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A Japanese sword (Japanese: 日本刀, Hepburn: nihontō) is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1,000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794–1185) to the present day when speaking of "Japanese ...
It is thought likely that the first iron swords were manufactured in Japan in the fourth century, based on technology imported from China via the Korean peninsula. [4]: 1 While swords clearly played an important cultural and religious role in ancient Japan, [4]: 5, 14 in the Heian period the globally recognised curved Japanese sword (the katana) was developed and swords became important ...
This sword was custom-made in Japan to suit the weight and size of the student. The blade is made of aluminum alloy and lacks a sharp edge for safety reasons. Between 1945 and 1953, sword manufacture and sword-related martial arts were banned in Japan. Many swords were confiscated and destroyed, and swordsmiths were not able to make a living.
Earlier 10th through 12th century sources refer to "long swords" that while a common medieval term or orthography for naginata, could also simply be referring to conventional swords; one source describes a naginata being drawn with the verb nuku (抜く), commonly associated with swords, rather than hazusu (外す), the verb otherwise used in ...
These ancient Japanese swords are also known as jokotō (上古刀, ancient sword). [8] chōken (長剣, long sword) – Commonly used as a calque for the broadest definition of (European) long swords. chōtō (長刀, lit. long sword) – either a nagakatana (due to long blade) or a naginata (due to long handle). [9]
The Chinese equivalent of this type of sword in terms of weight and length is the miaodao or the earlier zhanmadao, and the Western battlefield equivalent (though less similar) is the Zweihänder. To qualify as an ōdachi, the sword in question would have a blade length of around 3 shaku (90.9 cm (35.8 in)).
It is hard to determine precisely when the first bokken appeared due to secrecy in ancient martial arts training and loose record-keeping. While various mock weapons were surely used during the earlier periods of Japanese history, usage of bokken in their modern form first emerged during the Muromachi Period (1336–1600) for the training of samurai warriors in the various ryū (schools of ...
A tsurugi (剣) or ken (剣) is a Japanese sword. The word is used in the West to refer to a specific type of Japanese straight, double-edged sword used in antiquity (as opposed to curved, single-edged swords such as the katana). [1] In Japanese the term tsurugi or ken is used as a term for all sorts of international long, double-edged swords.