The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-08-19
The Sword in Japan.


The sw0rdmaker who forged the finer
blades for the Samurai and DaimiO-the
Rarons and Knights-was no mere black
smith He ranked, indeed, first of all
craftsmen in the land. aud was often APP
pointed lord or WEXFORD Of province.
He did not enter ON his grave duties
lightly When he had blade TO make
for great japanese gentleman the Kat
aDya abstaiDed for whole week from all
animal food and strong drink; he slept
alone. and poured cold water every morn
ING over his head When the forge was
ready and no woman might so much as
enter its precincts), and when the steel
bars were duly selected, he repaired to the
Temple and prayed there devoutly. Then
he came back to his anvil and furnace
and hung above them the consecrated
straw rope (shimenawa) and the clippings
of paper (gohei) which kept away evil
spirits He put on the dress Of court
noble, with the e-boshi and kam-shimO,
tying back his long sleeves with silk
cord. Only after many ceremonies, when
The five elemenis-fire, water, wood metal,
and earth-were well conciliated, would
that pions artisan take his hammer in
hand.
The blade was beaten out Of steel alone
muku-gitai. the "pure make'-or of steel
blended with iron Great heed was taken
TO have good and well smelted material.
Each time, before the smith placed his
bar in the bed of glowing charcoal, which
an apprentice blew TO white heat, he coat
ed il with paste of clay and straw ashes
so ms not 10 burn the naked metal; and
never touched it with the hand-bOt or
cold-since sweat would spoil the weld,
and leave blur on the steel. When he
had beaten out his bar eight inches long,
two aud one-half wide, and three quarters
Of an inch thick he bent it midway, beat
il out again to the same dimensions, thus
folding and re-hammering it some fifteen
or twenty times. As the original bar was
in four fakes, DIR. Lyman, in his admirable
treatise on the subject, calculates that at
the fifteenth hammering there would be
l31, 072 layers, increased by five following
bendings to 4,194,304 layers. This care
full repetition gave the metal Il texture like
ivory or satinwood. They had names for
the different watering so produced, as
''bean grain, pear grain. ''pinebark
grain, and ''vein-graiu. Afterwards,
the blade was forged down to its full length,
the imperfect ends cut off, the point drawn
out, and the tang fitted on, upon which
came the teu,pering. But these hast pro-
cesses were very serious. and the sword
forger sat alone, aud solemnly sang to
himself while he gave to the weapon its
final fashionings.
They say that the difference bet cen
the swords Of Masamune and Of Muranasa,
two famous craftsmen, was due TO their
singing. \ Masamune blade brought
victory and luck everywhere. A Mura-
rnasa sword was always leading its owner
into auarrels, though it carried him through
them well; and it would cause accidents
and cut the fingers of friendly folks inspect
ing it, being never willing to 20 back to Its
scabbard without drinking blood. The
real reason was. so runs the legend, tina;
Muramasa. while he sat at his work in the
forge, was ever singing a song, which had
the chorus of s'Tenka tairan tenka tairan,
which means "Trouble in the world,
trouble in the world, whereas Masamnpe.
the gentle and lucky sword maker, always
chanted while he worked "Tenka taihei,
taihei, which signifies "Peace be on earth
peace = Japanese people of the old days
firmly believed that both the kindly words
and the unkindly got somehow welded into
the very spirit Of the steel, 50 that Masa-
mune's blades prevented quarrels or
brought to their wielders quick victory,
while Muramasas had ia them lurking
instinct for doing mischief sort Of itch
to hurt and wound All sorts of tales
were told to illustrate this. There was
splendid sword of Muamasa, which had
killed by hara-kiri four of its possessors IN
succession. Once, too, when the Shotgun
was handling spear head embedded in
helmet Of one of his warriors, the point
wounded his august hand 'See quickly,
he said, ''what is the mark upon this ac-
cursed iron, for it must be Muramasa /!
And when they came to look at the maker 5
mark, it was indeed spear head from The
grim sword makers, who had chanted the
thirst for blood into his yari and katana.