“Walking through the workshops surrounding the museum, one can see other craftsmen at work, too — an engraver, a scabbard maker, a sword polisher, and more. Watching them work felt like peering back through the mists of time.”
Client: Setouchi Reflection Trip, the official travel guide to the Setouchi Region of Japan.
Project Description: Write a travel advertorial with photographs.
A Quote
“Walking through the workshops surrounding the museum, one can see other craftsmen at work, too — an engraver, a scabbard maker, a sword polisher, and more. Watching them work felt like peering back through the mists of time.”
The Inside Scoop
Among the roster of stories we had to cover for this project, I think I was the only one with a genuine interest in medieval weapons. I dig the history behind them, and tend to favor them over firearms in sci-fi/fantasy.
Of course, most of the mystique surrounding the katana is either historical exaggeration or contemporary blather. The idea that a sword of any description could cleave steel is mostly bull. I say “mostly” because the quality of steel in Japan was so poor during the samurai era that a properly made katana (folded again and again to remove those pesky metallurgical imperfections) probably could have — on rare occasions — blown through a helmet or breastplate made from standard Japanese ore.
But this would have been the exception, not the norm. And in any case, I digress.
One of the things I couldn’t really go into in the article were details, imparted to me by museum staff, as to how so many of these weapons survived the US Occupation of Japan, since the GHQ attempted to round up and destroy as many katanas as they could lay hands on. In fact, it sounds like the commandeered blades were likely dumped into the Seto Inland Sea (and may or may not have been melted down first).
In any case, Bizen Osafune was a fascinating place to research and visit.
My Favorite Part
Watching traditional swordmakers ply their crafts. It’s like a window in time.
See the results:
Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum – Keeping the Ancient Arts Alive
