“One Piece” | Japanese Traditional Culture Series
The chrysanthemum is the imperial emblem of Japan, symbolizing gentleness, beauty, and seclusion. Whereas the sword represents the warrior culture of Japan, signifying strength, aggression, and brutality.
In the cultural anthropological work “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword” by American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, the duality of the Japanese people is represented by the chrysanthemum and the sword, elucidating Japan’s seemingly contradictory national characteristics from a Western perspective. The symbolism of the Japanese samurai sword reflects the profound spirit of Bushido ingrained in the Japanese people, portraying the sword not merely as a weapon of killing but also as a representation of the moral code and honor of the warrior class.
Samurai Swords in One Piece One Piece has long adopted the setting of samurai swords. The early typical user of the samurai sword in One Piece is Roronoa Zoro, who not only wields a samurai sword but is also trained in a Japanese martial arts dojo. His character exudes a strong Japanese cultural influence.
In the early stages of One Piece, samurai swords appeared merely as singular elements until the introduction of Senior Navy Officer Tashigi, which further defined the sword system. There are a total of 83 famous swords in the world of One Piece, crafted by renowned swordsmiths known as Hitokaji, and categorized into three grades: O Wazamono, Ryo Wazamono, and Wazamono, with 12 O Wazamono, 21 Ryo Wazamono, and 50 Wazamono swords respectively.
Of course, as a manga series revolving around the theme of sailing, it naturally encompasses various cultures to reflect its vast pan-cultural worldview. While the sword system includes other types of swords besides samurai swords, based on the current known number of famous swords, samurai swords still dominate.
Samurai Swords in the Real World The history of Japanese swords can be traced back to the Kofun period, roughly equivalent to China’s Jin Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. During this time, iron swords were already in existence, marking the rudimentary form of Japanese swords, although they were vastly different in appearance from the samurai swords seen today. Up until the late Heian period, a type of sword called Warabite-To predominated in society, named after its handle shape resembling a bracken fern.
Warabite-To underwent changes over time and had various types of blades, including single-edged swords and double-edged swords. However, overall, they were straight-bladed, unlike the curved shape of modern samurai swords. The forging process was also relatively simple, with the entire blade forged from a single block of iron. Warabite-To, as the mainstream blade before the end of the late Heian period, including straight swords brought from China and Korea, are collectively referred to as ancient swords by scholars.
Experiencing the Nara period and the Heian period, Japan greatly admired the prosperous Tang Dynasty of China. During this period of extensive cultural and economic exchanges between Japan and China, many aspects of Tang culture were adopted by Japan. Among the advanced technologies brought back by Japan was the key technology that eventually shaped Japanese swords: the techniques of Tamahagane steel and folded steel.
Chinese folded steel, also known as Tamahagane steel, involved multiple iterations of forging and folding iron to remove impurities, resulting in a homogeneous internal structure and denser organization, yielding steel with higher hardness. This significantly improved the quality, sharpness, and durability of blades.
During ancient times, Japan did not have access to coal or other mineral resources for fuel and instead used charcoal as a heat source for iron smelting. However, due to the lower temperature of charcoal, the resulting steel had more impurities and uneven composition, leading to poor quality and instability. The adoption of the Chinese Tamahagane steel technology led to an improvement in the quality of steel, paving the way for the rapid development of Japanese swords.
The steel used for Japanese swords was referred to as “tamahagane.” Its production process involved initially obtaining preliminarily refined sponge iron through low-temperature smelting using charcoal. A portion of the sponge iron with fewer impurities was selected for heating, forging, and quenching. Finally, the tamahagane was further forged into small pieces, with only the unbroken parts extracted for use as tamahagane. Subsequently, the tamahagane underwent folded steel forging to further remove impurities and refine it, ultimately becoming the material for making Japanese swords.
The technology for making Japanese swords also absorbed the technique of laminating steel from the Sui and Tang dynasties in China. This technique utilized the different physical properties of steel with varying carbon content to give different parts of the blade the desired properties.
For example, the cutting edge required for specific cutting functions needed high hardness. However, to ensure a certain level of toughness while maintaining rigidity to prevent breakage during use, soft iron with a lower carbon content was sandwiched into the core part. Thus, the Japanese sword made using this technique possessed both rigidity and toughness. This technique of forging two or even more different types of steel into a composite material is known as laminated steel forging.
During this period, Japanese swords not only absorbed advanced technology from the outside world but also conducted their own research and development. In the late Heian period, subsequent processing procedures such as yakiha were developed. Due to the use of laminated steel forging techniques, different cooling rates and expansion amounts of different steel parts led to the unique curvature of the blade, eventually forming the distinctive characteristics and unique charm of Japanese samurai swords.
The Legendary Muramasa Sword in One Piece
In One Piece, one of the most famous swords is Muramasa, a series of weapons crafted by the legendary swordsmiths of the Kotetsu family in Wano Country. The first Muramasa sword to appear is the Sandai Kitetsu obtained by Roronoa Zoro in a weapons shop in Loguetown. According to the weapon shop owner, this sword, as its previous owners have all met tragic ends, is dubbed a “cursed sword.” In reality, Muramasa swords have a prototype in Japan’s history, known as the Muramasa Katana.
The history of the Muramasa Katana can be traced back to the Muromachi period. There was a family of swordsmiths in Ise Province (also known as Suzu), who, amid continuous turmoil and the great demand for weapons in war-torn times, adhered to the principle of making excellent practical swords under the name “Muramasa.” The swords forged by the “Muramasa” became gradually favored by many warrior families, including the Tokugawa family.
However, coincidentally, many members of the Tokugawa family met their deaths due to the Muramasa Katana. The grandfather and father of Tokugawa Ieyasu were assassinated by their own retainers, using the Muramasa Katana as the murder weapon. Tokugawa Ieyasu’s son, Tokugawa Hidetada, was killed by Oda Nobunaga, and the executioner’s sword used was also made by Muramasa. Even Tokugawa Ieyasu himself was wounded twice by the Muramasa Katana. Therefore, Tokugawa Ieyasu greatly feared the Muramasa Katana and destroyed all Muramasa swords under his control, declaring them to be “cursed objects” specifically targeting the Tokugawa family. Although the Muramasa family did not stop making swords, samurai dared not wear them openly, resulting in very few Muramasa swords surviving to this day.
Classification of Japanese Swords
In One Piece, the 83 famous swords are classified as O Wazamono, Ryo Wazamono, and Wazamono, but this is just a translation from the domestic version. The original classification method in Japanese is based on the judgment criteria for swords in the mid-Edo period.
At that time, the judgment of swords was based on cutting power, divided into four grades according to the depth of cutting. The grading method may seem somewhat cruel. Newly forged swords were tested by trial cutting, where the tester used the sword to cut the body or corpse of a condemned criminal to determine its cutting power. Based on the depth of cutting, swords were graded from the highest level to the lowest level as Jo Saku (Highly Valuable), Saku (Valuable), Wazamono (Good) and Ryo Wazamono (Good Enough).
Of course, there were other testing methods, such as hard material cutting tests. This was a more civilized method, with various items used for testing, usually including armor and deer antlers.
This period coincided with my reading of the Wano Country Arc of One Piece, which has prompted some thoughts on the use of indigenous Japanese cultural elements. Having been exposed to a lot of Japanese culture through manga and games since childhood, I resonate somewhat with the Wano Country Arc of One Piece, so I thought I’d write some things about Japanese cultural elements. Starting with the previous two articles, I’m planning to start a series titled “The Chrysanthemum and the Sword of One Piece” as a series of Japanese traditional culture topics. If you’re interested, please feel free to give some feedback. Thank you.