The Japanese Sword as the Soul of the Samurai
March 10, 2019 7:24 AM Subscribe
This obscure 1969 documentary on the making of Japanese swords, narrated by George Takei, is a fascinating look at the exhaustive process of forging samurai swords. It also focuses on the importance of swords in Japanese culture, from the legend of Grasscutter to the philosophy that the samurai's sword is a reflection of his soul. (via the Internet Archive)
Made when World War Two had been over for less than 25 years -- the documentary notes that much interest in Japanese swords was sparked by war "souvenirs" -- it compares samurai to Christian knights, pledged to uphold the sacred trust of protecting the land's people, a trope that would later be deconstructed by the films of both Japan and the United States. But it seems to have taken pains to present Japanese culture and history accurately -- except for the obvious wig on the actor playing the samurai -- and from a sympathetic viewpoint.
Made when World War Two had been over for less than 25 years -- the documentary notes that much interest in Japanese swords was sparked by war "souvenirs" -- it compares samurai to Christian knights, pledged to uphold the sacred trust of protecting the land's people, a trope that would later be deconstructed by the films of both Japan and the United States. But it seems to have taken pains to present Japanese culture and history accurately -- except for the obvious wig on the actor playing the samurai -- and from a sympathetic viewpoint.
More info about Ken Wolfgang, the filmmaker. The film won the Cine Film Festival Golden Eagle Award, so it’s not particuarly obscure in documentary circles.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:05 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Ideefixe at 8:05 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
A quote from Ideefixe's link to Wolfgang's biography provides context to the filmmaker's perspective. He was deployed to military service in postwar Japan in 1951.
Wolfgan, who sadly does not seem to have a Wikipedia page, died in 2011 at 80 years of age.
posted by Gelatin at 8:27 AM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
It was here, while walking the streets of Japan, that he had a revelation that the Japanese people were just like him and the people that he loved at home in Ohio. He decided to shun preconceived notions he held of Japanese culture which were prevalent among post World War II Americans. Wolfgang made it his purpose in life to use his gift of filmmaking to create documentary films that depicted cultures accurately, without reinforcing the negative stereotypes that were pervasive in American culture at the time.
Wolfgan, who sadly does not seem to have a Wikipedia page, died in 2011 at 80 years of age.
posted by Gelatin at 8:27 AM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
Fantastic. The careful, painstaking work of a master artisan and his team makes a stark contrast to the hobbyists like the folks on shows like forged in fire, who claim to make a worthy blade over the course of a week.
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:43 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by OHenryPacey at 9:43 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
This is great, thanks!
(Is this where I can mention I just coincidentally this week read a paper about two katanas in the 19th century American West? - you can see it here on academia.edu.)
posted by gudrun at 9:52 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
(Is this where I can mention I just coincidentally this week read a paper about two katanas in the 19th century American West? - you can see it here on academia.edu.)
posted by gudrun at 9:52 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
This ½-hour video is an episode of Japanese state broadcaster NHK World's cinema program J-Flicks (in English) which, in addition to covering a few recently-released and classic samurai films, has an interesting exposition of and interviews with the prop departments specializing in swords.
posted by XMLicious at 10:51 AM on March 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 10:51 AM on March 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
Outstanding. I absolutely love the puppet version of the Kokaji story. The little tongs, y'all!
posted by ob1quixote at 11:22 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 11:22 AM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
Then, one night, the Shogun sent his ninja spies to our house
They were supposed to kill my father but they didn't
That was the night everything changed
posted by mit5urugi at 11:30 AM on March 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
They were supposed to kill my father but they didn't
That was the night everything changed
posted by mit5urugi at 11:30 AM on March 10, 2019 [2 favorites]
Fantastic. The careful, painstaking work of a master artisan and his team makes a stark contrast to the hobbyists like the folks on shows like forged in fire, who claim to make a worthy blade over the course of a week.
"Your father's officially licensed Lord Of The Rings sword....this is the weapon of a Mall Ninja...."
posted by thelonius at 11:34 AM on March 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
"Your father's officially licensed Lord Of The Rings sword....this is the weapon of a Mall Ninja...."
posted by thelonius at 11:34 AM on March 10, 2019 [6 favorites]
Neat documentary, although the "sword's unique place in Japanese culture" is a lot of hocus pocus woo woo Orientalism that the Japan itself indulged in for decades after the war.
If you want something that occupies a unique place in the Japanese soul, examine carb-loading in Japanese cuisine. Shohei Imamura's remake of The Ballad of Narayama will explain why this is.
Worth remembering that the vast majority of Japanese people were long prohibited -- upon pain of death -- from ever owning a sword, and that their grinding toil and exhaustive labour made the creation of such totemic emblems of "traditional Japanese culture" possible.
posted by JamesBay at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2019 [14 favorites]
If you want something that occupies a unique place in the Japanese soul, examine carb-loading in Japanese cuisine. Shohei Imamura's remake of The Ballad of Narayama will explain why this is.
Worth remembering that the vast majority of Japanese people were long prohibited -- upon pain of death -- from ever owning a sword, and that their grinding toil and exhaustive labour made the creation of such totemic emblems of "traditional Japanese culture" possible.
posted by JamesBay at 12:54 PM on March 10, 2019 [14 favorites]
Here's a 5-minute video interviewing contemporary swordsmith Kunihira Kawachi (河内國平); many of the same steps as shown in the OP film but in color. (But the full film is much more thorough and really fascinating, so thanks for posting!)
posted by XMLicious at 3:56 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by XMLicious at 3:56 PM on March 10, 2019 [3 favorites]
BBC 4 has a good documentary, in the 'Made in Japan' series on making a sword, but I see it's not available.
"Now, a trio of engineers have teamed up with a master Japanese swordsmith to design a rock-sampling device made with the same steel used in these blades – and the plan is to use it on an asteroid."
posted by clavdivs at 6:08 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
"Now, a trio of engineers have teamed up with a master Japanese swordsmith to design a rock-sampling device made with the same steel used in these blades – and the plan is to use it on an asteroid."
posted by clavdivs at 6:08 PM on March 10, 2019 [1 favorite]
(The Ballad of Narayama is a great movie.) For something with a samurai/sword connection, Seven Samurai makes a pretty good attempt to show the life and opinions of the poor farmers, and give them equal weight/value to the samurai, and to not overly glorify the samurai.
posted by gudrun at 7:24 PM on March 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by gudrun at 7:24 PM on March 10, 2019 [4 favorites]
the plan is to use it on an asteroid
Hopefully if this goes well there will be a future mission to use the tamahagane corer to bring back a large enough sample to forge a SPACE SWORD.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:16 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
Hopefully if this goes well there will be a future mission to use the tamahagane corer to bring back a large enough sample to forge a SPACE SWORD.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:16 AM on March 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
A wonderful film, thank you.
I've done most of the steps, though still haven't done a full ore-to-sword yet (I have done ore-to-knife, fwiw). Even just the first step, smelting the ore into steel, is very hard to do consistently -- I once watched an experienced 6-man team spend an entire weekend running a 10-foot smelter with hundreds of pounds of ore and charcoal and get only a few drips and dots of poor quality iron, and a first-timer with a 3' pile of bricks get twenty pounds in just three hours. I once ordered six bags of magnetite sand, three of then smelted out perfectly, one of them refused to produce any sort of iron at all, and the last one is still sitting in the forge. And of course the bag that refused to smelt was the one I sold at an event.
I do question the "months to years" for creating a blade. Sure, it might take that long from forging to final finishing, but only if it sits on a shelf for most of that time. Hundreds of hours, sure, but even the National Treasure smith by which the government set its "maximum production rate" for swordsmiths could pop out one a month without trying hard.
Even just making the blade is fraught with peril. The statistic most bandied about is that about one in four blades will self-destruct during yaka-ire, the hardening quench. Every bladesmith knows the sound of the "ping of death," which means another addition to the wall of shame or the scrap pile. For a traditional-style does everything from scratch, that's not as bad as it may seem -- just a couple of fold welds with a bit of filler and now you have a sword with an even more interesting itame hada (wood-grain pattern) in the steel.
Someday, though, I'm going to find a nice bank of magnetite sand, go make me some pine charcoal and set up a tatara, make the tamahagane, sort and forge and fold and forge some more, use a homemade sen to shape the blade, and take it all the way to a final sword.
posted by Blackanvil at 1:10 PM on March 11, 2019 [8 favorites]
I've done most of the steps, though still haven't done a full ore-to-sword yet (I have done ore-to-knife, fwiw). Even just the first step, smelting the ore into steel, is very hard to do consistently -- I once watched an experienced 6-man team spend an entire weekend running a 10-foot smelter with hundreds of pounds of ore and charcoal and get only a few drips and dots of poor quality iron, and a first-timer with a 3' pile of bricks get twenty pounds in just three hours. I once ordered six bags of magnetite sand, three of then smelted out perfectly, one of them refused to produce any sort of iron at all, and the last one is still sitting in the forge. And of course the bag that refused to smelt was the one I sold at an event.
I do question the "months to years" for creating a blade. Sure, it might take that long from forging to final finishing, but only if it sits on a shelf for most of that time. Hundreds of hours, sure, but even the National Treasure smith by which the government set its "maximum production rate" for swordsmiths could pop out one a month without trying hard.
Even just making the blade is fraught with peril. The statistic most bandied about is that about one in four blades will self-destruct during yaka-ire, the hardening quench. Every bladesmith knows the sound of the "ping of death," which means another addition to the wall of shame or the scrap pile. For a traditional-style does everything from scratch, that's not as bad as it may seem -- just a couple of fold welds with a bit of filler and now you have a sword with an even more interesting itame hada (wood-grain pattern) in the steel.
Someday, though, I'm going to find a nice bank of magnetite sand, go make me some pine charcoal and set up a tatara, make the tamahagane, sort and forge and fold and forge some more, use a homemade sen to shape the blade, and take it all the way to a final sword.
posted by Blackanvil at 1:10 PM on March 11, 2019 [8 favorites]
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posted by TedW at 7:34 AM on March 10, 2019 [2 favorites]