So after reading a whole lot @Nicholas Im not really sure what the takeaway is from the sword in terms of value. Were they mass produced? Some literature says he struck each one of them himself, other pieces state it was the prison workers. Some literature says they have a certain rating, but after researching the rating system it was written to where you had to know a whole lot about the systems in order to understand it. I guess my question is, are these good swords according to traditional Japanese sword making standards? It states that the sword is Bizen, but even the importance of that eludes me. I am sorry to bother you with all of this, but I truly want to learn as much about this sword as possible. I find it very ignorant of me to own a piece of history and be so unaware of how it came about. Any explanations of this is sword would be deeply appreciated.