Customer Reviews

Cutting Edge: Japanese Swords in the British Museum

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In a very few words, this book is informative to both the newcomer and the more advanced collector. The historical and technical information is authoratative and concise, but the best part of the book are the incredible photos of the blades. These are the best photos I have ever seen, you can actually see the hamons and hadas which are also described in the text. It is extremely difficult to take photos like these, and in many books you can see the blade but not the individual characteristics which actually give the beauty to the blade.

This fine volume documents an exhibit of Japanese swords (nihonto) on display at the British Museum circa 2005 (at least, that's when the book was published) along with some background information on nihonto in general. As the authors note, "this book is intended to be a catalogue for the exhibition... and also a guide to the study of Japanese sword blades based on that exhibition."

The book starts with a solid introductory text that covers rough basics about Japanese swords (how they're made, their place in Japanese culture, etc.) and also reviews in reasonable detail a brief history of medieval Japan, along with corresponding changes in sword manufacture over its different eras. This type of information can be found in any of a number of different introductory books elsewhere, but here it has just the right amount of detail on the main epochs of sword making -- Heian, Kamakura, Nambokucho, Muromachi, Momoyama, and Edo. Also included within the intro on a two-page spread is a nice illustration of different characteristics of blades -- kissaki/boshi (tip), hamon ('temper' line), jigane/hada (steel grain), blade cross sections, and nakago (tang) styles. This kind of information can also be found elsewhere, in both more and less detail depending on the book, but it's just about the right amount for the intent of this volume. Even better is a two-pager of representative blades from different eras lined up side-by-side and showing changes in sugata (shape) over time -- unlike other books, they are presented as B&W photos here rather than just line drawings which is very helpful to see defining features.

The real meat of the volume consists of the catalogue listing of the 89 blades from the exhibit. The blades (which include tachi, katana, wakizashi, tanto, and the occasional yari and naginata) are arranged chronologically from when they were made and categorized into Koto, Edo, Shinto, and Shin Shinto eras, with brief descriptions of defining regional traditions and schools (e.g. Bizen, Mino, Echigo, etc.) within those eras, followed by a brief but reasonably detailed description of each exhibit blade (discussing the smith, date of manufacture, sugata, hada, hamon, etc.) and their accompanying koshirae (saya, tsuba, and other fittings). The second section then includes stunningly detailed B&W photos of each blade, both up close so that you can see details of hada and hamon as well as full length shots showing the sugata, tang, and mei (note that all of the blades were brought to full polish prior to the exhibit). In addition, an accompanying photo shows each blade's assembled koshirae -- this British Museum collection seems to have included almost all blades with full mounts. These pages comprise the real strength of the book -- the photos are outstanding and document in rich detail each blade. My only complaint is that there are no color photos of the koshirae, which are obviously ornate with exquisite design and detail, so that B&W doesn't do them justice (though there are about 10 pages of color photos of koshirae elsewhere in the book). Likewise, it would have been nice to see some photos of the unsheathed blades fitted to tsuka and tsuba, but all of the photos are of the naked blade with nagako exposed. Oh, and there is the occasional typo in which the swordsmith listed near the photo doesn't match up with the catalogue description in the text.

Those minor complaints aside, this is an excellent tome that gives a decent introduction to nihonto, and provides a stellar photo-documentary of an outstanding museum grade collection. Aside from the auction books put out by Christie's of the Walter Compton Collection (which are out-of-print, rare, and expensive), I can think of no other English language book that accomplishes this (for less than $25 no less). All in all, an wonderful resource for both the novice who just wants to drool at swords as art, or those beginning kantei (study and appreciation of nihonto) in earnest.