Samurai Swords and Japanese History

By: Derek Dashwood

In the history of Japan and Japanese antiques shop sets you will find that if you were allowed around the sacred halls and rooms in either an ancient Japanese Antiques Shop or a neighborhood home, that there amidst all the fragile and delicate art work you will find a family or ceremonial Samurai sword. That this is as natural a part of Japanese life as pink blossoms on the fabled Japanese cherry blossoms in the spring. One way that can be helpful can be to break down each era in Japanese eras.

Japanese eras are recorded from around the time of Christ. This era can mark the creation of one Japanese nation under Jimmu, around the birth of Christ. Jimmu was the first emperor of all Japan. But this fully independent confidence was shaken for a thousand years. Japan's period of independence of outside influence ended in AD 284 when Buddist priests arrived from Korea or China. This explosion of independent minded thinking, and the splendour of silkens and woven garments from China gave the people of Japan an inferiority feeling that lasted the next thousand years.

And then, after all that, in 1271 and 1284 came two great armadas of Chinese naval forces intended to dominante Japan. Heroic forces and two typhoons gave relief and victory to the Japanese. Since then, protection of the homeland has been foremost in the Japanese mind set and the rewards given to the blacksmiths were substantial for perfecting more powerful swords. During these years, the capital of Japan kept being moved around depending of the preference of the reigning shogun, king or emperor as they would prefer. Edo, which became Toyko, only became capital in te 1600's, the capital had been Kyoto for many years.

But it was particularly in the decades after the second failed Mongol invasion that all steel workers and warriors knew that an attack was possible again and they must be more prepared. Blacksmiths worked on the Samurai sword, a new higher level of specialized weapon for the warrior. So the amazing new Samurai sword was crafted from many levels of steel and created in a heat layer by layer effect, making a very sharp blade and a blade that did not bend. These swords were almost destroyed at the end of World War Two.

It was then that General MacArthur alllowed art forms swords to be left out of the list of all military swords had to be turned in and destroyed. It was only this last minute reprieve that has allowed thousands of ceremonial and art swords to be saved. The majority of these are in the United States, mostly with retired military men, many now in military memorabilia shops.Whether your interest in swords has you looking down this memory lane, it is likely something in here will strike your eye, gently.

Article Source: http://www.articlepro.co.uk/international

Derek Dashwood enjoys noticing positive ways we progress, the combining of science into the humanities to measure life at Japanese Antiques

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