Hank Reinhardt's The Book of the Sword

by Hank Reinhardt

  TYPES OF JAPANESE SWORDS

  Japanese swords present a unique contrast when compared to European swords. Whereas the Europeans tried very many types and styles, straight single-edged, straight double-edged, curved cutting swords, thick butcher-type cleavers, wide and sharply tapering swords, slim thick bars of steel to punch through armor, and later, long thin rapiers, the Japanese adopted one type of sword and stuck with it. It is quite easy to see a sword and tell whether it is Japanese or not.

  Samurai with katana (left) and samurai with tachi (right).

  To the untrained Western eye, all Japanese swords look the same. One might notice that in some the grip is curved and the blade straighter, or that this blade has a little more curve than the other, but that is about all the average Westerner can tell. However, to the trained eye there are many differences, and many experts are stunned to hear someone say that they all look alike. But then I have heard some say the same thing about Viking swords and later medieval ones.

  The Japanese sword can be classified in two ways. When worn thrust through the waist sash with the edge up the sword is called a "katana." When strapped to the waist with the edge down it is called a "tachi."

  Generally speaking, the tachi is usually longer, and often somewhat more curved than the katana. The usual katana has a blade length of about 27 inches, while the tachi has a blade length of 28 inches. But this is a most general statement, and meant only as a rough guide.

  For instance, the great duelist Kojiro Sasaki had a katana about five feet overall, which he called his "clothes pole." He was a contemporary of the most famous Japanese duelist, Myamoto Musashi. Interestingly, I have encountered several versions of Sasaki's duel with Musashi. The most common version has Musashi arriving late to the island. He rows up to the island, out of the rising sun, with a very long oar on his shoulder. He then marches up to Sasaki, who cannot see the length of the oar, and promptly bashes Sasaki in the head. This was perfectly acceptable behavior in ancient Japan. It would appear that equal opportunity was not important as far as dueling was concerned.

  Another important sword was the wakizashi. The wakizashi was a proportionately smaller katana, and made with the same painstaking and loving care that was lavished on its big brother. This was a short sword with a blade length of about 16–20 inches. In the later years, when worn with the katana, the two in combination were called "daisho." Only the samurai were allowed to wear the two swords.

  Reproduction wakizashi. HRC104.

  The wakizashi was a very convenient item to have. In the low-ceiling rooms favored by the Japanese it was a formidable weapon. It was the custom for a samurai to remove his katana when entering a dwelling, but he continued to wear the wakizashi. In sudden encounters, the wakizashi could be quicker out of the scabbard, particularly when the action was close. Musashi, observing the Portugese play with sword and dagger, developed his famous two-sword school, with katana in his right hand, and the wakizashi in his left. (The Portugese first arrived in 1543.) This can be a formidable combination to face under any circumstances and, when the wielder happened to be Musashi, it was really bad.

  Another formidable sword was the "odachi," or as some have it, the "no dachi." In the wonderful film The Seven Samurai this is the sword carried by the Toshiro Mifune character. It is a really long sword, and often they were wider than normal as well, sometimes as much as 1-3/4 of an inch. Sometimes these swords reached lengths of over 5 feet 6 inches. More about these in the following chapter.

  There is one example of a double-edged katana, a very famous sword called "Little Crow." The blade is double-edged for about half its length. It was probably made in the 10th or 11th century. It is a beautiful sword, but the style never gained much favor. I feel that this could been due to two factors. One is that it would be more difficult to produce, and two, the steeper angle required by having two edges would affect some of its cutting power.

  "Little Crow" Japanese sword.

  PHYSIOLOGY AND SWORD DESIGN

  To most Americans original katanas feel somewhat short for a two-handed sword. But the Japanese people were quite short back then. Most of their suits of armor are designed for people with a height range of 5 feet, rarely over 5 feet 2 inches. It is reported in several sources that Musashi was a giant of a man, right at 6 feet tall.

  It is interesting to speculate on how much of their societal development was governed by the food supply. It seems that the food and the food supply not only influenced their politics, but their height as well. Modern Japanese are much taller, and before long will equal the height of the average Westerner. This is due to better quality and quantity of the food supply. I feel sure that many of their fighting techniques were governed by their size and agility. Studies of some of the armor indicate that the leg and arm length were slightly shorter in proportion to the torso than Western armor. This would cause a more closed fighting style, which is what I see in many forms of kendo and kenjutsu. With the average Japanese being more compact, with slightly shorter arms and legs, the movements are shorter and somewhat more controlled. This is why Westerners always look somewhat awkward and ungainly performing the katas associated with Japanese swordplay. In Western fencing, advances are made with strong positive movements of the front leg, usually the right, almost a kick and a stomp. The Japanese advance is just as quick, and maybe even quicker, but the foot is lifted only slightly and almost slid forward, so that the body seems to glide to the attack.

  I feel that this is a subject that could use a lot more study. Is there an ideal way to attack and move based on body type? Leg length, arm length and the type of sword all would have to be considered and taken into account.

  Another curious aspect of Japanese swordplay is their refusal to recognize right- and left-handed forms. All swordplay is taught with the right hand forward in a standard right-handed grip. This is the way it was taught, and if you wish to learn it, this is how you would learn it. It wasn't like you had a choice. I'm not sure that it would make much of a difference, either. Given the nature of Japanese swordplay and the concepts behind it, you do not have some of the problems faced with sword and shield or with fencing.

  A suit of Japanese Late Edo period armor. HRC540.

  Photo by Kenneth Jay Linsner.

  With a sword and a shield, the blows from a left-handed fighter will fall on the unguarded side of a right-handed fighter. In fencing, the parries must be handled differently since the attacks are coming from a different angle, and you must always parry away from the body. With the katana, the basic attacks from left or right are received equally. In the sport of kendo, there are no attacks to the leg. Obviously this wasn't true in battle, as leg armor was worn. But in battle it was rare that two individuals would actually "duel," though this would happen before the battle was joined. Usually a battle was a madhouse of hacking and cutting anything that you had a chance to cut.

  In individual dueling, the legs were not ignored as the formal rules would lead you to believe. This stems from the kendo teaching of ignoring a cut at the leg, and immediately cutting at the head. This technique works fine when the attack is being made with a bamboo sword, but when it is a real blade, then it's altogether different. In many respects this is similar to modern fencing practice, to attack and not guard, but to hit first. This works in sport, but in actual combat gets you killed quickly. One should always remember swordplay has a very strong Christian Principle: It's better to give than receive.

  The early Japanese warriors loved the pomp and ceremony of battle, and each battle would begin with a large number of individual duels. Champions from each side would ride out and announce their heritage and standing, and challenge the champions from the other side. This type of challenge and response has been popular all over the world. It usually was initiated by a ritual verbal exchange, along the lines of "Your mother wears Army boots, your father sleeps with sheep, and I will rip your head off of your shoulders!" But the Japanese have always valued politeness, and I am sure that the
exchanges were more of the, "I am so and so, and I would be greatly honored if you would be kind enough to shoot arrows at me, and I will undertake to do the same." But make no mistake, this politeness only slightly masked a homicidal intent. Such was the Japanese way for war from earliest records to the 13th century. But an event was about to happen that would make great changes in the Japanese world.

  THE MONGOL INFLUENCE

  In 1274 AD, Kublai Khan, grandson of the great Ghengis Khan, and Emperor of China, decided that he wished to conquer Japan. The Mongols were undoubtedly the world's finest horse archers. They were also highly disciplined and utterly ruthless warriors.

  Kublai launched a fleet containing about 30,000 troops, mostly Mongols, with some Korean and Chinese auxiliaries. The first encounters between the Japanese and the Mongols were quite eye-opening and shocking for the Japanese. Used to individualistic forms of warfare, they were not prepared for unit combat. The samurai rode out, announced his heritage and challenged the individual Mongol to fight, and was promptly surrounded and stuck full of arrows fired by whole groups. The wholesale killing and use of terror was also unfamiliar to the samurai, and they were stunned by this. It just wasn't kosher.

  But luck was on their side, and a great storm arose, tearing the Mongol ships from their moorings, sending the ships all over the sea, and consigning many of them to the bottom. With food and support gone, the invasion was effectively destroyed, and fewer than half of the Mongols returned home.

  The Japanese were not stupid, and knew that an invasion could happen again, and made efforts to prepare for it. They were right.

  In 1281 a much larger fleet appeared. This one was reported to have contained over 200,000 men. The Japanese opposed the landing, sent their own ships out, and there was a lot of fierce hand-to-hand combat aboard ships. The Mongols felt they owned the Earth, while the samurai, pugnacious to say the least, were fighting for their homeland. However, the Mongols were able to force a landing, and there matters stood for a day.

  Meanwhile, all of the monks and monasteries and the common people had been praying like crazy for the gods to intervene. Something did. Whether it was the gods or just chance, I can't say, but during the night a mighty wind arose, and a truly terrible storm followed. This time the Mongol losses were much worse, with less than a third of the force reaching home. The Japanese mopped up the few left, and the kami kaze, the Divine Wind, saved Japan once again.

  But the invasion had shown that much of their fighting style was outdated. Many of their swords failed against the heavier armor of the Mongols. As a result, swords became slightly heavier and slightly wider.

  Reproduction yari. HRC93.

  Reproduction naginata. HRC94.

  A little over fifty years later, a civil war between the Ashikaga and the Emperor Go-Daigo broke out. Most of these battles were fought in mountains and wooded areas, where the horse archer was not effective. The spear (yari), naginata and sword proved their worth, and the bow was relegated to a less important role. The naginata was a polearm. It had a wide slightly curving blade, and was quite destructive at about 7 feet in length. Another polearm, the nagamaki, was essentially a long katana on a pole. The blade was usually straighter than the naginata. The use of the bow remained an important martial discipline, but not to the degree that it had once been. Also a part of this decline was the role of horses. Horses were expensive and hard to maintain in a very mountainous country. Only the wealthy could afford them, and only the wealthy had them.

  After this, the spear, naginata and the sword became the principal battle weapons, and as much care and skill went into the making of the spear and naginata blade as did the sword. The Japanese are rightly proud of the forging techniques used in making the sword. I doubt if any other group of people took as much care and time as the Japanese in the making of their swords.

  HOW JAPANESE BLADES ARE MADE

  Once a certain level of technology has been achieved, all sword makers are faced with universal problems: How to make a sword hard enough to cut effectively, without it being so brittle that it is liable to break with a hard blow? How to make sure that the steel is the same quality throughout the blade? This is particularly difficult when you remember that no one really knew why soft iron would turn into hard steel. Often hard steel blooms might be combined with softer iron, and the two would be combined into a single piece, which was then folded, flattened, refolded, etc. This would be done numerous times. Properly done, with a proper fire, this would result in a piece of steel which was homogenous in regards to carbon. This could be turned into a very hard sword, and tempered back, could produce a tough springy weapon. The Japanese carried their efforts a little further. This very hard steel could provide a core, with milder steel wrapped around it. When tempered, a very hard edge was produced, with a softer body that was capable of handling the shock of a hard blow.

  But this wasn't the only method the Japanese sword makers used. At times the hard steel was sandwiched between softer metal, rather than being wrapped all the way around. At other times the soft steel would form the core of the blade, with hard steel wrapped on the outside. All sought to achieve the same thing: a very hard edge with a tough resilient body.

  The tempering process was critical, and every smith had his own set of rules for it. In the West and in the East it might consist of saying so many prayers over the metal, or other ritual activities, such as washing the hands in a prescribed manner, actions that were unknowingly designed to produce the right amount of heat for the right amount of time.

  The Japanese had an interesting method of obtaining the right edge hardness. They would coat the blades with clay. After the clay dried it would be scraped off of the edge in various patterns. The sword would then be heated and quenched. The coating of clay would delay the cooling of the body of the blade, but allow the edge to be cooled very quickly, thus making the edge much harder. The differential cooling also created a different color to the edge than the rest of the blade; this temper line was quite obvious and very beautiful when polished. The various patterns used in creating the temper line are there for a purpose. They are attempts to prevent any crack or chipping of the very hard edge from going up into the blade body. After all, it's rather easy to continue to fight when your sword blade is nicked. In the midst of a really hot fight, I don't think you would even notice a small nick. I wouldn't. But I can guarantee you that I would notice a broken sword. Frankly, I think I would be quite upset!

  Sword blade with temper line.Hank used this sword to cut with at demonstrations. HRC15.

  In part because of the temper line, Japanese swords have a distinctly different look to the blade than do European swords. But the most striking difference is due to the polishing process. In fact I cannot think of any sword that has the same beautiful sheen as does the katana. European blades were polished using buffing wheels and polishing compounds. Finer and finer grits were used until the desired finish was achieved. Sometimes this could be mirror finish, sometimes right below that, and, not infrequently, a very dull finish. After all, mirror polished blades show scratches quite easily. Mirror polishing literally consists of smearing the surface of the steel in such a way as to reflect light evenly. The Japanese took a completely different approach. They used stones for their polishing. The small stones, attached to the end of the fingers, created a surface that was quite flat. They did not smear the surface of the steel, but rather cut and smoothed the granular structure of the metal. This provides a truly beautiful finish, and it brings out the grain structure, and allows one to see the temper line clearly. Another aspect of sword polishing this way is that it actually sharpened the blade. Due to the cutting angle of the blade, when you polished completely, you also sharpened it. Swords were used only in battle and in duels, they were never, never used as merely a cutting instrument. Despite movies and books to the contrary, the samurai did not engage in deadly duels on a daily basis. The sword point was always sharp, and so were the thrusting weapons, the spear and na
ginata.

  A word of caution here. Not all sword makers were good, not all sword makers were honest. Just because a katana is old does not make it a mystical sword, or even a very good one. In this it can be like a European sword. It can be very expensive, not because of its worth as a sword, but because of its age and maybe the name of the man who made it.

  Japanese swords are usually quite sharp, and some of them are extremely sharp. This is achieved by very careful polishing and an almost non-existent cutting bevel. Most swords will have a wedge shape until very close to the edge, and then they will narrow abruptly. This produces a sharp edge, and the abrupt cutting bevel gives it strength. On many swords the cutting bevel is removed, and the resulting edge can be as sharp as the proverbial razor. This is a really terrible weapon when used against flesh and bone, and even padded armor, but it does have some problems when going up against some armor. The samurai were aware of this, and many battle swords were given an "appleseed" edge. This type of edge is popular today, and it is also called a "channel" edge, a "Moran" edge, or a "rolled edge." In this kind of edge the two flat sides of the blade are curved gently to the edge. This provides a very sharp edge, but one that is quite strong. (It was also used in China.) From the drawings you can see that the rolled edge and the abrupt cutting bevel are almost identical. With modern mechanized equipment a rolled edge is easy to attain. But without the use of modern equipment a rolled edge is somewhat harder to achieve.