Korean sword
The traditions of Korean bladesmithing and swordsmanship have served a central place in the military history of Korea for thousands of years.
Although typical Korean land battles have taken place in wide valleys and narrow mountain passes, which favor use of spears and bows,[1] the sword found use as a secondary, close-quarters weapon, in addition to far more prominent role during sieges and ship-to-ship boarding actions.
Higher quality, ceremonial swords were typically reserved for the officer corps as a symbol of authority with which to command the troops.
The rarity of traditional Korean swords in the modern day has made them extremely valuable, with high demand from both museums and collectors.
[citation needed] In 2013, a Chinese Character inscription was discovered on a 5th-century sword from the Geumgwanchong tomb in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province.
The sword used for combat during the Joseon Dynasty was called Hwando, and in the name 'Hwando (環刀)', 'Hwan(環)' is the Hanja means ring.
《Yungwon Pilbi》 (융원필비, 戎垣必備), a military book published in 1813 states that it originated from a ring for tying the sheath to the waist.
It is written that when an envoy from the Yuan Dynasty arrived in April 1277, King Chungnyeol sent Yi Jang-mu (이장무, 李藏茂) to Chungju city to make 1,000 sacks of Hwando.
It is said that this method was designed because if the sword was worn with the hilt facing forward, the sheath at the back would hit the horse and hinder its movement when running fast on horseback.
Considering this, it appears that it was common until the mid-Joseon Dynasty to wear the sword with the hilt facing forward in a looped manner.
The Hwando of the early Joseon Dynasty, as recorded in the 《Sejong Silok》(世宗實錄) and the 《Gukjo-oyreui》(國朝五禮儀), is not only greatly curved but also short in length.
However, due to durability issues, triangular swords were used for personal protection or assassination, like the changpogeom (창포검), while the military typically used Hwandos with hexagonal or pentagonal cross-sections.
However, most surviving Hwandos have clear angular ridges on the blade back, similar to the shinogi of a Japanese sword.
[citation needed] The cross-sections of the hwandos unearthed from Dongnae Citadel were also pentagonal and hexagonal, and even swords from the Goryeo period excavated from Cheoin Fortress had angular blade backs.
[citation needed] According to historical relics, the Hwando and Japanese sword evolved independently since Goryeo dynasty and took on similar shapes with Katana before the Imjin War.
Although it is not recorded in the documents, some historians speculate that Joseon craftsmen making Hwando may have adopted some of the styles of Japanese swords through the Imjin War.
Only two such swords existed and were wielded by the King's two bodyguards, who always stood on either side of him and held the nobility title of Un'geom (운검: 雲劍).
[citation needed] Master swordsmen: Only by the mid-1990s did Korean swordmaking come back to expert levels comparable to the Joseon era.
Sword ownership in Korea is currently restricted (private weapons ownership was culturally frowned upon and largely restricted during other times in Korean history, particularly during the Joseon era and the Japanese occupation period - albeit for different reasons in either period), and there are very few traditional sword collectors in Korea today.
Despite restrictions on sword ownership and a lingering social preference against armed martial arts (dating at least to the Joseon era), practical sword fighting is enjoying a small revival amongst elite military regiments, and fencing is once again attracting interest in Korean universities.
