The process

[BIG]

Nice you tube..

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3BbJhjlSklE

 

Best

[Surfson]

Very nice video of building and running a tatara forge.  I wonder if there is a way for a gaijin to get involved in this somewhere in Japan?  It would be very interesting.  Does anybody know how many days it takes to run it once lit?   

[Brano]

This is one of the first videos I found at the beginning of my interest. Unfortunately, it is only in the Czech language.

In the video, they state that they will use approximately 26 tons of ferrous sand and pine charcoal in the smelting. The whole process takes about 3 days

https://www.mojevideo.sk/video/1ab2d/katana_(dokument).html

[Bazza]

Nice you tube..

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3BbJhjlSklE

 

Best

Nice find Peter, BUT - if one lets the video roll on there are at least another three very interesting videos as far as I watched.  I'll go back and spend more time there, hower I did find this one of great interest indeed:

 

BaZZa.

[Bruce Pennington]

Nice find Peter, BUT - if one lets the video roll on there are at least another three very interesting videos as far as I watched.  I'll go back and spend more time there, hower I did find this one of great interest indeed:

 

BaZZa.

WOW! Thanks for finding that! I had originally googled to see if the movie was based on any facts, but mistakenly only read the Wiki on the movie, which didn't address the question at all. After watching this, I found a great page about Brunet, which discussed his adventure and gave some more details than the video gives.

 

here: https://allthatsinteresting.com/last-samurai-true-story-jules-brunet#:~:text=Not%20many%20people%20know%20the,use%20modern%20weapons%20and%20tactics.

[Surfson]

There are other videos about the true story of the last samurai out there that also focus on the Boshin war.  It does cross over with sword collecting, though it marked the end of the samurai and the carrying of swords.  Of course, carrying swords came back quickly in the military ranks of the new civilian government.  There was a Munetsugu tanto on Yuhindo that was made at the beginning of that period by Koyama Munetsugu (one of the more famous shinshinto smiths) and was owned by Prince Tomomi Iwakura that can be found here:

 

https://yuhindo.com/munetsugu/

 

As it turns out, I picked up a very similar tanto (I believe discussed on NMB) made by Koyama Munetsugu that has sayagaki referring to it being carried both in the Boshin War as well as in WWII.  It is still stuck in Japan and hopefully one day, the mail will start to flow again.....