This is the origin story for the sword of Samurai Jack, who would later inherit the weapon from his emperor father. After Aku ...

points out how the process begins when very pure, iron-bearing river sand is combined in a clay furnace with charcoal and heated to a near-molten state to create a pure steel known as tamahagane.

At Fusahiro Shimojima’s workshop, in the industrial city of Saitama, fires rage in small pits and an earthen floor absorbs the din of hammering. The Japanese swordsmith pounds the nascent blade of his ...

The sword's guard is decorated with chrysanthemum and waterline motifs. State Museums of Berlin, Museum of Prehistory and Early History / Anica Kelp Archaeologists have discovered history buried ...

A newly translated samurai text called "Twelve Rules of the Sword" reveals the secrets of a sword-fighting school that mastered a technique that seemed to give supernatural powers. Dating back to the ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. As you enter the suitably frightening half-light of the British Museum’s new Samurai exhibition, you are ...