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Hardcover
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Overview
This book takes the reader into the workshops of four of Japan's leading sword craftsmen. Each craftsman has a different role in the manufacture of a blade. Yoshindo Yoshihara, the swordsmith, begins with raw steel made in a traditional charcoal-fueled smelter and refines it by folding and forging, gradually shaping it into a sword with a hardened edge. Okisato Fujishiro then sharpens and polishes the sword with fine stones to reveal the color and texture of the steel. Metalworker Hiroshi Miyajima makes the small copper-and-gold habaki collar that fits between the blade and the scabbard. Finally, Kazuyuki Takayama carves the hilt and the scabbard out of a single piece of wood. Black-and-white photographs show every stage of the manufacture, while important information on history, metallurgy, and modern-day appraisal is presented in an extensive introduction.
The swords made in Japan today are not, of course, intended for actual use. But their design, the quality of their steel, and the techniques used to create them still derive from the sword's historical function as a lethal hand-held weapon. A sword must be razor sharp, light, well balanced, and strong, but not so brittle it will break. In the perfect resolution of these qualities lie the beauty of the blade and the challenge of the craft.
This book demonstrates how brilliantly Japan's sword craftsmen today have met this technological challenge. The impulse of the craft now is to preserve the utilitarian object and yet create an enduring art for the modern age. While many fine books on sword appreciation exist, these deal primarily with older blades or problems of appraisal. The Craft of the Japanese Sword is the first book in English devoted entirely to contemporary sword manufacture, and will thus be of enormous value to metal artists everywhere, as well as to collectors and students of weaponry.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781568364315 |
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Publisher: | Kodansha USA |
Publication date: | 09/07/2012 |
Pages: | 168 |
Sales rank: | 733,186 |
Product dimensions: | 7.50(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.70(d) |
About the Author
HIROKO KAPP was active as a graphic artist in Tokyo for ten years and is now a correspondent for the Tokyo-based Senken news organization. The Kapps live in San Rafael, California.
YOSHINDO YOSHIHARA is a tenth-generation swordsmith who is ranked among the top sword craftsmen in Japan today. He began forging blades at the age of twelve and has exhibited several times in the United States. His son is currently working with him and will become the eleventh generation of the family to carry on the tradition.
Read an Excerpt
As important as the carbon content is the quality of the metal, the jitetsu, and its surface pattern, the jihada. The forged metal, having been folded thirteen times or more, becomes a kind of metallic pastry dough, consisting of layer upon layer--some 16,000 or more--per inch of steel. The arrangement of these layers can be controlled, and on a well-polished blade they appear as distinct patterns. If at the beginning of finish forging the smith combines blocks of steel from different foundation-forged batches (which he often does), the different carbon steel strata will show up as contrasting lines along the unburnished sections of the final blade. Shinshinto smiths often used this technique to make very flashy-looking swords.