Chapter 44 Appendix II

Appendix 2: Regarding the famous oriental knives that appear in this article, the famous Kanshi Authentic Sect belongs to Xiangzhou Den, and its characteristic is that fine particles can be seen in the chaotic blade of the burnt blade.Among the swordsmiths who used the "authentic" inscription, the most famous is the first "authentic" of Shoshu in the late Kamakura period-Okazaki Goro Masamune, a swordsman who is also honored as "Goro's authentic way". Masamune originally lived in Kyoto, and moved to Kamakura to settle down shortly after the founding of the Kamakura Shogunate—due to the backward transportation conditions at that time, swordsmiths could only use nearby materials for the selection of iron sand: and Masamune chose money laundering in Kanagawa Prefecture. Iron sand containing natural water lead is a special product near Sichuan.

The steel smelted from the iron sand in the Zenai River has both excellent hardness and toughness, coupled with the unique ideas of a generation of masters in terms of heat, clay ratio, and water temperature, finally making the Japanese swords forged by authentic Japanese swords reach the "sharpness" Easy to cut, hard and soft, perfect", the highest state of Japanese sword making. There are not many authentic knives in existence, but those with the "Ji Burn" blade pattern are even more national treasures.The foundation pattern of the authentic style is composed of small gray and white dots, and no one in the future can imitate it-this is exactly where the authentic technique is unique in the world.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu abolished the "Demon Sword", a large number of "Muramasa" sword inscriptions were changed to "Authentic" in order to continue to be used. Therefore, among the orthodox sects handed down to the world today, there are a large number of Muramasa mixed in—this is what Wenzel said in the article. The Dao Dao "Guanshi Zhengzong", which can be called a "famous object", has a blade length of 64.4 cm and has no inscription.During the Warring States Period, it was owned by Ishida Mitsunari, and it was later increased to Yuki Hideyasu.After the battle of Sekihara, it belonged to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

There are different opinions about the affiliation of "Kanshi Masamune" today - most of them tend to say that the national treasure is still in the Tokyo National Museum, but there are also sayings that the authentic product has flowed into the hands of European private collectors.Anyway, the one engraved with the "authentic" inscription that the old man Rügenmann bought for more than four million dollars was usurped by Muramasa: but it is still "worth the money". , the name of the Great Wisdom Nagamitsu Osagane Osafune School regards Mitsutada as the originator, and it was very prosperous in the Osagane area, and it was the most prosperous in the Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Muromachi Period.

Tai Dao "Da Prajna Long Light Long Boat", the blade length is 73.63 cm, and the inscription is "Long Boat".This knife was worth 600 guan in the Muromachi period, and the "Great Prajna Paramita Sutra" happened to be 600 volumes, so it was named "Great Prajna Changguang".Originally owned by General Ashikaga Yoshiki, it was successively in the hands of Miyoshi Changqing, Oda Nobunaga, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.After the battle of Nagashino, Ieyasu Tokugawa bestowed it on Nobumasa Okuhei. The famous sword made by the famous craftsman Bizen Nagamitsu, in addition to this "Da Prajna Nagamitsu", is also known to everyone as the wild sword "Bizen Nagamitsu" used by the swordsman Sasaki Kojiro and named after the swordsmith himself. "Captain light" - the blade of this knife is a full meter long (it's almost the same as the Odachi, laugh), and it can't even be carried on the waist, so it has to be carried on the shoulder.

, Shizhou Village and the legend of "Demon Sword" Muramasa is the surname of a group of famous swordsmiths in the Ise Kingdom from the middle of Muromachi to the end of Tensho for a hundred years-the "Sezhou" here refers to the Ise Kingdom, Just as "Biqian" (also known as "Beizhou") refers to the former country. At least three generations of Ise country sword makers have used the family name "Muramasa".The first generation is Zaemon Wei Fujiwara Muramasa, a celebrity in Ise-sang - the sword he made in 1501 AD is inscribed as "Muramasa" with the inscription "Seshu Sang Ming Zuzaemon Wei Fujiwara Muramasa", which is now in Tokyo Rijksmuseum.

The style of Muramasa's sword making is very similar to that of Kanpai Kanesada and Chokichi of Heian City, so later generations speculate that the three of them should have had a lot of exchanges on forging sword techniques. As for the legend of the "demon sword", a little bit has been mentioned in the preface and the text-this legend of the "demon sword" that has been circulated among the Japanese folks is actually a series of connections between the Tokugawa Ieyasu family and "Muramasa". Coincidentally related: In the fourth year of Tianwen (1535 A.D.), Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandfather, Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, was hacked by the traitor Abe Yachiro with a village sword from the right shoulder to the left abdomen in the Owari country guard mountain, and died after struggling for a stick of incense. , died in a terrible state.

Around 1553 AD (some say 1547), Ieyasu’s father, Matsudaira Hiroshika’s confidant Iwamatsu Yaya failed to assassinate Matsudaira Hirochu, and Matsudaira Hirochu was beheaded by the village held by Iwamatsu Yami’s thigh, and he was almost dying . On September 15th, the seventh year of Tensho (1579 AD), Tokugawa Ieyasu's son, Matsudaira Saburo Nobuyasu, was forced to commit suicide by caesarean section at Toe Futamata Castle because he was falsely accused of colluding with the Takeda clan of Kai (also ordered by Oda Nobunaga— —According to the category of laparotomy, it should be regarded as the "no-thought abdomen" in the "interrogation abdomen", but judging from the facts, it seems that it is more appropriate to call it the "angry abdomen").The executors of the original death penalty (the caesarean section usually does not die immediately, at this time the executor will deliver a fatal knife to show the "benevolence" of the torturer-this behavior is called "intermediation") and the monitor, It was Hattori Hanzo Masanari of the Tokugawa faction and Tianfang Shanshiro Shou Tongzuna. When Xinyasu cut his belly in the "cross belly" method, the three of them were very sad. Hanzo could not even raise the knife as agreed, so that Xinyasu suffered unnecessary (This is probably the original intention of Oda Nobunaga, who is cruel by nature-in a political sense, it can also serve as a warning to the Tokugawa family).In the end, it was the monitor, Tong Gang, who reluctantly completed the intervention.

And the knife used when making mistakes was "Muramasa" again. Ieyasu himself was beheaded on the same finger twice by "Muramasa" (author's note: one was in Suruga when he was a child; shot by a long gun). All these coincidences made Tokugawa Ieyasu, who was in power in Japan at the time, feel inexplicable fear.In order to protect the rule of the Tokugawa family from being infringed by the "demon sword", Ieyasu issued an order to "destroy all surviving Muramasa-made swords"; those who hold the village magistrate are regarded as contemptuous of the shogunate, and they will be sentenced to death upon discovery regardless of class. .

The holders of the village, because they feel sorry for the sharp blade in their hands, most of them choose to grind off the word "village" in the inscription "cunzheng", and add "zong" (other: "home" under the word "zheng"). There are also words such as "heng", "hong" and "guang", which should be different swordsmiths) - that is, the name of the knife is changed to "authentic" to avoid Ieyasu's punishment. The Muramasa inscribed as "authentic" in the collection of the old man Rügenman is mostly my fabrication - the original shape is a Seshu Muramasa in the late Muromachi period collected by the Tokyo National Museum, with a blade length of 73.3 Two centimeters, the inscription on the knife is actually "Cunzheng".

As for the knife set described in the article, it is completely fictitious.