However, many of his forged tachi were made into katana by cutting the tang (nakago) in later times ("suriage").

He is considered to have brought to perfection the art of "nie" (錵, martensitic crystals embedded in pearlite matrix, thought to resemble stars in the night sky).

A legend tells of a test where Muramasa challenged his master, Masamune, to see who could make a finer sword.

The contest was for each to suspend the blades in a small creek with the cutting edge facing against the current.

Muramasa's sword cut everything that passed its way; fish, leaves floating down the river, the very air which blew on it.

Highly impressed with his pupil's work, Masamune lowered his sword into the current and waited patiently.

While all known legends of the two ever having met are historically impossible, both smiths are widely regarded as symbols for their respective eras.

(備前國長船住兼光—Bizen Kuni Osafune Ju Kanemitsu) (備前長船住兼光—Bishu Osafune ju Kanemitsu) (備前國長船住左衛門尉藤原兼光—Bizen no Kuni Osafune ju Saemonjo Fujiwara Kanemitsu) Considered to have created some of the sharpest swords ever known, he is one of a handful of smiths rated at Sai-jo O-wazamono (grandmaster of great sharpness)[11] with famous swords named Kabutowari (Helmet Cutter), Ishikiri (Stone Cutter), and Teppokiri (Gun Cutter) as relayed in Fujishiro's writings.

He likely was not taught directly by Masamune, however, but was influenced by the Soshu, crafting swords in addition to serving himself as a leader in the Soden Bizen revolution.

He was a monk at the Seisen-ji in Tsuruga and led to the creation of Echizen swordmaking like Kuniyuki, moving to Mino around the time of Ryakuo (1338–1342) creating the Seki tradition.

[13] (長谷部国重—Hasebe Kunishige) Created the Hasebe school producing swords in the style of the second period of Soshu and Yamashiro.

He created the Heshikiri Hasebe (The Forceful Cutter) listed in the Kyoho Meibutsu Cho, owned by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and then by Oda Nobunaga.

The sword takes its name from the story of Oda Nobunaga drawing it to cut through a table to kill Kannai, a tea master who betrayed him.

However, current research indicates that he was a senior student to Masamune, junior to Yukimitsu, under the great teacher Shintōgo Kunimitsu.

He, like Go, hailed from Etchu province and is well known as the only smith to have mastered the style of matsukawa-hada (pine tree bark pattern steel), making his work unique.

Umanosuke struck Shigenaga with the Honjō Masamune which split his helmet, but he survived and took the sword as a prize.

[18] Under the United States occupation at the end of World War II, all production of nihontō with edges was banned except under police or government permit.

Tokugawa Iemasa turned in the Honjō Masamune and 13 other "prized heirloom" swords to a police station at Mejiro in December 1945.

Coldy Bimore" (possibly a garbled phonetic spelling of the man's name) of the Foreign Liquidations Commission of AFWESPAC (Army Forces, Western Pacific).

In an episode of Expedition Unknown, Josh Gates traveled to Japan in search of the Honjō Masamune[20] and learned that there were no records of a "Sgt.

The Honjō Masamune is the most important of the missing Japanese swords, and its current location remains unknown.

This blade is a tantō (dagger) approximately 25 cm (8 sun 6.5 bun) with a carving of roots on the omote (front, outer edge) side.

It also has chopstick-like grooves (gomabashi 護摩箸) on the back and a dragon at the ura part of blade (kurikara 倶利伽羅).

[23][24] The Fudo Masamune is one of the few surviving blades that is known for sure to have been made and signed by the swordsmith and from the early 1600s, it was in the possession of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa clan.

[26] Upon the end of the Tokugawa Era marked by the Bakumatsu, the Musashi Masamune was presented as a gift by Tokugawa Iesato in honor of Yamaoka Tesshū's efforts to facilitate peaceful negotiation with Katsu Kaishū to Saigō Takamori, sparing Edo from war and needless destruction; however, Yamaoka was humbled upon being given such a masterpiece, and had passed it down to statesman Iwakura Tomomi.

The Musashi Masamune is a tachi, measuring 74 cm (2 korai-shaku, 1 sun, 4.2 bun) and noted to have nearly all of the characteristics of Masamune's signature features; though it is debated that its o-kissaki is not that of his style, it is compared to blades made in his later career, which shows the transition of the Kamakura styles into the Nanbokucho era.

These tantō have a wide body, unlike his normal slim and elegant work, making them appear quite similar to a Japanese cooking knife.

It was restored around 1919 and sold for approximately 10 hiki (a certain number of mon); this was worth roughly 14¢ US at the time, meaning that the price was remarkably low.

This name comes from when Asakura Ujikage cut an opposing samurai's yugote in the battle of Toji in Kyôto.