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Japanese swordsmithing is the labour-intensive bladesmithing process developed in Japan beginning in the sixth century for forging traditionally made bladed weapons [1] [2] including katana, wakizashi, tantō, yari, naginata, nagamaki, tachi, nodachi, ōdachi, kodachi, and ya.
The process of making tamahagane continues for 36–72 hours (a day and a half to three days), depending on how many people work and how much metal is to be obtained. Within an hour of smelting, the iron sand sinks to the bottom, called the bed of fire, in which it will be assessed by color to determine which parts of the smelt will be combined ...
A tantō (短刀, ' short blade ') [1] is a traditionally made Japanese knife [2] (nihontō) [3] [4] that was worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The tantō dates to the Heian period, when it was mainly used as a weapon but evolved in design over the years to become more ornate.
According to the record of June 1, 1430 in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, a Korean swordsmith who went to Japan and mastered the method of making Japanese swords presented a Japanese sword to the King of Korea and was rewarded for the excellent work which was no different from the swords made by the Japanese. [27] [28]
In the United States, the term kirigami was coined by Florence Temko from Japanese kiri, ' cut ', and kami, ' paper ', in the title of her 1962 book, Kirigami, the Creative Art of Paper cutting. The book achieved enough success that the word kirigami was accepted as the Western name for the art of paper cutting.
However, to maintain the quality of Japanese swords, the Japanese government limits the number of Japanese swords a swordsmith can make in a year to 24 (up to 2 swords per month). Therefore, many of the swords called "Japanese sword" distributed around the world today are made in China, and the manufacturing process and quality are not authorized.
Early Japanese iron-working techniques are known primarily from archaeological evidence dating to the Asuka period (538–710 CE). Iron was first brought to Japan during the earlier Yayoi period (900 BCE to 248 CE). Iron artifacts of the period include farm implements, arrowheads, and rarely a knife blade.
Just before making contact, the kaishakunin grips the handle (tsuka) with both hands, giving precision to the katana ' s blade and strength to the downward cut . The final cut must be controlled in order to reach only half the neck of the samurai; the kaishaku, leaving the required skin to hold the head attached to the samurai's body, was ...