"THE CRAFT OF THE JAPANESE SWORD" authored by Yoshindo Yoshihara (Japan's LEADING sword maker) and TRANSLATED by sword connoisseurs Leon & Hiroko Kapp

Details the creation of the sword as the combined efforts of: the smith, polisher, habaki and fittings maker, and saya maker.

The contributions of each is detailed with step by step photographs accompanying detailed text and many examples. In addition, comparisons of koto and shinsakuto are included with color, b&w photos, and many illustrations throughout.

Well over a thousand years old, the tradition of swordmaking in Japan is one of the most highly regarded metal crafts in the world.

When all sword manufacture was prohibited in Japan for seven years after World War II, the age-old techniques were in danger of being lost forever.

Today, in the hands of a new generation of practitioners, the craft is making a startling comeback.

Connoisseurs say that the swords being produced now are the equal of anything made in Japan in the past few hundred years.

This book takes the reader into the workshops of four of Japan's leading sword craftsmen

READ this book and LEARN what the very BIG differences ARE between Chinese reproduction excrement and a true Nihonto (Japanese art-sword)

Armed with this book ? you are unlikely to be FOOLED into buying a worthless piece of trash made in China last week but sold to the unread as 'antique' :-(