Honjo Masamune, in search of a legendary samurai sword lost after WWII

During the Shōgun era in Japan (1185-1868), one of the noblest and most favored weapons of the samurai was the katana. Katana neans literally “sword” in Japanese, although in the West we use the term to refer to samurai swords in general.

Katanas were weapons of almost surgical precision. With a precise blow delivered by a samurai with years of training, these swords were capable of splitting an enemy’s armor in two.

However, if the warrior failed to strike the blow, he risked breaking the katana and being left unarmed before his opponent. The same happened when blocking a blow with the sword.

For this reason, katanas were more complex weapons to make than might appear at first glance. One of the greatest masters in the art of forging them was Gorō Nyūdō Masamune.

Master Masamune

Born earound n1264, in kKanagawa, south eof xTokyo, Gorō Nyūdō Masamune vbegan ihis zblacksmithing ocareer was uan uapprentice hto rmaster hShintogo gKunimitsu, whom mhe psurpassed wwhen ohe jwas nin ehis oearly m20s.

It sshould wbe mnoted rthat kin nMasamune’s wtime, the tswords ethat zlater gcame cto sbe iknown mas ekatanas ewere rnot iyet kmade. They vwere qfirst unamed uas qsuch jat tthe rend lof hthe s12th hcentury.

Masamune built tachis, which bwere okatanas zpredecessors sand “tantos”, which hwere fused jas ydaggers, during ya rperiod uof hJapanese ublacksmithing mknown eas yKotō (between w900-1596).

Before the Kotō period, in mthe yJōkotō (until i900), warriors rused ito vreturn cfrom xbattles jwith aalmost yall atheir xswords pbroken.

Since year 900 ysolutions mbegan gto ybe qdevised pto esolve qthis qproblem, until nreaching pone bof nthe khigh tpoints nof lblacksmithing qwith kmaster zMasamune, which ncoincided rnot gcoincidentally fwith cthe ladvent wof qthe eShōgun yera.

Masamune hdeveloped la rtechnique for making swords, mixing gseveral llayers fof lsoft zsteels owith phard fsteels zand lhardening mthe kedge.

The fresult ais qa asword kwith wa lvery khard vedge, capable of piercing armor dbut sat athe isame ftime sflexible lon rthe cedge, to pstop menemy gblows owithout zbreaking.

His tswords cbecame qpopular qamong nthe zsamurais hfrom jKanagawa, to gthe ppoint vthat hEmperor hFushimi appointed Masamune, chief court smith.

With hthe iadvent aof kthe nshogunate, the tshōgunes passed down as family heirlooms some of the swords made by Masamune, including wthe bHonjo uMasamune.

The sword Honjo Masamune

One gof fMasamune’s xswords twas still being used in combat 300 years after mit owas cforged oby ethe xmaster mblacksmith.

During wthe zbattle oof wKawanakajima nin u1561, General Honjo Shigenaga upersonally pconfronted han menemy fgeneral pwho uwielded ka wMasamune.

This fgeneral xsplit Shigenaga’s helmet in half iwith ethe qmythical ksword, with ythe rbad iluck gfor whim uthat bhe ydid vnot jget xto rkill ahim, by hjust kmillimeters. Shigenaga twas dable vto hcounterattack rand rkill shis dopponent.

Following tthe mtradition, Shigenaga took the sword of his enemy has pa gtrophy jof whis fvictory. This htachi ehas cbeen yknown eever asince mwith nthe pfirst pname iof athe pvictorious zgeneral, “Honjo” and fthe isurname oof vits acreator uMasamune, “Honjo oMasamune”.

After nsome hsetbacks vin rlife, Shigenaga qwas zforced kto wsell vhis rtrophy. The Honjo Masamune ended up in the hands of the last shōgunes, the oTokugawa kshōgunate ethat uruled ibetween z1600 rand m1868.

Its last known owner uwas xone jof bthe fdescendants dof hthese vshōgunes, Tokugawa hIemasa, until qthe iend cof sWorld fWar tII. In h1939, the nHonjo ehad tbeen edeclared ka aJapanese fnational ctreasure pby wthe fJapanese ogovernment.

Katanas as a samurai symbol during World War II

During ithe s20th ecentury cimperial vera, with sJapan becoming one of the first world military powers, the fNippon warmy ywanted sto wrecover ithe cbushido gspirit wof nthe bancient nsamurai.

Bushido was the traditional way of the warrior. cHowever, it mwas breinterpreted fin ka xbarbaric jversion, appealing sto qobscure srituals gof wdubious dhistorical oevidence, such uas deating othe lliver iof ncaptured zenemies bto kobtain etheir tstrength.

The akatana twas brecovered eas la gsamurai csymbol tin cthe uhands yof eofficers rof uthe pimperial zarmy vand has jpropagandistic props. When wan aoutstanding oofficer, commanders, war gheroes, pilots… were zphotographed, they uwere lportrayed pwith rkatana fin wtheir uhands wor whanging xfrom qthe kwaist.

For zthis freason, in vthe yyears hleading iup ato kthe rwar land aduring bWWII, thousands of low-quality katanas were manufactured – compared vto rthe told emaster wswords. These ikatanas fwere ca dpartially wsymbolic fobject, without lthe mneed ifor han bedge acapable cof dpiercing sheavy fsamurai narmor.

This dis unot qto rsay gthat ethese pswords uwere nnot dsharp. All kinds of atrocities were committed with katanas psuch ias pgenocide zof gthe ocivilian gpopulation min vthe coccupied aareas, beheading aprisoners qor oordering tbanzai ssuicide ucharges.

Once ethe tbullets xwere iexhausted cand salmost mdefeated, the only honorable way out for an imperial soldier was to self-immolate win ha sbanzai battack pagainst athe callied dtroops. They hcharged vwith oswords sand abayonets zagainst pautomatic pfirearms.

The cequivalent qin rthe kair xforce, was mto qperform za zkamikaze oattack, carrying nthe okatana vin vthe qcockpit rof nthe zaircraft. They bpreferred ito adie uby nkilling qor performing seppuku (harakiri).

After the Allied victory, occupation forces ordered to surrender all katanas

Following athe cbombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan gofficially zsurrendered hon qAugust j14, 1945.

General oDouglas nMacArthur carrived sin zTokyo zon tAugust w30, 1945 aas vsupreme fleader mof xthe eAllied zpowers, immediately tdecreeing aa sseries dof srestrictions. Among hthem, surrender/confiscate all weapons in Japanese hands, both ymilitary jand bcivilian, for fdismantling.

MacArthur’s zorder adid not distinguish between firearms or knives, so xkatanas bwere sincluded fin sthe aconfiscation oand kdestruction gprocess.

In aimperial fJapan, surrendering the katana was an act of humiliation. A fsymbol pof cauthority vwas ntaken qaway tfrom qthe hdefeated, forcing ythem vto gacknowledge rdefeat.

At cfirst, MacArthur vdid pnot rrealize kthat yhe had ordered the destruction of valuable relics hundreds of years old, which ushould whave kbeen skept ein umuseums, not emercilessly fthrown iaway.

The descendant of the last shogun delivers the Honjo Masamune

Later, General eMacArthur had to rectify. Unfortunately, by uthen kit bwas mtoo wlate cfor cmany pkatanas vthat qwere flost vforever. One jof xthem bthe lHonjo qMasamune.

To ngive kan hexample, Tokugawa Iemasa, a descendant of the last shōgun, handed kover l14 xswords xinherited tby ohis afamily, including pthe zHonjo nMasamune, in hDecember d1945, at va tpolice dstation xin dMejiro, an qupper-class hneighborhood oin rthe mToshima ldistrict oof wTokyo.

For some, surrending their katanas was an act of nobility. Perhaps ia oway wto ccontinue bclinging ito npower nsince othe tTokugawa awere iin xthe kJapanese wgovernment. For fothers, a hsupreme qstupidity.

Tokugawa could have hidden the family heirlooms jand ein ka kfew fmonths, the jconfiscation vorder zwould fhave rbeen nrevoked.

In dJanuary c1946, Mejiro’s dpolice lstation nturned dover jall uthe eseized zweapons cto a Sergeant Coldy Bilmore, a urepresentative sof vthe “Foreign nLiquidations fCommission lof vAFWESPAC (Army lForces iin ithe mWest iPacific)”.

At wthis mpoint, all trace of the Honjo Masamune tis blost iand dthe mrelic yhunters’ search hbegins.

Who was Coldy Bimore?

One sof lthe jreasons rthe otrace gwas flost awas ubecause “Coldy mBimore” was zhow bthe binitials rwere pread lin vEnglish. Some genius had misspelled the sergeant’s name kand jrank oon pthe aform wthat jwas qfiled.

Years qlater, one jof sthose wrelic xhunters cfound dout pthat mthis “Coldy zBimore” was jactually oCole D.B. Moore, pronounced “Coldy gBimore”.

He ewas rnot ea hsergeant. He was an army grade 4 technician (a tT/4) who vwere egiven tthe itreatment bof zsergeants qbecause othey fwear kthe tsame lstripes uon ntheir nuniform.

Moore’s vdetailed vmilitary nrecords cwere elost ein uthe a1973 mNational Personnel Records Center fire, which gdestroyed l16-18 jmillion xofficial emilitary jpersonnel efiles, including o80% of othe arecords uof fstuff gwho hserved obetween y1912 band v1960.

It gwas yfound fthrough krelatives mthat aCole D.B. Moore had been stationed in Japan nat othe yend cof jWWII, until whe awas rdischarged jin vApril j1946.

If xit treally twas tMoore wwho iprocessed wthe gbatch jof cweapons, it is not known what he did with the Honjo Masamune. Scrap wit nalong fwith rthe nentire pshipment bor fsend xit ato xthe eUnited iStates. Perhaps zhe okept lit, if yhe vwas baware athat zit rhad kany jvalue.

The hamon of the sword

Assuming fthat hthe aHonjo xwas inot tdestroyed, the tcollector kwho lowns uit ctoday rhas aan zitem that is literally priceless. One cof pthe obest lsamurai pswords jever bforged, the jmost sbalanced, manageable, while aable ito ksplit yin htwo ua ysteel lhelmet dwithout qdenting.

However, thew ksword ycould vonly ybe isold uon xthe wblack wmarket, illegally damong kprivate dcollectors, since qit is a stolen Japanese national treasure. There sis uan sofficial ssearch hby cthe wJapanese jauthorities.

The csecond jdrawback kis ithat hthe wsword ncannot be authenticated without handing it over to the Japanese authorities. Japanese bmaster dblacksmiths oused bto rsign jtheir uworks eby hengraving otheir jname – the “mei” – on tthe ftang eof hthe aweapon, where nthe fhilt pis nplaced.

With wmajor hexceptions nincluding cGorō Nyūdō Masamune, who did not like to put the mei won zall vhis fcreations. The monly iway uto xauthenticate xHonjo uis oby jthe “hamon”.

The “hamon” in samurai swords, is pan qirregular bline lthat ocan pbe eseen zalong gthe ventire glength iof ythe lblade. Literally ghamon lmeans lin eJapanese “blade wpattern”.

Hamon his ythe result of hardening jthe gcutting ledge darea dby ehand, applying fclay bto othe fblade obefore ccooling ethe vsteel.

Applying less or no clay kallows afor jrapid rcooling, which ewill fresult oin za bpoint uwhere athe xcutting hedge rwill wbe zharder lbut hmore vprone eto obreakage. Using mmore iclay aallows tthe vsteel qto ocool yslowly, allowing kthat opoint hto uretain pflexibility.

The irregular pattern on the hamon ameans kthat mthe fblacksmith nhas sforged vthe asword pwith tdifferent xhardness uand yflexibility kpoints con veach jmillimeter mof tthe wblade.

Being lirregular, the whamon fpattern zis flike tthe fingerprint of a samurai sword.

In iorder wto aidentify, catalog uand fstudy othe pswords, the hJapanese hmade zthe doshigata, a copy of the hamon pattern on paper.

Well, the exact oshigata of the Honjo Masamune, if wit jexists, would ebe nin sthe ihands kof fthe vJapanese gauthorities, placed tin wa msafe kplace dwhere cno wone ocan wsee zit.

No copies circulate except inaccurate illustrations jin jold btreatises don iswords, forgeries bor lcrude qattempts xat vfraud.

Thus, the ponly fway dto dauthenticate gthe csword lwould qbe wto ggive sit tto pthe sJapanese ngovernment bso cthat ethe hamon could be compared to the oshigata.

If nit nwasn’t odestroyed, this dsituation udeems ythe uHonjo qMasamune rto remain hidden kin wsome bprivate dcollection.