1,000 years of Japanese swords |
1,000 years of Japanese swords
The Japanese sword as the soul of the samurai
Samurai rules for peace and war
The Great Wave by Hokusai
I-Kiribati warrior armour
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The Sutton Hoo helmet
In search of forgotten colours
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A millennium of Japanese history, as told through the samurai sword
The classic image of a katana, or Japanese samurai sword, is that of a sharp, single-edged blade with a faint wavy pattern and a slight curve extending from a circular handguard attached to a diamond-patterned grip. But as the British Museum curator Joe Nickols explains, the katana has taken many forms over the past millennium. In this short video, Nickols guides viewers through the evolution and the many identities of the katana. This includes: a fearsome weapon used to behead enemies in wartime; a status symbol during peacetime; a representation of the warrior’s ‘soul’; and a modern ‘global icon’. Tracing this diverse range of Japanese designs and aesthetics is both a riveting history lesson and also just plain cool to see in close detail.
Video by the British Museum
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