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Samurai Swords Fact Sheet
The first real samurai swords we're actually straight bladed, single edged weapons imported from Korea and China known as chokuto, which were later replaced with the curved blade variety at the end of the 8th Century. The name of the curved blade swords which replaced them was Tachi. The reason for this transformation was samurai found that a curved sword could be drawn from the scabbard more swiftly and provided a far more effective cutting angle.
The point of a samurai sword is called a Kissaki. This is the hardest part of the sword to polish and forge and to hand create a quality one would require an extremely skillful artisan. The value of a sword is determined largely by the quality of the point.
Samurai swords practice and safety
Samurai would use wooden swords (Bokken) for practice for safety reasons aswell as for preserving their real swords from unneccesary damage.
The samurai would give names to their samurai swords as they believe in the sword lived their warrior spirit.
Types of samurai swords
There are three main types of samurai sword. 1: Katana: The longest type of sword, over 24inches, generally used for outdoor combat. 2: Wakizashi: Around a third shorter than the Katana at between 12 and 24 inches, this was worn in indoor establishments by samurai for its obvious better manouverability indoors. 3: Tanto: A small knife used in much the same manner as a Wakizashi.
Making samurai swords
As part of the samurai sword making process a sword tester took the new blade and cut through the bodies of corpses or condemned criminals. They started by cutting through the small bones of the body and moved up to the large bones. Test results were often recorded on the nakago (the metal piece attaching the sword blade to the handle).
Shogun is the name of the most powerful samurai, and they would wear two samurai swords. A Katana and a Wakizashi. They had a license to dismember anybody who offended them.
Early samurai would fight on horseback, and they're weaponry in addition to samurai swords was bows and arrows and of course armor
Bound by Honour: Honourable Death of The Samurai
Everybody has heard the famous term 'fight 'til the death', well nowhere would this term be more true and befitting than in the world of the Japanese Samurai. Each samurai knew the code of honour, this code must be upheld at all costs even to the warriors own demise.
When in battle samurai would seek an enemy of the same rank to duel with. Charging into battle yelling their family's name and rank. When the samurai entered battle, they knew at least one of them would not be leaving alive, for it was part of the samurai's code that the victor would take the life of the defeated.
If death wasn't administered by the samurai's conqueror then the samurai would impose it upon himself in a savage suicide known as seppuku. This involved disembowelling himself with his own weapon, and then allowing a friend or fellow samurai to behead him.
Honour came above all else for the samurai and this ritual would ensure even the defeated retained his honour.
The samurai epitomized the true warrior; they lived by the code and died by the code. A samurai didn't fear death, for to die during battle or because of a battle, victorious or not, was an honourable death and to be respected by all.
The only thing a samurai feared was breaking the code and the disgrace it would bring upon his family name, and the name of his clan, his daimyo and himself.
Samurai Armor Part 2:
When people think of the samurai, generally the first thing which comes to mind is the swords which they used, often this may be the only thing which comes to mind and is as far as the researchers interest extends.
Samurai Armor is a hugely important and equally fascinating, but unfortunately a very often overlooked aspect of the samurai tradition.
The first attempts the samurai made at protective armor was of the solid metal plating kind, which curbed the samurai's ability to manoeuvre so badly due to its weight and non-flexibility, it was quickly found to be detrimental to the wearer.
This, of course, was the complete opposite of what the samurai were trying to achieve, so development of this type of armor was quickly abandoned. Instead the samurai looked to other forms of armor which would protect them but not take away from their manoeuvrability.
Manoeuvrability, after all, is the key reason by which the samurai were such effective warriors. Instead the samurai moved in the direction of having numerous tiny plates tied together usually by leather laces, rather than simply one big solid rigid plate.
Samurai culture and indeed Japanese fighting methods are often attributed to nature and its movements, and the development of this 'fish scale' armor it is thought may actually of come about from this observation.
What the samurai didn't do however, was to make the suit in its entirety of metal 'scales' due to the fact it would of weighed around the same, if not more due to overlapping of scales as a whole rigid suit.
Instead, the samurai decided on the most vulnerable places of the human body and placed the stronger metal scales here. Elsewhere where protection was needed on the body thick leather scales would be in place.
