Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-09-22
JAPAN'S FINE SWORDS
Blades That Are Famous the Whole World
Over.
Royal Family Learns the Sword
makers Art-Prayers an ImpOrt-
ant Factor in Manufacture.
From the New York Post.

teHtloHS he lOHS-Tdf Tllie Is
the weapon of the army now. but the MAX
| ing of swords still abserbs the interest Of
Japanese connoisseurs.
The government still fosters the art to
which emperors and princes have not dis
dained to serve apprenticeship. There
is one family which has been famous for
| Its swords for twelve centuries, and sword
| inspectors appointed and paid by the gov
ernmenO whose forefathers have passed
the office and its traditions to their chill
dren through 800 years The swordmaker
holds himself among the elect, and the
swordmaking is surrounded with all the
mystery of the Nibelungen legend.
The first sword. so the old story runs,
was the tail of terrible dragon. which
was vanQuished by the use of mirror and
crystal about the year 80 A. D., but the
earliest date any sword now known to
exist places the time of its origin at A. ID.
702. Copper and bronze were used at first,
and steel and iron did not appear until the
twelfth century.
Many of the forgers secrets died with
their families and the blades of 1890 and
1910 are most priced. 1t was about that
time that Masamune and his pupil Mura-
masa made their swords AS he struck
the iron old Masamune would chant,
Peace on earth, peace on earth, peace on
earth" 1t was a strange dedication for
war weapon, but Masamune, swordmaker
he was, had humanitarian ideas, ana
believed, like some great warriors of
later century, that the sword was the sur
est peacemaker.
Muramasa. his pupil, was of a different
mind and his chant was always. War on
earth; war on EARTH His blades were
unlucky. and when they struck home in
fight could not be withdrawn. They We're
such bad, quarrel-making swords that the
wearing of them was forbidden. Such ira.
ditions are associated with the name of
nearly every famous swordmaker in the
history of the art.
chi a1,- ling Ia
oldest heavy and doube-edged Later,
fencing swords Of lighter weight were
made, but armor was introduced they
became heavier again An old law pro-
hibits more than two blades to be worn by
any one. The sword badge of dig
nifty, and certain proud noblemen, it is
said. began to wear too many. me long
sword was given to a servant who carried
# before his master and when the master
went visiting it was received at the door
and placed on rack.
The long sword in japanese etiquette was
treated .ch like the silk hat of occidental
civilization There We're swords for all
classes of society. from ladies of the mill
tary class to tradesmen, and the position IN
which the blade was worn. Perpendicular
curve up or curve down, conveyed some de!-
icate difference in the WearerS condition IN
life.
The etiquette of swords is observed in
Japan today very much as it has been OBJ
served for centuries. To draw sword
from its scabbard without permission Is as
insulting to its owner as to open his let
tiers. Blades that bear the dates of the
eighth and ninth centuries are as good now
as when they We're forged. without nick
or a spot of rust. The sword is always
withdrawn very slowly, the scabbard held
horizontally and the blade resting on the
back as ii slides out.
Lest the faintest breath should reach the
steel the connoisseur, when he shows val
liable sword, and the guest to whom he
shows it wear shields of paper over the
of their faces The b,aUe is
hardled with silk to touch it with the bare
hand is affront to its owner. Climatic
changes carefully guarded against.
Capt. Zalinsk who was in Japan at the
time of the China-Japan war wanted to
see how they We're made, and by the en-
peror's permission induced the imperial in
structor in swordmaking in the school of
fine arts in Toxic to give a demonstration
of his work. The swordSmith prepared for
work by prayer and penance, fasting and
cold ablutons; religious articles We're placed
about in the forge room: little wisps of
straw stuck here and there, and folded
pa ers hung over the forge.
Unless he offered prayer while he work
ed, it was explained the art was not
thought To be complete. 1t was on the
principle that a bad man made a bad
sword, and only a good man. throwing his
heart and soul into it, could make q good
sword. Each family o. sWordsmiths has
its own secrets which it guards jealousy.
the special characteristics of their swords
remaining the same century after century.
The swordmaker took two pieces of steel,
one of which was chilled in water and
broken. He chose for his sword the piece
that looked well at the break. and welded
them, folding them over fifteen times or
more. Four such bars We're made and COM
binGd, some times being plunged INTO water,
but more often cooled in straw ashes. He
would hammer the bar out long and bend
it double; hammer it broad and fiat and
fold it down the middle.
Some SwOrdmakerS, the captain was told,
folded their bars diagonaly. When all was
finished the forger had made some four
million fine layers 1t was this that gave
the sword its "hada,' or skin, an almost
imp erceptible granular appearance running
lengthWise, or sdewise, diagonally, ac-
cording to the method of folding Some OF
the swords, by peculiar treatment, turn
ed out pure and sheer and showed no such
g1ain
With a drawknife the swordmaker shaped
his hot steel, and then began the tempering,
with accompaniment of prayers and much
religious observance. The forge room was
darkened, to make it easier to judge the
right glow of the steel on the forge. The
blade was covered with loan or clay from
to three-sixteenths of an inch thick,
and narrow strip was scraped bare at the
cutting edge Various smiths with varied
fancies, scrape it off with straight or den
tated or wavy lines, and the pattern always
remains after the tempering Is over.
The blade was heated, with great care,
that 1t should have just the right cherry
glow, and plunged into the bath. Here, too,
.
family dictate different methods Some
plunge the sword in perpendicularly, some
horizontally, with the blade downward,
some with the edge downward. The blade
was kept in constant motion. The part that
had been covered with loan was very soft
when the steel had cooled; the part that
had been scraped bare very hard The
curve of the finished blade was marvel Of
accuracy.
The finished sword is usually engraved
with the makers signature. but the best
smiths are so proud of their work, and 1t
has to the expert eye 80 much individual
ity that they disdain any signature. The
sword is finished on a milestone by careful
and tedious rubbing, and is polished with
fine stone and rice powder Some ancient
rule of the art has fixed upon winter as the
best season for polishing sword.
To be really valuable and worthy of a
place in a nobleman's collection the blade
must be tried at execution, on one or
more men at a single blow.
There are other tests, such as cutting
coins, hairs and leaves, but these minor
forms, like most Of the other details of
swordmaking. are often hereditary. and the
maker tries his blade on exactly the same
objects and with the same ceremonies that
were used by his Observation-Disclosures
and his ancestors before him.
A large number of the swords bought by
strangers in Japan and taken home to be