The Samurai Sword Blog

Studying Katana in Japan - Learning the How Japanese made Samurai Swords Part 1

Recently I spent a few weeks in Japan buying parts for Ronin's upcoming tamahagane line and studying bare blades and fully mounted katana in museums and with some of Japan's leading dealers, who often had 20-30 katana for sale and on display. While I did not buy any katana, my focus is on dotanuki, I did purchase quite a few rare books which I was missing in my library. I was also allowed backroom access to dozens of swords, and allowed to take pictures of quite a few. So without further ad …
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Jul 12th 2015 Chris Scoggin for Ronin Katana

What is a Dotanuki katana anyway?

I used to have a nice section on the main Ronin site about Dōtanuki blades, and when I designed the new website, I forgot to add it.So what is a Dōtanuki katana?Dōtanuki is a Japanese swordsmithing school developed in the Higo province of Kyūshū during the Kamakura period. The Japanese kanji for dōtanuki translates to, sword that cuts through torsos. While samurai routinely tested their blades on the bodies of convicted criminals to judge their cutting ability, dōtanuki blades were renowned for …
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Jul 11th 2015 Chris Scoggin for Ronin Katana

Ronin Katana Sword Parts Eight Fold Path Tsuba Giveaway

The Ronin Katana 10th anniversary prize giveaways continue. Ronin gave away a bunch or prizes last week, including an samurai sword from the entry level katana line. This week is kicking off with an eight fold path tsuba. Ronin has used this tsuba on and off for many years, and it was of course the tsuba used on the sword of Morpheus in the Matrix movies. Want to win it? Enter at contest on the Ronin Katana facebook page.  …
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Jun 20th 2015 Ronin Katana