A Katana in real fight
 
"Fujiwara Tadahiro"

blade length 73cm
 
This Katana was used at a real fight in samurai age. And it has been handed down from the samurai who used it to the present descendant over than 100 years.
 
The outline of the fight.
The samurai Ryusuke KANAI (1832 - 1906) was a petty officer in the Okabe clan.
One day he collected official moneys in his charged area. Then, at the night, he was attacked by three burglars. He fought against the three men, all of them were heavily injured in this night fight. One burglar was caught with deep cut on his back. Two burglars escaped across the clan border. The samurai got survived with heavy injury too.
Some days later, Ryusuke was praised by the lord for he kept the money and no one was killed in the fight.
 
He fought with this katana.
Untill some years ago,the sword had been held with the condition of just after the fight. It appears 5 nicks on the cutting edge, 4 cutting marks on the habaki, and one cutting mark on seppa and tsuba. Besides that, the shape is winding at the back line of the blade. And the handle is soiled black with blood.
Recently it has been polished twice. At the first time, the blade was just re-polished to remove rust on the blade surface. Then it was polished again to re-shape the blade. So now it has been recalled as a fine blade within shirasaya, removing some small nicks on the cutting edge, getting a smooth back line.
However, we can imagine the heavy fight on this fine sword in the past, and is a treasure of the family still now.
 
The hamachi is broken together with the habaki.

 
The biggest nick at the place 20 cm away from the hamachi.




 
The habaki has bitten the enemy's edge off.

 
For example, a sword that has a cutting mark on the back. (=> wakizashi Taema)
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