A or is a

Japanese sword A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794 – 1185) to t ...

. The word is used in the West to refer to a specific type of Japanese straight, double-edged sword used in antiquity (as opposed to curved, single-edged swords such as the

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge ...

). In Japanese the term ''tsurugi'' or ''ken'' ( :ja:剣) is used as a term for all sorts of international long, double-edged swords.

History

The term ''tsurugi'' (剣) designates a straight, double-edged, bladed weapon from Japan. It is a sword, which means that this weapon has two edges, one on each side of its blade, unlike the ''

tachi A is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword (''nihonto'') worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. ''Tachi'' and ''katana'' generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on t ...

'', ''

'', '' wakizashi'' or '' odachi'', which have only one cutting edge, on one of the two sides of the blade. The oldest bronze sword excavated in Japan is a Chinese style dagger from around 800 BC in the

Yayoi period The started at the beginning of the Neolithic in Japan, continued through the Bronze Age, and towards its end crossed into the Iron Age. Since the 1980s, scholars have argued that a period previously classified as a transition from the Jōm ...

(1000 BC – 300 AD). A large number of bronze ''tsurugi'' made around 200 B.C. in the Yayoi period were excavated from several sites, and it is thought that ''tsurugi'' were mass-produced in Japan in this period. Bronze ''tsurugi'' of this period were mainly used for religious services. The Yayoi period was the transition period from bronze to iron.Kazuhiko Inada (2020), ''Encyclopedia of the Japanese Swords''. p30. However, the iron ''tsurugi'' were usually forged from the 5th century (

Kofun period The is an era in the history of Japan from about 300 to 538 AD (the date of the introduction of Buddhism), following the Yayoi period. The Kofun and the subsequent Asuka periods are sometimes collectively called the Yamato period. This period is ...

) to the 9th century (

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japan ...

). From the 10th century, the development of the curved ''

'' began, from which the ''

'' emerged. For a long time, ''tsurugi'' were made as weapons or for religious services, but before the 10th century, they completely disappeared as weapons and came to be made only as offerings to

Shinto shrines A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more '' kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The ''honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

and Buddhist temples. One of the most famous ''tsurugi'' is the one made in the

(794－1185) owned by Kongō-ji and stored by Kyoto National Museum. It is made to imitate the sword '' Fudo Myōō'' holds in his right hand, and the hilt is in the shape of a vajra, a Buddhist altar tool.現世稀なる文化財.
Kongo-ji File:Tsurugi forged by Fujiwara Kunimichi.jpg, The Tsurugi was forged by Fujiwara Kunimichi in 1654 during the

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was character ...

. It was made into an offering to

Susanoo __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory charact ...

, the main enshrined ''

kami are the deities, divinities, spirits, phenomena or "holy powers", that are venerated in the Shinto religion. They can be elements of the landscape, forces of nature, or beings and the qualities that these beings express; they can also be the sp ...

'' of Yasaka Shrine. File:Tsurugi forged by Fujiwara Nobutaka.jpg, Tsurugi forged by Fujiwara Nobutaka. 17th century, Edo period.

Kyushu National Museum The opened on October 16, 2005 in Dazaifu near Fukuoka—the first new national museum in Japan in over 100 years, and the first to elevate the focus on history over art.Japan National Tourist Organization Museum "focuses on history."/ref> The ...

File:Yellow-Fudo-manshu.jpg, An example of '' Fudo Myōō'' with a sword. 12th century,

. Manshu-in,

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

Nowadays it is mainly associated with very remote historical times, as well as legends and

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narra ...

. There are some similarities with some variants of Chinese

Jian The ''jian'' (pronunciation （劍）, English approximation: ) is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the ''jian'' date to the 7th century BCE, during the Spring and ...

(called Chugokuken (中国剣) in Japanese).

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi

The most famous example is the legendary sword "

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi is a legendary Japanese sword and one of three Imperial Regalia of Japan. It was originally called , but its name was later changed to the more popular ("Grass-Cutting Sword"). In folklore, the sword represents the virtue of valor. Legend ...

" which is one of the Three

Imperial Regalia of Japan The are the imperial regalia of Japan and consist of the sword , the mirror , and the jewel . They represent the three primary virtues: valour (the sword), wisdom (the mirror), and benevolence (the jewel).

Tsurugi-tachi

The Tsurugi-tachi -剣太刀, a straight sword with only one side of the blade sharpened throughout, was similar to the Tsurugi or Ken. The other (back) side was only worked into a second cutting edge in the front part near the tip.

Literature

* Toshiro Suga: ''Ken, die Wurzeln des Aikido / Ken, les racines de l'Aïkido von Toshiro Suga (DVD).'' Hagenow Ondefo-Verl., 2006, ISBN 978-3-939703-40-2.

References

Ancient swords of Japan Japanese swords {{Sword-stub

History

Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi

Tsurugi-tachi

Literature

See also

References