Badge of the Samurai

One of the reasons the town of Bizen became so important in medieval Japan was that it was located at the intersection of three major trading routes that ended in Japan’s “Inland Sea.”

Another important feature in the town’s ancient success was the Yoshii River. Japan has no large iron deposits. The Yoshii River, however, carries down from the mountains, not only the potters’ clay, but also an unusual type of iron-laden sand. Burn it in a hot fire and you get iron and carbon. While the rest of the world was proud of their iron weapons, Japanese sword makers, without knowing its chemical content, were making blades of steel—harder, sharper and more durable than iron.

Not only did the potter’s craft flourish here, so did that of the very few makers of the weapons that eventually became known as the ”Samurai sword.”

Around the end of the 12th century, the Kobizen school here laid the foundation for sword production. Bizen became a kingdom renowned for its wonderful sword crafting techniques and the high quality of the blades produced here.

For centuries Japanese swords have been prized, however, not as weapons, but rather as works of art. During the ages of the Shoguns, the ruler awarded such swords to his Samurai knights as a badge of office.

Up until 1000 years ago, warriors used these swords in combat. The Japanese sword is a hacking weapon rather than a piercing weapon. Soldiers swung their swords to slash the head off of an enemy, or to cut the legs off a horse in a cavalry attack. By the time of the Samurai, however, the military no longer used swords. Pikes, spears, arrows and gunpowder rendered the sword as obsolete. Among the swords we saw on display, the most recent weapon we could find that had actually been used in combat was dated to the early 15th century.

Master swordsmith Toshimitsu Imaizumi was born near here just before the turn of the twentieth century. Influenced by his grandfather, he took an interest in Japanese swords when he was a junior in high school. He started making swords. While working at a cotton mill in nearby Kurashiki City, he began the study of forging Japanese swords, and accepting the invitations of the people here who were involved in the craft.

After World War 2 the Samurai sword was outlawed, and the government collected all it could find. Some very elaborate, very old swords were declared national treasures and were put on display in museums close to the towns where they were made. The government displayed ninety percent of these in the museum we saw today, the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum. Professionals estimate that between 80 and 90 percent of all historic samurai swords were made within a one-mile radius of this town.

During the ban on sword production, Imaizumi stayed in Bizen continuing his studies, making blades and small knives.
The revival of Japanese sword-making began when the postwar ban was lifted in 1954. Imaizumi resumed his experiments with full-size Samurai swords, attempting to recapture some techniques which had been lost over the centuries. For example, he learned that the ancient Samurai swords’ hard edge is the result of a process of repeatedly folding the semi-molten steel and hammering it into over 33,000 laminated layers. Swords are now made the same way.

Imaizumi began to win numerous awards at Japanese sword expositions, attracted many disciples, and continued his own research into making his own steel compounds and quenching methods up until his death at age 97. He always had great enthusiasm for crafting swords, and he left a legacy of many great swords as a pioneer of the Bizen sword renaissance.

So today they are works of art to be acquired by collectors. And how beautiful they are! It takes two years to make one, and a new one costs as much as a luxury car.

Somehow it was very satisfying today to see craftsmen making object exactly as they were made a thousand years ago, using the same materials, methods and techniques. This age-long consistency is just one of the things that make Japan such a land of wonder.もっと詳しく