Curved Katana Rounded Tsuba

When we speak of katanas, we must refer to it as a saber, rather than as a sword. Like all sabers, it is intended for the lunge, not for the cut. It is classified within the daisho, which were the two sabers carried by the samurai. One of them is the wakizashi - shorter - and the other, the katana.

Katanas are originally from Japan around the year 900. Until then, they were straight and single-edged and were called ‘chokuto’, of Chinese origin. In that year, Yasutsuna, a forger from the city of Hoki created the variant that has remained until today. The most famous forgers lived during the next five centuries, almost all of them from five provinces, that gave name to "The Five Schools": Bizen, Yamashiro, Yamato, Soshu and Mino.

From the sixteenth century, the forcers began to be recognized by the Emperor, granting them titles. From that moment until the middle of the 19th century the length of the katanas decreased, as well as their cutting part.

From 1868, the year in which the modernization of Japan began and the feudal system was extinguished, the prestige of the figure of the Samurai declined and production was oriented to exports for collectors from -mainly- the West.

The art of handling the katana, although it is not used today, gave rise to some of the movements used in martial arts, such as judo or karate. Today, driving is kept alive by the practice kendo. This saber can be wielded with one or two hands. They dream of weighing a little more than a kilo (between 2 and 3 Ibs) and its measure approximates 43 inches, with a blade of about 28 inches.

Katanas, like most cutting weapons made in Japan, were produced by a method called repetitive heating, which consisted in folding and joining the metal. This practice - which was characteristic of this area- is due to the fact that the metals that we find in the Japanese archipelago, in general, are highly impure. The steel is covered with dust clay and charcoal. Clay cools at high speed, while the heart of the saber takes longer. During this process, the katanas obtain their characteristic form. Blacksmiths do not harden the entire saber, but only the part that is sharp. The fact that they are formed by a hard side and a tough side helps make this saber highly resistant.

All katanas are made of steel and, although today it is easy to obtain, in the past, Japanese artisans -called kaji- made them through a manual process that took more than a month to complete. In addition, they used to be embellished with engraved drawings called ‘horimonos’.