Quoted:
Hi Steyr,
No, not a iaido practitioner... just a punter, dont have the time to belong to a school and the attendant politics... my life is too jammed up.
But, when you give such a broad statement about pre meiji blades and tempering properties I have to say... what?
There are hundreds of smiths and blades from this time period.... they are no better or worse than blades made this day! Shinsakuto from established smiths of today are incredible pieces of work and every bit the equal of older blades. Forgive me sir, but I just dont know where this info could have come from. There are blades made in the WW2 era that are hand forged, water tempered, tamahagane based that are fully capable of whatever you might desire. Pardon me, but it sounds as though you have been the target of some misinformation from somebody that is unlearned.
This is not meant to offend you Steyr, please dont let me get your goat on this. But, some of the most unlearned of students of nihonto are the iaidoka that teach. They can use the blades but are really not very knowledgeable about them. Its sad to hear some of the stuff some instructors talk about and say. I say this, because one of my friends is a sword dealer and instructors and students will come up to see the blades he has for sale and they just blather on and on to the students and dont know at all what they are saying. But due to the rigid structure of oriental arts, ones teacher is not questioned. This leads to bad knowledge referred to as fact. This may in fact not be the case as far as you are concerned but, I just dont get your commentary?
Im confused
But not too confused to see your Arimitsu with a Kiyomaro and trump it with a Rai Kunimitsu
View Quote
Well I have no specific allegience to any ryu and have studied a variety of systems. Also my knowledge of sword history does not come from my instructors.
It is true that many post meiji smith (and even seom contemporary ones such as Paul Chen) produce swords made in the traditional way.
I guess I was not specific enough in my point that swordsmithing reached it's zenith with the Bizen smiths around the 17th century.
As a direct result of the Tokugawa restoration swordsmithing and quality of swords declined. With the absence of large scale conflict weapon grade blades were no longer a priority and the scerets of the master smiths were somewhat lost. Also much like the jutsu to do reformation of the bugei the emphasis of sword production switched from a martial priority to a artistic one. This is why most orthodox sword collectors do not consider any post meiji blade to be a genuine nihon to.
And despite your assertions to the contrary, no contemporary blade has ever achieved the quality or properties of the best examples of pre meiji blades and many of the greatest have never been duplicated even with modern metalurgy methods at our disposal.
That said the sword smith tradition continues in Japan (although they are technically artwork since WW2 due to restrictions of weapon production) and a select few individuals do their best to uphold the standards and continue the traditions of excellent sword making.
And it is possible that quality ones exist among the showa military blades, but that is generally the exception to the rule. Many were made in the same factories that produced arisaka bayonets and the bulk of those that were hand made were done so with mass production in mind.
For further information, assuming you have not read them already, see:
The Samurai Sword - John Yumoto
The Fightin Spirit of Japan - E.J. Harrison
Japanese Swordsmanship - Donn Draeger
The Connoissier's Book of Japanese Swords - Kogan Nagayama