Taken in Anger Taken in Anger

The Legend of the Japanese Masamune Swords

Some legends and some insufficiently versed fencing masters often say that Muramasa and Masamune masters were contemporaries and a certain type of rivals, but this a banal historical error. The master called Honjo Masamune was one of the most famous Japanese armourers and lived at least two centuries earlier, from 1288 to 1328, at the end of the Kamakura era. He worked in the Sagami province and was famous for creating the revolutionary 13th century technology of sword production- Sosyu. This is a layered type of forging where strips of steel with different contents of carbon are welded and forged several times (a total of 128 layers of steel). This type of technology made the swords much stronger than other swords. According to the legend, in comparison to the Muramasa swords, Masamune swords gave the owner calmness and safety during combat. Japanese sword fighters highly respected these swords. The legend says that the master didn't even sign his swords because no one else could forge them anyway (no one else was able to produce this type of swords). According to the legend, when sword fighters would compete and compare whose sword was better, the Masamune swords didn't touch anything that would "deserve” death, in comparison to Muramasa swords. Also, according to a legend from the end of World War II, an American soldier, Sargeant Koldo Bimor, was gifted one of the best Masamune swords. Although many collectors offered him a lot of money, the sword was never seen again and no one knows where it is located today.

David “Sensei“ Stainko – Mag. of kinesiology

Master 8th Dan - mixed martial sciences www.borilastvo.com info@borilastvo.com david.stainko@skole.hr

DAVID "SENSEI" STAINKO, prof. | mag.of kinesiology nfo@borilastvo.com

+385 51 275-629 Rupnjak 2, 51213 Jušići, Croatia https://borilastvo.com