Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 2.djvu/178

JAPAN. Concerning the latter, though it may well be that the straight two-edged sword of ancient Japan was derived from China or Korea, the theory that the single-edged blade was obtained by splitting the double-edged cannot be reconciled with archaeological evidence. Certain facts pertinent to this matter are tolerably well assured. The oldest swords of Japan, the bronze blades found in primeval burial mounds, bear no resemblance whatever to the straight two-edged ken, but are essentially of the classical Grecian type, a close approximation to the well-known leaf shape with central ridge. In the dolmens, on the other hand,—that is to say, in the sepulchres of the Japanese during the iron age which succeeded the bronze era—none of these leaf-shaped bronze blades is found: only single-edged straight swords occur which differ from the orthodox katana solely in being altogether without curvature, and in sometimes having a ring cast on the end of the handle. There is strong reason to think that the two-edged ken came to Japan in the train of Buddhism, and if so, the sequence of facts is this: first, bronze leaf-shaped double-edged blades, which remained in use up to the third or fourth century before Christ; then a single-edged iron blade, almost identical with the modern katana, except that it was without curve, which continued to be the soldier's weapon up to the sixth century; then a double-edged sword, imported simultaneously with 152