Samurai Weaponry

Samurai Weaponry

Although armor is what boasts the courage of the samurai, the sword is subtly and irrevocably interlinked with the culture and art aesthetic of the age. The sword as a weapon itself is a high crafted piece of technology. As a measure of Japanese history and advancement in technologies, each sword represents its age and artists with little details such as the curve of the blade and the style of the hilt.

The Japanese were also very spiritual; each part of their daily regimen was filled with discipline for the spirit and the mind. The Japanese sword could also be considered as a holy object, in its own right, due to the daily devotion to learning the morals behind it and the physical technique to perfect its motions. As an art object, it is the only kind of steel that posses an intrinsic beauty, a commitment, and a radiating energy of its own. Through swordplay and daily adherence to the code of the samurai, the sword became an object of enlightenment for the samurai.


National Geographic: Making the Samurai Sword
http://www.asianart.org/blog/index.php/2009/05/01/making-a-samurai-sword/