithing is the labour-intensive bladesmithing process developed in Japan beginning in the sixth century for forging traditionally made bladed weapons [1] [2] including katana, wakizashi, tantō, yari, naginata, nagamaki, tachi, nodachi, ōdachi, kodachi, and ya.
Japanese swordmaking reached the height of its development in the 15th and 16th centuries, when samurai increasingly found a need for a sword to use in closer quarters, leading to the creation of the modern katana. [60] High quality Japanese swords have been exported to neighboring Asian countries since before the 11th century.
He created swords and daggers, known in Japanese as tachi and tantō, in the Sōshū school. However, many of his forged tachi were made into katana by cutting the tang (nakago) in later times ("suriage"). For this reason, his only existing works are katana, tantō, and wakizashi. [3] [4] No exact dates are known for Masamune's life. It is ...
In 1934 the Japanese government issued a military specification for the shin guntō (new army sword), the first version of which was the Type 94 Katana, and many machine- and hand-crafted swords used in World War II conformed to this and later shin guntō specifications.
As the first and only female sensei in the “Karate Kid” franchise’s 40-year history, Alicia Hannah-Kim is walking into the finale of “Cobra Kai” with mixed emotions.
Two other Kogarasu Zukuri blades exist from this era, but many other blades of this type have been created throughout Japanese history. Murata Tsuneyoshi, a General of the Imperial Japanese Army during the Meiji era, created the first Gunto, famously known as Murata-To which is a Kissaki Moroha Zukuri style double edged Katana.