How much battle did these swords see?

[diprivanman]

Ok, this might be a silly question but I have been wondering about it for a while now.

 

All these beautiful and very old Japanese swords. Most of the ones for sale are almost pristine, with no nicks or chips or anything in the blades.

Now if these swords were used in battle over hundreds of years one would think they would have numerouse scars of battle.. But most of the swords don't have any scars.

So does this mean

1) The swords that we are currently lucky enough to enjoy were fortunate enough to avoid most war and battle over the many centuries so they never got damaged

2) Polishing of the swords can remove almost all of the scars of battle

or

3) These surviving swords were so well made that they did not suffer 'scars' despite being in many battles.

 

I suppose it is probably a combination of all three, and a series of lucky events that have allowed the swords to survive.

It would be interesting to be a passenger on the journey of a nihonto through history.

 

Mike

[USMC-LCPL]

Polishing probably had alot to do with it. It's amazing to see some "before and after" shots that some polishers put up on their websites.

 

But you also have to remember that many of these swords were made when their wasn't any war going on. Many more were made for civilians as self defense weapons and never had to be used.

 

I'm sure there are a TON of swords we see in pristine condition that saw action, but alot never got the chance.

[Ichi]

A Japanese friend once told me that he used nihonto to cut woods for his family when he was young. He had a dozen or so swords to play around with and they were literally left out to be rusted. He's from Fukushima and probably from a samurai class. Those swords were obviously unregistered, and I presume there were lots of them like these lying down after the WW2.

 

What we are seeing in the market may be just a small tip of the pyramid- the one that survived the action and kept in mint condition.

[Guest Simon Rowson]

Earlier this year, I went to the sword museum in Tokyo to see the blades that had just been awarded Juyo ranking and a few had sword cuts in the mune and across the shinogi that would be impossible to polish out.

(one even had the chip of the opponent's blade still left in situ!)

 

Simon