60
The profession of the smith was deemed an honourable one, and those who engaged in it were generally men of good family. It is mentioned of the Emperor Gotoba Tennô, who succeeded to the throne in 1184, that not only did he “give directions to the noted smiths of the various provinces and make them forge, but also worked with his own hand.” In later years the famous smiths received from the Court an honorary rank, which was in proportion to the renown they had gained. Thus it is a common thing to see engraved on a sword the name of the maker, with the title “kami of such and such a province” appended. This, however, is also explained by the assertion that the maker engraved on his work the title of the nobleman in whose jurisdiction he lived; but of the two explanations the first-named is apparently more worthy of credit. To these names a date is generally added, while on the other side of this hilt is occasionally written a motto or a verse of poetry, some of which are rather curious. Subjoined are a few of these, selected at random:—
“There’s nought ’twixt Heaven and Earth that man need fear, who carries at his belt this single blade:”—again,—“One’s fate is in the hands of Heaven, but a skilful fighter does not meet with death.”—and again,—“In one’s last days, one’s sword becomes the wealth of one’s posterity.”
Apart from these mottoes, it was a common custom to give names to famous swords. ‘Little Crown’ was the title of one in great repute in the Taira family, while in the house of Minamoto there were two hereditary swords named “Hiyékire” and “Hizumaru.” The two latter names arose from the circumstance that when these swords were tried on two criminals sentenced to decapitation, one cut through the beard of the victim after severing the head from the body, while the other also divided the knee. The historian Rai Sanyo narrates the fact that the forging of these two swords occupied the smith for a period of sixty days. The dirk with which Asano Takumi no Kami, the lord of the famous “forty-seven rônins,”
