WEBVTT - Sword of the Samurai 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:05.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:14.360 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.599 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Christian Seger. Robert, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:20.279 you and I have played many a D and D game. 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:22.159 We've talked about it on the show before. Many of 0:00:22.160 --> 0:00:24.080 the listeners are D and D fans, some are not. 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.640 But I'm curious what weapon did you decide to go 0:00:27.720 --> 0:00:30.520 with your first time playing the first time you rolled 0:00:30.560 --> 0:00:33.400 up a character. Oh, I went with a katana of course, 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:36.440 Samurai sword. Yeah. This is one of the beautiful things 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:40.560 about D and D is that they meticulously researched weapons 0:00:40.640 --> 0:00:43.559 from throughout history so they could insert them into this 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.880 game full of elves and goblins. But you learn about 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.640 things like katanas and falcions and glaves and all these. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:54.440 I have all this weird, useless knowledge about melee weapons 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:58.360 from throughout history. Uh. Yeah, katanas are fascinating. Yeah, I 0:00:58.360 --> 0:01:01.480 mean it was the sword to and uh. And and 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:03.400 to your point that the fantasy world of Dungeon and 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.640 Dragons especially is the it is an unreal history, that is, uh, 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.759 that is forged out of out of many a detail 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:13.679 from our actual history of taking on New Shape and 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:16.200 New Form. Yeah, like you're halfling thief can have a 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.720 katana and that's not like cultural appropriation or anything, which 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:23.600 we're gonna talk about episode yeah, or is it. I 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:25.160 don't know, it might be well we'll have to get 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:27.360 into that. Ye spoilers to the next episode. But be 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.040 that as it may. Uh. Yes, the katana, the Samurai 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:36.480 sword definitely a sexy, sexy weapon. Any any child, any 0:01:36.480 --> 0:01:39.640 adult can tell you that that this is a this 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.039 is a really cool sword to look at, two wield 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:47.480 and fantasy battle. And I mean it's all over our media, right, 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:50.320 I mean, teenage Muntan, Ninja turtle. Yeah. I forget which 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:52.720 one had the katana. Leonardo Leonardo did. Yeah, he was 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:54.720 always the one you want to do Leonardo does. Swords 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.800 is the riff. Yeah. Oh, and then of course the 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:05.120 Highlander movies, Connor McCloud with this ivory, hilted katana even 0:02:05.160 --> 0:02:08.600 though he's the Scottish maybe alien immortal. Well but see 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:13.480 he got that sword from an ancient Scottish Egyptian played 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:16.720 by with the Spanish name, played by Sean Connery, So 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:19.800 it's like it's a little complicated with immortals. But but 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.840 clearly like the stik of the sword was was was 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.880 presented in that film. Yeah, I've been really interested in 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:29.399 just samurai fiction in general lately, and so the Katana 0:02:29.480 --> 0:02:31.720 has been on my mind, which is why I asked 0:02:31.720 --> 0:02:33.799 you if we could do an episode on this. I'm 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.560 working on a project that is going to incorporate elements 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:41.919 of samurai, you know, lore like armor and clothing and 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:44.799 weapons of course, and and their ethos. So I've been 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.960 catching up on all the samurai fiction and reading a 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.520 ton of Lone Wolf and Cub You know that manga. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:52.760 I'm familiar with it. I've never read it though. It's 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.320 about this father and son. The son's like three years 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:59.080 old as a journey through historical Japan, and he's this 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:02.600 exiled runan. It's pretty fascinating. And then, of course I 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.520 watched a ton of Cia Kurasawas movies, the big ones 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.560 being Seven Samurai, Thrown of Blood and you know Jimbo. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:14.480 Those are all starring Toshiro Mufune as the title samurai 0:03:14.560 --> 0:03:16.840 usually in most of those cases. Uh. And then of 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.440 course there's Jim Jarmish's Ghost Dog The Way of the Samurai. 0:03:21.040 --> 0:03:23.520 You remember that movie from the nineties. I never saw it, 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:27.400 but it's the Forest Whittaker Samurai movie. Yeah. And and then, uh, 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:29.280 the other one that I've seen recently that I like 0:03:29.360 --> 0:03:36.560 a lot surprising was that takash miche uh movie Thirteen Assassins. Yeah, 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:38.880 it's pretty good. I I haven't watched any of his 0:03:38.960 --> 0:03:42.600 films recently. I'm not usually a big fan of his work, 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.920 but this is a great samurai movie. And it definitely 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.880 shows the power of the katana. There's lots of limbs 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.320 flying around and and I assume it's suitably weird. H Yeah, Yeah, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.040 it's definitely, like especially like when you think of like 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.120 seven Samurai and thirteen Assassins like next to one another, 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:01.600 and like there's probably fifty years in between the two 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.640 of them, it is significantly weirder. Well, you know, I 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:10.440 don't think I've really enjoyed any samurai fiction recently, unless you, 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.240 of course, count the American Samurai and Samurai Cop starring 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:17.040 Robert Sadar. Yeah. I mean his katana must have been 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:21.080 made in the Ancient Tree, right, I remember that movie vaguely. 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.040 That isn't that tied in with another series of movies? 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.320 Is that the American Ninja movies. I don't know that 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:29.720 it's directly tied in with those, but it's in the same, 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:36.760 the same spirit, the same uh you know, culturally slightly insensitive, 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.640 but but I do. I also remember reading James Clavel's 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.880 Showgun back in middle school. There is a ve novel 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:51.040 about intrigued between between samurai and you had this this 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.880 Western character in the midst of it, you know, this outsider. 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:57.839 I've never heard of this. It is a really long novel. Yeah. 0:04:58.320 --> 0:05:00.760 The main thing I remember about it, aside from various 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.000 details of swordplay and uh and and a few elements 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.440 that were perhaps a little too mature for for me 0:05:07.480 --> 0:05:10.200 as a middle school reader, I do remember that it 0:05:10.240 --> 0:05:12.279 was it was so thick, and I brought it to 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.239 scout camp with me, and then it got damp because 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.880 it rained, and so the spine remained the same size, 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:21.760 but the bulk of the paperback swelled up to like 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:27.160 three times the size of the spine. Totally remember that. Yeah, 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.040 that's funny. Now. When I got older, I did get 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:32.880 into Crosawa films for a while, and I think I 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:36.480 just mainlined a bunch of Corosawa films and today the 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.159 really the only one that stands out to me. It 0:05:39.360 --> 0:05:41.560 is Throwing of Blood. Yeah, it's great. Throwing of Blood 0:05:41.640 --> 0:05:45.640 is the their version of Macbeth basically right and take 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:49.240 brilliant black and white. Yeah. Yeah, it's creepy too, like 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:51.920 the way the witches are done and everything. Yeah, that's 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:54.480 a great film. Yeah, one of my favorite McBeth adaptations 0:05:54.560 --> 0:05:59.960 and probably the best death by Aero scene ever. Spoiler 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.960 from adst. So, yeah, we've got plenty of samurai fiction 0:06:03.000 --> 0:06:04.719 to go around, and we're not even like going through 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:07.320 and listing like there's I mean, if you look at 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.880 samurai fiction list on Google, there's just like hundreds of 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:13.960 movies that have been made. And uh, you know, I 0:06:14.000 --> 0:06:16.520 think I mentioned this on the show before I grew 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:18.640 up in Singapore and so I ended up watching a 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.159 lot of Wosa movies growing up too, And they weren't 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.880 necessarily using katanas in all of those movies, but like 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:29.440 that same kind of uh Asian sword play mysticism, it 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.120 worked its way into those films in the same way 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.400 that they do sort of in Curse Awa. But Curse 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:36.719 I was not necessarily other than like throwing a blood, 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.840 there'sn't like magic um. But yeah, so it's just always 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.080 been something that's on my mind. And then I started 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:47.120 looking into this and I found out, holy cow, these 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.400 swords are apparently like a marvel of engineering even by 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:54.960 today's standards, and they're they're relatively complex in terms of 0:06:55.000 --> 0:07:00.760 how they were made and incredibly expensive. Oh kill Bill Uh. 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:03.720 We've seen that. Obviously, that's probably the film that most 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.440 people would know Katanas from, because there's a whole long 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.480 scene where the katanas being made for her, but like 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:14.640 specific accomplished sword smith. Uh. And that was the one 0:07:14.680 --> 0:07:16.560 that really brought to my mind, like, oh, there is 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:18.920 there's an art to this, right, It's not like they're 0:07:18.960 --> 0:07:21.840 just like cranking these things out of forge. Now, one 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:25.360 other point about the Samurai before we get in want 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:27.800 into more detail here. I think it's also worth pointing 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.000 out that even if you're not dealing with actual Samurai 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:35.440 lacquered armor and uh Samurai swords, the spirit of the 0:07:35.480 --> 0:07:39.720 Samurai castle long shadow over the history and the pop 0:07:39.760 --> 0:07:43.640 culture of Japan. So even in things like uh, you know, 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.880 various science fiction and anime UH franchises, and and even 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.600 in for instance New Japan Pro Wrestling, of which I 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.320 am I'm a fan, you see the Bushido code, the 0:07:54.840 --> 0:07:58.200 way of the samurai reflected in the way some of 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.480 these characters are presented to Yeah, there is like a 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:06.120 very strong association with that. I don't know if lifestyle 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.360 is even the right word, but like quality of character. Uh. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:12.280 And these weapons actually because I can say a distinctive 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:15.200 warrior ethos. Yeah, yeah, very much. So. That's one of 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:17.000 the things that I love about Lone Wolf and Cub 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:21.800 is that it's meticulously researched, and the lead character obviously 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:25.600 follows that ethos very closely and constantly talks about it 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.440 as you do in Mango, like he's always telling his opponents, 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:30.320 you know, beforehand, like this is why I'm about to 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.440 cut you in half because my specific code of honor, 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.760 uh makes it so I have to do this because 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.080 you're a dishonorable cur Well. I think that the great 0:08:40.080 --> 0:08:42.640 thing about the katana is that it is a perfect 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:48.120 extension of the samurai and and the cultural qualities that 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:51.920 go into that. Yeah. So uh, I guess we should 0:08:51.960 --> 0:08:53.439 go ahead and get into it a little bit. I 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.480 feel like everyone knows on some level what the samurai were, 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.600 but we probably need to just unwrap it a bit 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.240 as well here, right, so, as I was mentioning earlier, 0:09:02.280 --> 0:09:04.920 these are not just like your everyday warriors, right, It's 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:08.360 not like every warrior in Japan was a samurai. They 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:12.000 were expected to have personal characteristics and attitudes that were 0:09:12.120 --> 0:09:15.679 different from those of the ordinary soldier. And that's why 0:09:15.720 --> 0:09:19.079 they were given the responsibility of wielding these specific weapons, 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:23.400 because they were considered honorable and trustworthy, just like the 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:28.080 sword was because it was so meticulously made. And so 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:30.320 then you get this, uh, what's referred to as the 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:32.920 lifestyle of kendo. We're not going to go away into 0:09:32.960 --> 0:09:35.920 this in this episode, but that's basically what's referred to 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.160 as the way of the sword, and that subsequently developed 0:09:39.200 --> 0:09:43.040 around these weapons. It was a culture essentially based on 0:09:43.600 --> 0:09:46.440 how amazing these weapons were, not just in combat, but 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:52.200 just as like artistic artifacts. So the katana itself, it 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.240 was invented a millennium ago. That's crazy to think about, 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.080 and it is basically if you've never seen one before, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.520 it it's it's this famous curved sword that samurai wielded. 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:06.080 It's still today marveled for its aesthetic construction and skillful engineering. 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:08.920 In fact, we were just talking about this before we 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:11.000 went live on the mic that if you go to 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.760 most comic book conventions or like the local pop culture 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:17.959 convention for us as Dragon Con, on the floor, there 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:22.920 is usually a weapons dealer. Uh, and you can buy katanas. Uh. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:24.920 They have lots of them. I mean they usually have 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.800 like swords that are like such and such person's sword 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:29.960 from such and such a movie, right, like Ari Norns 0:10:30.000 --> 0:10:33.720 sword or Protos sword or something like that. Um, But 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:36.200 you can just buy katanas too, and they're like a 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.160 couple hundred bucks. I think. I have to say I 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:42.280 always enjoy looking at displays for that kind of stuff 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.160 to see what what is the most ridunculous blade that 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.400 is that is available for purchase, you know, the like 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:54.120 the least realistic, um, you know, most ridiculously designed weapon, right. Yeah. 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.760 And that's the thing too, is like I'm not entirely 0:10:57.800 --> 0:10:59.920 sure unless you're like a really big fan of the 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.920 aesthetics and ethos of samurai lifestyle, Uh, why you buy 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.880 a katana and like put it on the wall in 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:09.480 your living room. Although, like I've heard of people who 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.640 have those like actually using them in self defense, like 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.400 if somebody breaks into their house. But again, I don't 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:17.800 think those swords are made for fighting. Like, I think 0:11:17.840 --> 0:11:20.800 they're their metals probably gonna break because they're not made 0:11:20.840 --> 0:11:23.439 in the fashion that these katanas were made in. Yeah, now, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:26.120 I do want to drive a couple of facts home 0:11:26.200 --> 0:11:28.720 for here for everybody. So when we're talking about the 0:11:28.760 --> 0:11:31.800 invention of the katana sword and the development of katana sword, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:36.280 there's no joke katana that invented the blade. No, Like, 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:38.440 this is a this is an evolution of a tool, 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:42.400 a tool that was that was that was created to 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.679 to fulfill a particular purpose, but then takes on additional 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:50.400 sort of cultural resonance as well. Yeah, it's kind of amazing. 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.440 I can't think of a single artifact in our modern 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:57.120 culture that has this much reverence attached to it, right, 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.600 and that like it's a thing that took like I mean, 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:01.280 we'll go through this, but it took like something like 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:04.480 sixteen people to make over the course of like months, 0:12:05.160 --> 0:12:08.200 and uh then you you you know, give it to 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.319 this one person to wield and they're buried with it. 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.040 There's a lot of personal attachment to it. I can't 0:12:14.080 --> 0:12:16.679 think of anything. I mean, like everything we have is 0:12:16.679 --> 0:12:20.679 pretty much disposable, right, like your car, your phone, all 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:22.720 that stuff. It's not like it's made to last for 0:12:22.760 --> 0:12:25.679 your entire lifetime and be made of like the best 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:28.360 metals that are possibly available. Yeah, this was this was 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.520 a finely crafted item that was that was that was 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:33.760 built to last. Now, at the same time, I do 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:36.679 want to stress that there was nothing magical, like there 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.360 wasn't anything truly magical about the Samurai s or these 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:45.680 were tools and Katona's plus two there's no magical bonus. No, 0:12:45.679 --> 0:12:49.599 no that for horriple that that's even even rare. But 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:53.480 but as tools, they were items that were they were 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:58.319 made uh with with various physical restraints in place, and 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:01.160 it was certain compromises in play. So these were these 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:03.640 were blades that that could be dull, that could be 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.880 uh damaged or destroyed. Uh you know, generally the blade 0:13:07.880 --> 0:13:10.440 itself would last longer than the hilt to hilt might 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:15.120 be replaced, etcetera. But it is as phenomenal as these were, 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.720 we don't want to fall into the trap of of 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:22.920 of thinking them as something um supernatural, you know, yeah, definitely, um. 0:13:22.960 --> 0:13:25.520 But I think that where that sort of supernatural idea 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.280 comes from is that historical adherence to the idea of 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.559 it being so important in particular lifestyle, so the sword 0:13:32.600 --> 0:13:35.559 itself was actually considered a crucial part of a samuraized life. 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.440 In fact, when they were born, a sword was brought 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.920 into the bed chamber during delivery, and when they died, 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.040 their sword was placed by their side. The sword was 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:47.800 basically said to be akin to their soul, so they 0:13:47.880 --> 0:13:50.560 really thought of it in in that higher regard. I 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:52.320 don't I don't think you would say today like my 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.880 cell phone is my soul, or my my my toyota 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.120 is my soul. Well, both of your kia soul. I 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:02.640 think one might not say those things, but I feel 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.240 like some people might have. I think that those statements 0:14:05.240 --> 0:14:07.400 are true for some in it that's true. Yeah, there's 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.760 a certain amount of marketing around that. Just before I 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.040 came in here, I was reviewing one of our YouTube 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.680 videos and the commercial that played before it was for 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:18.920 Dodge Cars, and it was Vin Diesel driving a Dodge 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.560 car around and basically being like, if you drive one 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.680 of these, you will be as cool as my characters 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:26.840 and fast and the furious, uh, and you will belong 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.760 to my muscle family. Oh god, did I saw a 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:31.680 trailer for one of those films and he referred to 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:33.800 it as like the order of the muscle. Is that right? 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:36.720 Is it? Or that's the commercial that's the commercial I 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.920 just saw. Yeah, it's like it's a sacred uh um. 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:44.680 You know, society templary drop something close to twenty dollars 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:47.960 on a challenger. Yeah, and you joined the family. Uh. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:50.280 But the samurai you couldn't just buy your way into. 0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.600 So they wielded two swords and together these were referred 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:56.960 to as the die show. Die means large and represented 0:14:57.000 --> 0:15:01.640 the single edged katana, and it's small companion was the wakazashi, 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.040 and these were used in close combat, usually for beheading. 0:15:05.640 --> 0:15:08.320 Uh usually like if you had an honored opponent and 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:10.160 you you had killed them already and you wanted to 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.080 take their head, or for disemboweling yourself during the act 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:17.520 of seppuku. Uh So sometimes they use ritual daggers instead, 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.400 but this was really what the wakazashi was for, and 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:24.280 another samurai would usually stand by to behead the victims 0:15:24.320 --> 0:15:26.520 so their death would be quick. This is something that 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:30.960 Takashi mik Is fascinated within that Thirteen Assassins movie. Yeah, 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:36.160 this was the sep the the ritualized honorable suicide, right 0:15:36.560 --> 0:15:39.760 and Uh, yeah, I remember that being a major feature 0:15:39.840 --> 0:15:43.440 in James Clavel's Showgun as well. Right, yeah, there is 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:48.360 a certain Western fascination, right. The katana itself was usually 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.160 thirty to thirty three inches long, while the wakazashi was 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.400 eighteen to twenty inches long. Now here's the thing. We're 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:56.640 gonna go real deep into the metallurgy of this in 0:15:56.640 --> 0:15:59.720 a second, but just to sort of briefly tell you 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.480 about this, the katana had to be forged so that 0:16:02.560 --> 0:16:05.520 it had both a sharp edge and it would not 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.600 break during a duel. So if it was too hard, 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.240 the sword itself would be brittle, but if it was 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:14.120 too soft, the sword wouldn't take on the keen edge 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:16.640 that it had. So, for instance, like if you hit 0:16:16.720 --> 0:16:19.040 something with it and a crack was introduced to the blade, 0:16:19.440 --> 0:16:21.760 as would inevitably happen in battle when you're you know, 0:16:21.840 --> 0:16:25.400 hitting other swords, armor, all kinds of things, it would 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:28.120 run all the way through the blade. But instead of 0:16:28.120 --> 0:16:30.680 the way that they constructed these, it just stopped at 0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:34.240 the core and they could sort of repair the crack 0:16:34.840 --> 0:16:38.080 around the core. Now, windshields today are actually made with 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.240 a similar principle. They've got these two layers to them, 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:43.520 so that the first layer cracks when like a rock 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:46.760 hits your your windshield on the highway, but then it's 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.200 stopped by the plastic interior. That's why you see that 0:16:50.240 --> 0:16:52.840 sort of spider web. Yes, all right, we're gonna take 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:54.440 a quick break and we come back. We're gonna roll 0:16:54.480 --> 0:17:02.240 through the metallurgical details of the Samurai sword. All right, 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.080 we returned. So the katanas had to be made of 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.360 this really really well put together steel. It was the 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:15.280 purest of steels, and it was called tamahagana or jewel 0:17:15.440 --> 0:17:18.919 steel by the Japanese. Now, the methodology for putting this 0:17:18.960 --> 0:17:22.040 together was basically, you had to make the swords core 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.240 with the soft metal that I was speaking of earlier 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.240 that wouldn't break. Then you would cover it with harder metals. 0:17:27.520 --> 0:17:31.080 But these were repeatedly folded and hammered over and over 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:35.520 again until they were literally millions of these layers laminated together. 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.040 Constructing a sword took three days and three nights. When 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:42.200 they say that, they're just referring to the metal part, 0:17:42.320 --> 0:17:44.880 not not the other aspects, and we'll we'll walk through 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:49.439 that shortly. But smelters, basically to put together a sword. 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:53.920 They would shovel twenty five tons of iron bearing river 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:58.800 sand and charcoal into a rectangular clay furnace that was 0:17:58.840 --> 0:18:02.560 called the tatara. And the charcoal was important in this 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:05.880 process because it fueled the furnace up to two thousand 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.960 five degrees fahrenheit. And this was important because it reduced 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:14.359 that iron ore down to steal and would eventually yield 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.560 that jewel steel that we were talking about. Right. Uh, 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.760 do you remember Princess Mononoke? Yes, of course, So I 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:23.840 had forgotten this, but apparently the plot of Princess Mononoke 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.159 is that the humans are cutting down the trees in 0:18:26.200 --> 0:18:29.440 the forest. The whole reason why is because they're fueling 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.560 these furnaces specifically so they can make more weapons. So 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:35.120 this was like a major plot point of that film. Yeah, 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:36.399 it's been a while since I've seen that one all 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.680 the way through, because the the Boy is not yet 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:43.200 ready for the more dramatic Commuzaki films. Yeah, that's definitely 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:46.320 one of the more intense ones. So this steel, while 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:49.000 it's inside the oven, it was never allowed to reach 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.439 a molten state, and the reason why was so that 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.560 the carbon that was mixed into the steel would vary 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.359 throughout it somewhere between point five percent and one point 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:01.840 five percent of its property. These the higher the carbon, 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:04.800 the harder the steel, so they had to mix the 0:19:04.800 --> 0:19:07.359 two types. You've got the high carbon for this hard 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:09.399 razor edge and you've got the low carbon for the 0:19:09.560 --> 0:19:13.200 shock absorbent core. Now, on the third night, they would 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.479 actually break open the clay furnace and they'd expose this steel. 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:21.199 The pieces that broke apart the easiest helped them to 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:23.680 discern what the carbon content was. Right, they didn't have 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.800 like microscopes to sit there and look at the ore 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:29.000 and figure out, you know, how much carbon was in 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.520 each one. They literally had to do it by well, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.520 not by hand, but they use tongs and stuff. Then 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:37.439 the swordsmith would take this and they would heat it 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:41.359 and hammer and fold it repeatedly over and over again. 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.000 And the reason why was this would combine the iron 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:48.040 and the carbon while drawing out any of the undissolved impurities. 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:51.760 And these referred to as as slag, which I like, 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:54.240 I think slag is like a good like this sounds 0:19:54.240 --> 0:19:57.720 like a good like like dirty name to call somebody's slag. 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:03.000 Um If other elements besides iron and carbon remained though, 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.600 that this would weaken the metal, so you had to 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.680 get that slag out of there. The smiths would judge 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.080 how much carbon they had left over in this by 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:13.880 how much it yielded to them pounding on it over 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.560 and over again with their hammers. So uh. And in fact, 0:20:16.640 --> 0:20:18.720 one of the ways they if they if they found 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.320 that it was too low in carbon, they would actually 0:20:21.320 --> 0:20:24.280 add it back into the mix by exposing the metal 0:20:24.320 --> 0:20:27.560 to ash from rice straw. So it's really interesting, like 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.520 can imagined the like years and years of smith ng 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.359 and learning all of these little techniques, and they weren't 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.840 thinking in terms of chemistry. They weren't thinking like, okay, 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:42.080 so the molecular bonds of carbon and iron are going 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.080 to produce such in such effect right there, just like 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:46.320 I know that if I hit it this many times, 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:48.720 it will get rid of this stuff, and if I 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.440 add rice straw, it'll put it back in. And so 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:55.199 the doubling of these layers actually increased every time the 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.679 metal was folded, right, and so you go too, and 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:00.639 then you multiply that, then you it four and so 0:21:00.800 --> 0:21:03.320 on and so on until it results in a final 0:21:03.480 --> 0:21:06.879 count of four million layers. Can you imagine these guys 0:21:06.920 --> 0:21:10.040 just sitting here and hammering this stuff over and over again. 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:12.159 So you you start to see like the value of 0:21:12.160 --> 0:21:15.239 these swords because they're just really being worked on in 0:21:15.280 --> 0:21:20.919 this artisanal fashion for days. Now. Once the slag is removed, 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.119 the smith would heat the high carbon steel that was 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:28.399 left into a U shaped channel. Then they would hammer 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:31.000 the low carbon steel that was left, and they fit 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.000 that snugly into the channel, so the hard steel formed 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:36.480 that outer shell while the tough steel served the core. 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.480 The smith would then coat the sword in this thick 0:21:40.840 --> 0:21:45.639 insulating mixture of clay and charcoal powder. And what they 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:48.760 would do is they would they would put different consistencies 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.560 of this clay around the sword, so for instance, the 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.240 front edge would be lightly coated while the rest would 0:21:55.280 --> 0:21:58.280 be covered, and this would protect the blade during further 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:01.840