Katana Info

Table of Content How Sharp Are Katanas? Understanding The Sharpness Of Your Katana Role Of Material And Forging In The Sharpness Of A Katana Tameshigiri- The Ancient Art of Testing Katanas How Sharp Are Katanas?  The sharpness of Katanas is mythic. You probably remember a scene or two from Samurai movies where shocked villains find themselves sliced in half in the blink of an...

How Much Does A Katana Cost? The popularity of the katana, in general, has been on the rise in the West since WWII. Pop culture has also done wonders for the katana’s popularity in the past few decades. All that popularity means many people would like to own one if given the chance. But it gets pretty tricky when you try to buy a...

Naginata 薙刀, looks basically like a katana with long handle, is actually one of famous weapon in Japanese history. It's a pole weapon, but it is often be seen as something primarily practiced by women. However, the Naginata was a preferred long-handled weapon used by Samurai during the Nanboku-cho period, a time of civil war that divided Japan for half a century. In this article, we...

What is Gunto 軍刀 (Japanese military sword)  Gunto (Japanese military swords) refers to the swords that Japanese soldiers carry since the Meiji period, because they are widely used in WW2, often times they are also known as Japanese WW2 swords. The design of Gunto has many things in common with Katana. It is because after the Meiji Restoration, the new Japanese government adopted Western swords...

What is Koshirae 拵 "Koshirae" 拵 means the external mountings of a katana sword used for carrying, including the scabbard (saya), hilt (tsuka), handguard (tsuba) etc. It's a collective term for the decorative parts of a Japanese sword, known as "sword fittings". Koshirae serves three main functions: protection of the katana blade, enhancement of practicality, and demonstration of the owner's dignity. Technically speaking, in Japanese, swords refer...