Masamune

Masamune (正宗), also known as Goro Nyudo, is widely recognized as Japan's greatest swordsmith. No exact dates are known for Masamune's life, but it is generally agreed that he made most of his swords in the early-to-mid 1300s. He created swords, known as katana in Japanese, in the Soshu tradition.

Style

The swords of Masamune have a reputation for superior beauty and quality, remarkable in a period where the steel necessary for swords was often impure. He is considered to have brought the art of 'nie' (martensitic crystals embedded in pearlite matrix, thought to resemble stars in the night sky) to its perfection.

Masamune studied under Shintogo Kunimitsu and made blades in suguha but he made magnificient notare hamon which has never been found in Kunimitsu's. There are also some blades with ko-midare which appears to have been copied from the Old Bizen and Hoki Province styles. His works are well characterized by rich chikei and kinsuji, and beautiful nie. Swords created by Masamune often are referred to with the smith's name (much the same way that other pieces of artwork are), often with a name for the individual sword as well. The Honjo Masamune, a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate and passed down from one shogun to another, is perhaps the best known Masamune sword.

Signed works of Masamune are rare. The examples "Fudo Masamune", "Kyogoku Masamune", and "Daikoku Masamune" are acceptable as his genuine works. Judging from his style, he was active from the late Kamakura era to the Nanboku-cho era. His are the most frequently cited among the swords listed in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho, a catalogue of excellent swords in the collections of daimyos edited during the Kyoho era by Hon-ami.

The few works of Masamune that remain all have the legal status either as Japan's national treasures or part of the imperial regalia. Of these, about half are short tantō, half are standard length katanas. But of the katanas, roughly half were originally constructed as longer No-dachi, but are shortened in later generations to their current lengths.

Comparison with Muramasa

The swords of Masamune are often contrasted with those of Muramasa, another Japanese swordsmith. Muramasa has alternatively been described (incorrectly) as a full contemporary of Masamune, or as Masamune's student. Since Muramasa dated his work, it is known he worked right around 1500 AD, and as such he lived too late to have met Masamune. In legend and fantasy, Muramasa's blades are described as bloodthirsty or evil while Masamune's are considered the mark of an internally peaceful and calm warrior.

A legend tells of a test where Muramasa challenged his master, Masamune to see who could make a finer sword. They both worked and worked and eventually, when both swords were finished, they decided to test the results. The contest was for each to suspend the blades in a small creek with the cutting edge facing the current. Muramasa's sword cut everything that passed its way; fish, leaves floating down the river, the very air which blew on it. Highly impressed with his pupil's work, Masamune lowered his sword into the current and waited patiently. Not a leaf was cut, the fish swam right up to it, and the air hissed as it gently blew by the blade. After a while, Muramasa began to scoff at his master for his apparent lack of skill in his making of his sword. Smiling to himself, Masamune pulls up his sword, dries it, and sheathes it. All the while, Muramasa was heckling him for his sword's inability to cut anything. A monk, who had been watching the whole ordeal, walked over and bowed low to the two sword masters. He then began to explain what he had seen.

"The first of the swords was by all accounts a fine sword, however it is a blood thirsty, evil blade as it doesn't discriminate as to who or what it will cut. It may just as well be cutting down butterflies as severing heads. The second was by far the finer of the two, as it doesn't needlessly cut that which is innocent and undeserving."

In another account of the story, both blades cut the leaves that went down on the river's current equally well, but the leaves would stick to the blade of Muramasa whereas they would slip on past the Masamune after being sliced. Or alternatively both leaves were cut, but those cut by Masamune's blade would reform as it traveled down the stream.

In yet another story Muramasa and Masamune were summoned to make swords for the Shogun or Emperor and the finished swords were held in a waterfall. The result is the same as the other stories, and Masamune's swords are deemed holy swords. In one version of the story Muramasa is killed for creating evil swords.

While all known legends of the two ever having met are historically impossible, both smiths are widely regarded as symbols for their respective eras. Muramasa lived during the Sengoku Jidai or Warring states period, and so his swords were used for war and are considered killing weapons. Masamune is said to have lived in a more peaceful time, when swords were works of art instead of weapons and swordsmiths were philosophers.