A Straight Sword from Before the Curve
Hold a classic Japanese sword and the eye follows its long, elegant arc toward the tip. This blade has no such arc. It is straight, or so nearly straight that the slight inward lean of its edge reads as a quirk rather than a curve. Single-edged, forged in the Nara period (710 to 794), it belongs to a class of weapons that predates the curved Japanese sword most people picture, and it carries the visual logic of that earlier age in every line.
Cataloged simply as Tachi, kirihazukuri style, this sword was designated an Important Cultural Property by Japan's national government in 1989. It is held privately in Fukushima Prefecture, one of a small group of ancient blades recognized together on the same day. Swords of this antiquity that survive outside the imperial Shōsōin repository are uncommon, and ones in this condition are rarer still.
Specialists place it among the jōkotō, the "ancient swords" made from roughly the Kofun period through the Nara period, before the gentle curve and the elaborate temper patterns of the medieval Japanese sword came into being. To stand in front of one is to look at the raw material of a tradition still finding its form.
Reading the Blade
The construction is called kirihazukuri. Instead of the diamond cross-section of a later sword, the lower face toward the edge is flat, and a ridge line sits close to the cutting edge, meeting the upper surface at a distinct angle. The spine is rounded rather than peaked, a feature the Japanese call marumune. The point is a kamasu kissaki, an angular, wedge-shaped tip named for the lean profile of the barracuda. The body is fairly thick through the spine, and the edge leans very slightly back on itself, the uchizori typical of early straight swords.
Look into the steel and a grain emerges. The forging shows a large wood-grain figure with patches of burl, and along the spine and the flat of the blade it stretches out into nearly straight lines. The surface stands proud in places, scattered with dark chikei lines drawn through the metal and a faint whitish reflection the catalogers call shirake-utsuri. The cataloging note remarks that, set beside its companion blade in the same group, this one carries a more open, prominent grain and more variety along the edge.
The temper line, the hamon, runs as a medium straight band with frayed edges and small sweeping strokes, broken here and there by doubled and mismatched lines. Near the base the misty boundary turns soft and damp-looking for about fifteen centimeters. Glittering martensite crystals gather finely overall, coarser in the lower half, and streaks of "flowing sand" and bright "golden lines" cross the surface where the smith's hand wandered. One detail in particular dates the work: at the base the temper stops short and runs off the edge rather than continuing into the tang, a feature called yakiotoshi that all but disappears from Japanese swords after the early centuries.
Why It Was Designated
The value of an object like this is partly a matter of arithmetic. Very few swords made before the ninth century have come down to the present, and most of those that have are either excavated from tombs in corroded fragments or preserved within the Shōsōin, the eighth-century treasure house attached to Tōdai-ji in Nara. A transmitted blade, handed down above ground rather than dug from the earth, that still shows its original tang and a legible grain and temper, is a genuine document of early Japanese metalworking.
The tang here is ubu, meaning it has never been shortened, its end shaped into the rounded kuri-jiri form with a single hole pierced for a cord. Because the blade was never cut down to fit a later mounting, its full proportions survive as the smith intended. The companion sword designated alongside it, built with a double-edged point, was compared by the cataloguers directly to swords held in the Shōsōin and assigned to the early Heian period, which places the whole group at the hinge between the ancient straight sword and the curved weapon to come.
For all these reasons the blade was entered into the national register of Important Cultural Properties on June 12, 1989. The designation recognizes not a famous name or a battlefield story, of which it has none recorded, but the simple, scarce fact of its survival and the quality of its making.
Where to See Ancient Swords Like This
This particular blade is privately owned and is not on public display, so a visit to its prefecture will not put it in front of you. The pleasure it offers is better pursued through its relatives, several of which can be seen by anyone willing to time a trip well.
In Osaka, the temple Shitennō-ji holds two of the most celebrated ancient swords in Japan, both National Treasures: the Shichiseiken ("Seven Stars Sword"), inlaid in gold with the Big Dipper and other celestial motifs, and the Heishi-shōrinken, bearing a short gold inscription. Both are straight, single-edged, kirihazukuri blades associated by tradition with Prince Shōtoku, and both share the same family of features as the Fukushima sword. They are shown only rarely, usually in major loan exhibitions, so it is worth checking museum schedules in Osaka and Tokyo before planning around them.
In Nara, the annual autumn exhibition of Shōsōin treasures at the Nara National Museum periodically includes weapons from the eighth-century imperial collection, the touchstone against which swords like this one are measured. The Tokyo National Museum keeps a standing collection of early swords, including the Nara-period Suiryūken, and rotates pieces through its galleries. Closer to the blade's home, the Fukushima Prefectural Museum in Aizuwakamatsu and the keep of Tsuruga Castle have both staged exhibitions of arms and armor that draw on the region's deep sword-collecting history.
- 📍 Plan Your Visit to Fukushima
- Find tours, activities & transport passes near Great Sword
- [ Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle & Ouchi-juku Village Tours ]
Q&A
- Can I see this sword in person?
- No. It is held by a private owner in Fukushima Prefecture and is not on regular public display. To see comparable ancient straight swords, look to Shitennō-ji in Osaka, the Shōsōin autumn exhibition in Nara, or the early-sword galleries of the Tokyo National Museum.
- Why is it straight when Japanese swords are curved?
- The curve came later. This is a jōkotō, an ancient sword from before the curved form developed during the Heian period. Early Japanese blades were straight, single-edged weapons descended from continental models, and the graceful curve only became standard from around the tenth century.
- What does "kirihazukuri" mean?
- It describes the blade's cross-section. The face toward the edge is flat, and a ridge line runs close to the cutting edge, meeting the upper surface at an angle. It is one of the older ways of shaping a single-edged blade and is shared by the famous ancient swords at Shitennō-ji.
- How old is it, exactly?
- The national database assigns it to the Nara period, which ran from 710 to 794. The blades designated alongside it sit at the transition into the early Heian period, so the group as a whole dates to roughly the eighth and ninth centuries.
- Who made it?
- Unknown. The tang carries no signature, and no maker is recorded. Anonymity is normal for swords of this age, when the practice of signing blades had not yet taken hold.
Basic Information
| Name | Tachi, kirihazukuri style (大刀〈切刃造〉) |
|---|---|
| Category | Craft (sword) |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property |
| Date of designation | June 12, 1989 (Heisei 1) |
| Designation number | 01908 |
| Period | Nara period (710–794) |
| Quantity | One blade |
| Construction | Kirihazukuri, rounded spine, kamasu point, slight inward curve; original (ubu) tang |
| Maker | Unsigned; unknown |
| Location | Fukushima Prefecture |
| Owner | Private individual |
| Public access | Not on public display |
References
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Tachi, kirihazukuri style
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/bsys/maindetails/201/6706
- Cultural Heritage Online (Agency for Cultural Affairs): Tachi, kissaki-moroha style (companion blade in the same designation)
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/198903
- National Database of Designated Cultural Properties: Shichiseiken, National Treasure, Shitennō-ji
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/201/342
Last verified: 2026.06.15