Katana
Katanas are a type of Japanese sword, but nowadays the term is internationally used to talk about all Japanese swords in general. They are considered as the best swords ever created, they have a curved shape and they are many different types and sizes.
Strictly talking a katana has around 70 cm, the longest ones are called tachi and were used by cavalry. The short versions are called wakizashi and kodachi, which are equivalent to our daggers. Samurais where equiped with a katana for the face to face fights and a short wakizashi to kill by surprise without being seen.
This is a katana forged 900 years ago by Sanjo Munechika, and is one of the oldest katanas in the National Museum (Ueno Station at Tokyo
It can be appreciated how dedicated, simple and well done were the Japanese tools on those times while at Europe we had huge and rough swords.
Nowadays katanas are created by some artists, people from the Mukansa clan seem to be the best. Two of the Musakansa family members are Living National Treasures selected by the Japanese Government.
If you wanna by a katana, you can find average katanas at some hidden shops at Asakusa (Tokyo). I took one video inside of one of those shops.
Next, some videos were the sharpness of the katana edge can be appreciated.
At this last video there is a little explanation about how katanas are made.
Comments
Sergio
30 March, 2007
Hi Héctor! The video from the bottle is awesome. I had already seen it in the Spanish blog version. Still, nice one.
Llevo más de dos años enganchado a tu blog casi a diario (mi novia está harta de que le hable del “tío ese de Japón”), también desde que me piré de España como tú, pero nunca había comentado. Pero es que el otro día conocí a tu amigo Albert en la ESA, la verdad es que le reconocí de tu blog y fue un cachondeo. Eres un crack, tío, ¡suerte y sigue así!
Prostata: si te molesta que escriba en castellano aquí borra el comentario.
Luca
08 May, 2007
I’d still love to see a fight between a Japanese Samurai and a European knight.
John
15 May, 2007
Luca, you’re an idiot.
1 – different sword techniques
2 – western euro. armor is too thick for slashing weapons
3 – the knight has the advantage of a shield
4 – medieval swords were too thick and heavy and could break after repeated smashings against another sword
5 – you’re just a silly nerd
Samurai Dave
10 June, 2007
I really like the egg test
The katana on the first video looks like a cheap “made in china” thing…of course it’s hard to tell from this little clip.
Gibson
16 June, 2007
HAHHAHa euro armor has some gaps. Samurai can move faster and with a good thrust with a katana it can rip up a limb. Plush the katana can be use for defense too
Oliver
01 July, 2007
Well, Europeon Knights are by no means a match for Samurais….Not only In Grace, but speed and Power of Slashes….as a matter of fact, it is proven that a Katana is the most temperate Sword around!!
Tom²
07 August, 2007
@Lucas – be careful what you wish for : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDV5fontZbc
@John – take that broomstick out of your **** ! This is actually a very relevant question, just as much as the trendy pirateVSninja hypothetical fight.
…Although for me it is very clear that, 1 on 1, the clumsy armored knight gets his *** kicked lightning-quick.
It gets really interesting if you imagine a battle between whole armies, though ! ^^
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Musashi Miyamoto
11 October, 2007
[...] He started his “career” as a samurai when he fought at Sekigahara’s Battle, one of the most important battles in Japanese history. Miyamoto’s people loose the battle but he managed to survive and start a life dedicated to the katana and the “bushido” (The way of the warrior). He wandered many years all around Japan, he fought many people, the legend says that he had more than 60 duels and he was never defeated. When he was old, he developed his own fighting style and he even wrote books about “the way of the warrior”, the most famous of them is called “The book of the five rings”. [...]
SoScooter.com
11 December, 2007
WOW! That is amazing… I’ve also heard of someone dropping a piece of paper onto the blade of a Katana (on the flat side) and it just being cut under its own weight.
Karasu-kun
21 January, 2008
Isn’t Mukansa a “rank” given to the swordsmith by the government? I thought that Mukansa was “without competition”, or “not submitted” or somesuch, not a clan. Are you talking about someone specific here?
Kirainet.com - A geek in Japan — Article 9 - No war
25 February, 2008
[...] Even having an army with guns, boats, planes and all that kind of useless stuff, they can’t shoot or attack, they can’t even defend themselves. In fact, if you think about it, they have even less power than the National Police. For example, when Mishima Yukio captured the commandant of the Ichigaya Camp, headquarters of the Eastern Command of Japan’s Self Defence Forces. They could not stop him, and they had to call the police! The army had to call the police in order to stop five civilians armed with katanas, sounds stupid right? But rules are the rules, and sometimes rules are stupid. I wonder why they don’t respect the Article 9, that it’s a nice rule instead of playing with riddles. [...]
Musashifan
21 January, 2009
I was just wondering if Musashi Miyamoto’s actual sword is kept in any museums or private collections?