Kara-tachi Sword With Gilded Silver Fittings And Inlay

The is an 8th century Japanese sword in the style. It was one of Emperor Shōmu's favorite swords and was handed down in the Shōsōin Repository.

Because it is an imperial treasure, it is not open to the public, but is sometimes exhibited at the Shōsōin exhibition held in Nara Prefecture every fall.

Origin

According to the , a list of offerings made by Empress Kōmyō to Tōdai-ji temple after Emperor Shōmu's death, 100 large-scale swords () were stored in the of the Shōsōin.

These include three , nine , 44 , 41 , one , and two .

The above 44 large swords can be further classified into 13 , 23 large swords, 6 , and 2 .

Of the 100 large-scale swords mentioned above, 4 double-edged swords and one large sword were removed from the Shōsōin on January 18, 760. In addition, on September 11, 764, 48 large swords and 40 large swords in black sheaths were removed from the Shōsōin, probably due to their use during the Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion. The number of large swords does not match the ''Tōdai-ji Offering Book'', but it may include ''kake-hake'' swords and others.

Therefore, of the 100 large-scale swords, 93 had been removed from the Shōsōin by 764, and of the remaining 7, only 1 large sword and 2 staff swords are known to exist, while 4 are missing. However, there are 49 large swords of unknown origin in the and three large swords in the of the Shōsōin, and it is possible that the large swords originally stored in the north storage room were later returned and mixed up.

The ''Kara-tachi'' sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay corresponds to the extant 1 large sword. It is the fourth large sword listed in the catalog of large-scale swords in the ''Tōdai-ji Offering Book''.

''Kara-tachi'' (literally, Tang large sword) used to mean a sword made in Tang China, and ''kara-yō tachi'' (literally, Tang style sword) was thought to mean a sword made in Japan in imitation of the Tang large sword. However, since no conclusion has been reached as to whether the ''kara-tachis blade and exterior (hilt and scabbard) were made in China or Japan, the term ''kara-tachi'' is now interpreted to mean .

Blade and Exterior

The blade type is , in which the mountain-shaped bulge on the side, called , is closer to the cutting edge side of the blade. This type is common in swords of the Nara period. It is a single-edged type called , in which only the tip of the blade is double-edged. A similar example is the Kogarasu Maru. The shape of the blade is a with a slightly curved blade. The shape of the is a chamfered 3-''mune'' type.

The shape of the is a in the shape of a chestnut, with two holes, one for and the other for , through which the is threaded. Although the exterior of the sword is ceremonial in appearance, the excellence of the blade's forging is considered to be unparalleled.

The hilt is wrapped in sharkskin (actually stingray skin), and a metal fitting with an arabesque design in openwork is attached to the end of the hilt. The is decorated with a design of small dots called with an arabesque design in relief on the surface, and a flower-shaped ornamental metal fitting is placed over the hole for a ''mekugi''. The white leather ''kake'' (cord) connected to the hilt with a silver ring has been replaced by a repair.

The scabbard is made of wood and lacquered in black lacquer. Three metal fittings are attached to the scabbard and one to the , which are openworked with an arabesque pattern similar to that on the pommel of the hilt. Two of these four fittings are each fitted with a mountain-shaped fitting that connects the . Two purple leather ''obitori'' with white patterns are attached to the mountain-shaped fittings.

The metal fittings are all silver with gold plating, most of which has peeled off, and are decorated in places with colored glass and crystal balls, and under the crystal balls are painted in vermilion.

The technique on the scabbard is one of the lacquer techniques and is the same as the ''maki-e'' polishing technique used today. The patterns are drawn in lacquer, sprinkled with gold powder, coated with more lacquer, and then polished out with patterns of flowers, clouds, and animals.

The belt and bag that came with the sword were lost and have not been handed down.

Controversy over the place of production

Since the term ''makkinru'' is a unique Japanese name that does not exist in China, and since no examples of crafts using this technique can be found in China, there has long been a dispute over whether the scabbard was made in Japan or China.

Kurokawa Mayori interprets ''makkinru'' as a technique in which gold is powdered with a rasp and sprinkled over black lacquer to create a pattern, and places it at the origin of ''maki-e'' in later Japan. He also assumes that ''kara-tachi'' means a sword made in Tang dynasty China, and he considers the ''Kara-tachi'' sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay to be made in China, and therefore the ''makkinru'' technique was also introduced to Japan from China. Since ''maki-e'', in which pictures are drawn by sprinkling gold powder, does not exist in China, ''maki-e'' is assumed to have been created in Japan from ''makkinru''.

On the other hand, Rokkaku Shisui interprets ''kara-tachi'' to mean that the blade was made in China and does not refer to the place of production of the entire sword, including the exterior, and argues that the decoration and making of the scabbard are also different from those of the Chinese. He also claims that although there are many paintings in China made by the technique, in which gold powder is dissolved in oil or glue and painted with a brush, there are no paintings in China made by sprinkling gold powder like Japanese ''maki-e'', and that ''makkinru'' is also Japanese in origin.

Recent research has shown that the gold powder particles used in the scabbard vary in size and cannot be reproduced using a modern rasp, but can be reproduced using a rasp equivalent to the one found in a carpenter's tool called , a treasure of the Shōsōin Repository. It was also revealed that the patterns on the scabbard were not drawn by the ''kondei'' technique but by a technique similar to ''maki-e''.

Recent research has shown that 95% of the Shōsōin treasures are thought to be of Japanese origin, although they are decorated with foreign designs, it is still unclear whether the ''Kara-tachi'' sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay was of Japanese or foreign origin.

The arabesque design on the metal fittings decorating the pommel of the hilt and scabbard is the same pattern found on the , the crown remnants of Emperor Shōmu and Empress Kōmyō in Shōsōin, and it was quite possible to produce such metal fittings using Japanese metal engraving techniques of the time. However, no Tang dynasty sword with similar metal fittings has been excavated. There are no surviving Tang dynasty swords other than those excavated from tombs, and there are very few excavated examples.

One known sword was excavated in 1992 from the tomb of Dòu Jiǎo (, d. 627) in Xi'an, but the shape of the pommel of the hilt is that of a ring-pommel sword, which is different from the ''Kara-tachi'' sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay.

The ring-pommel sword was also called in ancient Japan, and it is believed that it was so called because it was initially introduced to Japan from Goguryeo. At that time, Goguryeo was called Koma in Japan. The swords described as in the ''Tōdai-ji Offering Book'' fall into this category. Therefore, "Tang" and "Koma" (Goguryeo) do not strictly refer to the place of production of the sword, but rather to the style of the sword's exterior.

References

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External links

''Kara-tachi'' sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kara-tachi sword with gilded silver fittings and inlay
Ancient swords of Japan
Individual_Japanese_swords