The Craft of the Japanese Sword (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Hiroko Kapp (Author), Yoshindo Yoshihara (Author) "Only forty years ago, it appeared that the ancient craft of the Japanese sword would die out..." (more)
Key Phrases: scabbard halves, hazuya stone, foundation polishing, Yoshindo Yoshihara, Shimane Prefecture (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Well over a thousand years old, the tradition of swordmaking in Japan is one of the most highly regarded metal crafts in the world. When all sword manufacture was prohibited in Japan for seven years after World War II, the age-old techniques were in danger of being lost forever. Today, in the hands of a new generation of practitioners, the craft is making a startling comeback. Connoisseurs say that the swords being produced now are the equal of anything made in Japan in the past few hundred years.

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.

About the Author

Leon Kapp is a molecular biologist at the University of California in San Francisco. He has studied swordmaking in Japan at the forge of the swordsmith Yoshindo Yoshihara. 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.

The Kapps and Yoshindo Yoshihara have also collaborated on Modern Japanese Swords and Swordsmiths: From 1868 to the Present.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: Kodansha International; 1st edition (June 15, 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087011798X
• ISBN-13: 978-0870117985
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #167,050 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for collectors, swordsmiths, and martial artists..., July 20, 2000

By	Joss Delage (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book goes into the details of the making of a Japanese sword.

I own Sato's "The Japanese Sword : A Comprehensive Guide" as well as Yumoto's "Samurai Sword a Handbook", and they are clearly not as complete as that one (esp. Sato's.)

"The Craft of the Japanese Sword" is amazing in that it has a large number of extremely clear B&W pictures. Those are clear enough to show examples of the steel's grain, of what an utsuri looks like, of what makes nie different from nioi, of the appearance of the hamon at each stage of the polishing, etc. The clarity & quantity of the pictures is the main asset of this book to the katana enthusiast, be they interested in modern or antique swords, made in Japan or not.

The book is also great because of the info it provides on all the stages before the blade is forged (i.e., how to obtain the necessary steel ingot, or tamahagane) and after it is forged (polishing, of course, but also the craft of the scabbard, of the fittings, etc...)

This is a super dense book, packed with info, where not a single line is wasted. I cannot recommend it enough to anyone interested in the Japanese swords, be they swordsmiths, martial artists, or collectors. The book is geared toward the swordsmiths but provide so much info that a martial artist or collector planning to invest into a fine blade should absolutely read that book. This will prevent many a disappointment...

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best intro for the beginner, March 25, 2004

By	magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)

This is probably the best book in English ever written for learning how to understand and appreciate the Japanese sword. When this book first appeared almost 20 years ago, there was little detailed information in English outside of specialist journals and similar publications on how they were made, especially the details of the hand-forging, heat-treating, and tempering methods which are still being done today just as they were thousands of years ago.

By varying the carbon content and temperature of the forge, the smith can either add or remove carbon or oxygen from the steel to get the right carbon content in the finished blade (about 0.7 percent). I enjoyed reading about the tatara, or iron smelter, which wasn't invented in Japan but seems to have originated in Manchuria and then brought to Japan by way of China or Korea. It's during this phase that certain impurities such as sulphur are removed as slag and carbon is added to produce steel, although the resulting steel is still low quality as the distribution of carbon isn't uniform enough to produce a strong sword.

It was also fascinating to learn about how the hamon or temper line is created and made to appear (it marks the boundary between the hard martensite edge and the softer baenite), and the rediscovery of how to create the utsuri, which was highly prized on swords of the Bizen school but was lost for hundreds of years until just recently, and involves another change in the crystalline structure of the steel between the side and the back of the blade. I also learned how to appreciate the different crystal structures (nie and nioi) and textures that make up the appearance of the blade (jintetsu) and what to look for in a good sword. There is also a detailed discussion of the different types of hamon and which are preferred and prized.

Some of the details are humorous and ironic. I learned that a modern swordsmith can legally only make two swords a month. This is because the great smith Mayairi could only make two a month when they standardized on this more than half a century ago. But that's because Mayairi insisted on cutting up his charcoal by hand to make it uniformly fine with a scissors, which took up most of his time. Most smiths crush the charcoal and then use a sieve to select just the right size pieces for the forging process. But because Mayairi was the greatest smith of his time the law was based on his output and has never changed since. This has resulted in many smiths travelling to Taiwan or China to make extra swords for the export market during part of the year to increase their income, since they can't sell them in Japan.

There are also chapters on every phase of the sword-making process, including sharpening and polishing, the making of the habaki, the construction of the saya or scabbard and the other koshirae, or fittings such as the tsuba (guard), and so on. Just the polishing process itself can take two weeks and involve many different steps in terms of the sequence of polishing stones and polishing methods. Also almost all of the stones used are still natural, just like in the old days, some of which can cost thousands of dollars. Dozens of steps are involved as the polisher goes from the coarsest to the finest stones and to the final polishing of the sword. This is the phase during which the hamon can be brought out most strikingly, and the final lines of the sword defined. The polishing of the tip of the sword is a special step by itself, and the mune or back and the groove are actually burnished or rubbed rather than polished, using several different hardened, sharp needles.

The book begins with a brief history of the Japanese sword which covers the different types and styles and covering the characteristics of the five main schools of classical swordmaking, of which the Bizen and Soshu schools today are the most important and prized. The book is profusely illustrated with many photos and drawings of swords and the different aspects and features of the blades, and what they are called. All in all still a fine book on the Japanese sword which has become a modern classic.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the best book available on the subject, April 4, 2000

By	Andrew Limsk (Kuala Lumpur, MY) - See all my reviews

This book suceeds in explaining the truth behind the numerous myths about the Japanese sword, and does it in a concise, complete, and entertaining fashion. For the knife nuts (like this reviewer) who are tired of scholarly translations of Japanese originals cluttered by footnotes and stuffy academic prose, this book is a breath of fresh air. Best of all, this book also covers in detail several related crafts like sword polishing, habaki-making, and scabbard carving which are rarely mentioned in other books. Generous helpings of photographs and diagrams complete the text. For the blade enthusiast, this is the only book you need to buy on the subject.