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There is, perhaps, no country in the world where the sword, that “knightly weapon of all ages,” has, in its time, received so much honour and renown as it has in Japan. Regarded, as it was, as being of divine origin, dear to the general as the symbol of his authority, cherished by the samurai as almost a part of his own self, and considered by the common people as their protector against violence, what wonder that we should find it spoken of in glowing terms by Japanese writers as “the precious possession of lord and vassal from times older than the divine period,” or as “the living soul of the samurai?”

The sword has in Japan a history of its own, and has formed the subject of several treatises, written with the object of assisting the student of the art of fixing the date and maker’s name of a blade, an art which, apparently, was a subject of great attention from olden times. Among these the principal works are the “Kotô Meijin,” or “Collection of names of old swords,” and the “Shintô Bengi,” or “Reference as to New Swords.” The former was compiled, in 1791 A.D. by Kamada Saburôdaiyu. The expression “old swords” is explained as applying