David Flynn Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 Does anyone know, or has attended the exhibition that is currently on at the Yasukuni Shrine? Apparently there is a sword exhibition and demonstrations by various associated craftspeople. Quote
John A Stuart Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 http://www.yasukuni.jp/~yusyukan/news/n ... le_id=0053 John Quote
Baka Gaijin Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 Morning all I believe there is an annual demonstration of sword making. Here is a 12 minute film from the 2008 event on Paul Martin's You tube Channel - The Japanese Sword http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4P8afTQ0Ow Something very curious occurs at the beginning, about 1.07 in. The swordsmith and assistant appear to ignite the charcoal by hammering a piece of iron that has been coated with something....or am I misinterpreting what is in fact another action? Cheers Quote
Bugyotsuji Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 Thank you, Malcolm, I enjoyed that. A pity the moment the point is inserted into his fist is missing. It seems that they strike the steel to get it hot and use that to light the straw...? He must have thick and calloused hands not to get burnt carrying the flame like that. The comment towards the end was interesting where he said, "People often think that the Nihon-to is a Buki. a weapon 武器, whereas it is really Mamori, protection 守り". Perhaps the meaning of protection is spiritual fortification and pure energy for the soul, as much as, if not more than, mere physical defence/defence. Quote
David Flynn Posted January 5, 2013 Author Report Posted January 5, 2013 Thanks John, unfortunately, many of us here can't read Japanese. Including myself. Quote
Brian Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 Haven't watched it yet..but I do recall more than one mention of truly traditional smiths hammering a piece of steel to get it red hot, and then lighting the initial fire with that. Tried to discover the source of that info, but lost it. Seems like this is verification. Brian Quote
Baka Gaijin Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 A question for Ford perhaps.......!! Quote
Toryu2020 Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 Traditionally all fires are extinguished at the end of the old year and not re-lighted until the third day at the earliest. This is why traditional news years food is all served cold and prepared in advance. For swordsmiths this was indeed how they re-lit the fire and still do. They hammer a piece of steel until redhot and then use that to light paper to relight the fires in the forge. -t Quote
ROKUJURO Posted January 5, 2013 Report Posted January 5, 2013 The explanation for that phenomenon is rather simple: the forming energy of the hammer blows causes internal friction in the material - just imagine the molecules 'rubbing' onto each other. This can generate as much heat as to ignite a piece of paper. Even if the steel in the video still looked to be black, it might have had a temperature of about 600°C (not easily visible in daylight). In the process of forging an object, the heated steel naturally looses it's temperature, but when intensively worked on, you can see the red heat coming up again a little with heavy hammer-blows. Try this at home, if you have an anvil and a 2 kg hammer, it's a good work-out! Quote
drdata Posted January 7, 2013 Report Posted January 7, 2013 seeing is believing, American style to lite a smoke... Quote
Paul Martin Posted January 9, 2013 Report Posted January 9, 2013 Hi All, the previous video posted in this thread was the March and November type demonstration. Here is a link to a video of the New Year's event. Best Quote
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