Here are the names of the parts of a sword. The length of a sword means the length between the tip of the blade and the top of the Nakago (the hilt) as shown in the last figure. The curvature of a sword is an important factor for connoisseurs to appraise the sword because it often indicates the time and region the particular sword was forged. 


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Published by Yurie Endo 遠藤由利江
I was born and raised in Minato-ku, Tokyo Japan then moved to Kamakura. Now I live in Los Angeles.
Graduated from Meiji University and received a degree in literature and curatorship. I hold a curatorship license. Also, I graduated from the California State University of Northridge and received a degree in Economics.
My father owned a manufacturing company related to metal. As his hobby, he had been collecting Japanese swords and other types of Japanese art objects. He was one of the administrators of Nihon Bijutu Token Hozon Kyokai(日本美術刀剣保存協会), that is a sword museum located in Tokyo. One of his friends (Mori Sensei) who was also the main administrator, used to hold a Japanese sword study group in his house. I joined his study group.
Mori sensei’s group was a very rare and valuable kind because he could bring top-quality swords as our study materials because of his position in the museum. The kind of swords we could study were top-quality museum swords. Those are the kind of swords people could only see through the glass display cases. Also, I studied swords with my father since he kept many swords in our house.
This is how I started to get into Japanese sword study.
View all posts by Yurie Endo 遠藤由利江