Page 116 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

cat. 63
Jinbaori with ship's sails,
eighteenth century,
wool and other textiles,
85x100(3372x393/8),
Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation,
Tokyo

us

S W O R D S In the distant past centers of sword making had been located near supplies of iron ore and the forests
needed to make charcoal for the smelting process — places like Bizen and Bitchú on the San'indó and
San'yodó roads, Izumo on the north coast, and Hoki and Bungo provinces in Kyushu. During the Heian
period groups of smiths worked in the Buddhist temples ofYamato province, around Nara, where monks
controlled their estates assisted by force of arms. Other smiths worked in the capital of Kyoto. Sometime
after the middle Heian period the curved single-edged Japanese sword was perfected. The method of
construction involved a repeated folding process that gave a strong laminate structure to the blade,
which was hardened along its cutting edge by a heating and quenching process. When the blade was
painstakingly polished for weeks or longer, the metallurgical effects became visible on the surface: a

grain structure caused by the folding process, varying hues and textures resulting from the heat treat-
ment and the carbon distribution in the body of the blade, and the characteristic hamon, the "badge
of the blade," indicating the hardened edge (see cat. 64). The hamon of the early swords, which were
not controlled, were based on natural phenomena and classified with words for the waves of the sea,
cloud formations, the profile of distant mountains, lightning, drifting sands, and so on.