| Capturing the spirit of old Japan and recognised by | | | | upwards. |
| its deadly curvature, the samurai sword is widely | | | | The craft of forging katana samurai swords |
| recognised throughout the world as the most | | | | peaked during 1190 - 1337 - many of the swords |
| deadly of all Japanese weaponry. Although gaining | | | | from this area we're assigned national treasures. |
| modern fame and notoriety in modern epic | | | | Thousands of swords are still circulated and |
| cinema in such films as The Last Samurai and the | | | | collected from more recent times; the most |
| Kill Bill series by Quentin Tarantino, samurai swords | | | | popular 'collection' era's being WW1 and WW2. |
| have long being an iconic symbol of Japan and its | | | | eBay is a great place to find both old and new |
| history. | | | | samurai swords, but beware of what you're |
| The most famous samurai sword, the Katana, is | | | | buying - a lot of swords sold today are machine |
| curved and bladed only on one side - if you have | | | | replicas and only fit for display purposes. |
| seen Kill Bill, you will know exactly what I'm talking | | | | There were however many types of samurai |
| about. The Katana was developed in the 10th | | | | swords and the other often mentioned includes |
| century to enable Japanese calvery to carry out | | | | shorter swords, one being the wakizashi (shoto) |
| surprise attacks on their enemy and was worn | | | | and the tanto knife. Only the samurai were |
| hung from the belt with the cutting edge faced | | | | allowed to carry these as a pair. |