Korehira Watanabe is one of the last remaining Japanese swordsmiths. He has spent 40 years honing his craft in an attempt to recreate Koto, a type of sword that dates back to the Heian and Kamakura periods (794-1333 AD). No documents remain to provide context for Watanabe’s quest, but he believes he has come close to creating a replica of this mythical samurai sword.











i want one.
You’ll have to sell your first born to afford it. Scratch that. Your first born and your soul, and it will not be enough.
For someone who began learning Japanese over 2 decades ago, in large part due to study of Japanese swords at a scholarly level when I was in my teens, and later lived in Japan, this was really really cool to see! I understood him in Japanese, and am still excited to see there are people using the old methods. I used to live near him up in Hokkaido too!
Beautiful.
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