Pages

Monday 26 September 2011

Honjo Masamune : The legendary Japanese Sword

The Honjo Masamune is a ritually forged, ancient Japanese katana with a blade so perfectly balanced and aligned that it splits light, rendering its wielder invisible.



• The sword was forged by Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, and is said to have kept the ruling shogunate in power for hundreds of years by making them invincible in battle.
• Artie claims that the beauty of the sword rests not in its appearance, but in the way was originally forged. He waxes poetic when he says "it was a hammered and folded blade, with millions of layers of steel and a carbon content that's right off the charts. And each layer only atoms – atoms thick."
• It was lost in history and the incomplete blade was rediscovered at a dig site in Okinawa, Japan in 2009.
• The blade is so perfectly forged that its balanced and alignment make it possible for light to split in its path and go around the person holding it, rendering them invisible if the blade is held point up and directly in front of them.

• The idea of bending light was originally proposed by Sir Isaac Newton in 1704 at the end of his treatise on the nature of optics. Little was done with the idea until it was revived in 1911 by Albert Einstein when he wrote "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light" and which he continued to refine and correct into more a elegant theory through 1915 when he completed his general theory of relativity.


• The Honjo Masamune is one of the most controversial and important swords of Japan its current ware about are not known to anybody.

Here are some original pictures of the blade of Honjo Masamune



Undoubtedly the HONJO MASAMUNE is one of the most powerful, important and a legendary sword, such a sword could not be produced again, the skill and art used to produce such a wonderful sword is lost somewhere in history. It is a really amazing sword with amazing properties forged with amazing science, tradition and workmanship...

24 comments:

  1. Hello All,

    Japanese swords are hand made with the highest standards, giving you the utmost feel of quality, durability and strength. It is the goal of the Imperial Forge to exceed the expectations of martial artistes for strength, cutting power, and most importantly, craftsmanship. Each sword blade is individual hand forged with a hand held hammer, clay tempered, heat treated, quenched and then polished by skilled hands creating a true battle ready sword. This is a really informative post. Thank you for sharing it with us.
    Buy Samurai Sword

    ReplyDelete
  2. This post has a few mistakes. For one, the Honjo Masamune is not a katana. It is a tachi, the predecessor of the katana. What really upsets me is that you posted pictures of other swords claiming that they're Honjo Masamune, whereas the only actual picture is the third. Being a tachi, it will always be mounted cutting-edge up, and it's curve starts more torwards the hilt, where katanas curve more torwards the tip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shikyo Takate,
      Saw your post, have 30 years in law enforcement, 34 years in Martial Arts-Shihan, would love to use my expertise in investigations to locate the Honjo Masamune and return it back to Japan. Let's work on this puzzle together. Domo Arigato

      Delete
    2. And Todo Segalla....
      Although you have been in martial arts - Shinan; you still have that ego I think... -and this is actually where you have to begin..Wakari masu ka?

      Reaching the information you asked for;
      You have to deserve...
      To deserve;
      You have to prove it to yourself, your will..
      Once you are done, you will not be asking anything about...
      It will be you; everywhere you go...
      ¶:o)

      Delete
    3. Exactly.... > "Besides, becoming invisible is a rather sneaky technique, something a honor bound samurai wouldn't approve of."

      ±:o)

      Delete
  3. and for crying out loud, it won't make you invisible. The most it could do is reflect light into your opponent's eyes temporarily blinding them. It doesn't matter how perfect a sword is, it can't make you invisible by natural means. Besides, becoming invisible is a rather sneaky technique, something a honor bound samurai wouldn't approve of.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sure the Honjo Masamune will make you invisible! I'll lob off your head and you'll never see me again.
    HAhaha! Look at Honjo Masamune on you tube.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The honjo masamune has been found but the owner has not come forward because of the controversy surrounding this once prized possession of the shogun. The blade has a scar in the blood grove from a famous battle but the chips in the hamon were polished out by a master sword polisher. The menuki is of the uncut leaf and fish from the legend of the river test, where the masamune was good but the pupils blade evil. The O-Tachi was cut to a Tachi- Katana which left it mumei. The tsuba is of an ancient prayer with a lotus motif and a hollyhock eyelet in the tsuba. A soldier of the 7th cav. brought it back to Ohio and has since passed away where it was purchased from his estate. The blade is unimpressive to the eye, there is really nothing extravagant about the hamon. This sword was obviously a prayer symbol and was for display and ceremony.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Since when...????? Please provide the info, correct name of the soldier, date of death, etc...

      Delete
    2. I'd really like to know where do you have the Info, that the Sword has been found??? o.O I saw in a TV Dokumentation that no one knows until today where it is? So If you know something, please let me know it!!!
      greets Kary

      ps. please write me an e-mail to ach_karin@web.de

      Delete
  6. Just saw program in OZ: "Myth Hunters - The Lost Sword of the Samurai" [SBS 1, 19.01.14]. No one knows the whereabouts of the Honjo Masamune because all the 'experts' are erroneous in how they have been trying to identify the Sergeant. Yes, the Japanese transliteration is a garbled - but yet somewhat apt phonetic - rendering of the identity of the Sergeant whom collected the Swords. Japanese / American Antiquity and Museum authorities should not be looking Sergeant Coldy Bimore, but instead - SERGEANT GOLDIN/G from BALTIMORE! Best of luck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How did you come up with that name? Love to learn some more info.
      Thanks

      Delete
  7. I think I read somewhere that Coldy Bimore was what was written down when the Sergeant replied to a crudely translated question, "What are you called?" He answered, "I'm called D. B. Moore."
    There's a Tech Sergeant buried in Georgia by that name and worked in the capacity of collecting swords from the Japanese police stations to return them to their rightful owners or museums if they were determined to be of historical significance.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He was a Private and had nothing to do with the story.
      http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=94863753

      Delete
  8. The two are as diverse as kickball and baseball. The kendo fighting sword called a shinai is a straight competing sword intended to be a safe representation of the katana. swords for sale

    ReplyDelete
  9. The master piece was owned by the Tokugawa Family, and it still is...
    Only;
    It is a Master Piece and only been made against of evil...
    It was owned by honored masters, and it is and it will be...

    -Knowledge / Know how; is not a simple thing that you all can reach it easly...
    You should pay for the valuable knowhow; you should -proove your personality/spirit - ... Then the gate will be opened for it... -without you know it will be opened BUT you will feel ; it is open for you -...

    Please BUT please...
    "Do not talk about something you do not know..."

    And "Shikyo Takate" tries to tell you this... Please understand...

    -Jed-

    ReplyDelete
  10. @nofearofdarknessjedi - this blog is about the Honjo Masamune. Why are you blathering on about your philosophy and spirituality. It's very disruptive in a conversation about a specific subject. Please keep your personal thoughts to yourself, but comment if you have something productive to say about the sword, that's all.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Scott or anyone, was the Sergeant's name written in the log by him or by Japanese clerk, or American clerk? Another variation: Col. D.
    B. Moore (Col. = abbr. for Colonel). The sergeant may have signed in the name of, or for his commanding officer.

    ReplyDelete
  12. When you think about it, it shouldn't matter if every letter of the name is incorrect. There was a finite number of men of Sergeant rank posted in the area at the time, and those records would still exist, in a dusty army archive somewhere. A time consuming search, for sure a needle in a haystack, but not impossible. Like any research, start with what you do know, work from there.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Detailed military records for Moore were lost in the National Personnel Records Center fire (1973) which destroyed 16 – 18 million Official Military Personnel Files including 80% of records for servicemen and women serving between 1912 and 1960.”

    http://goldstuff.blogspot.com/2011/09/honjo-masamune-legendary-japanese-sword.html?m=1

    ReplyDelete
  14. What makes all of you think that the Honjo Masamune did not suffer the same fate as many other objects of historical and artistic importance did, at the hands of US military boobs, who did not recognize nor care for their significance? They were out for the destruction and humiliation of the Japanese military class and nothing else. It was most probably destroyed in a smelting furnace as so many other great objects of Japanese culture were. Do you really think that some okie sergeant kept it for himself as a trophy of the war? Highly doubtful, he turned it in for destruction or would suffer the consequence of disobeying orders. It is gone forever, live with it!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Perfection is an understatement, but a truly wonderful piece of art by a legendary swordsmith. Maybe one day this amazing weapon will be available for us all to see.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Is there actually anywhere that states what this sword and it's trim actually looked like?? Seems I read somewhere Masamune didn't sign his swords..

    ReplyDelete