Shinken

Shinken are often used in battōdō, iaidō, and iaijutsu (forms of combative sword-drawing), as well as tameshigiri (test-cutting through targets).

In these arts, shinken may be used alongside unsharpened iaitō (居合刀) or mogitō (模擬刀), training swords manufactured for swordsmanship practice.

These swordsmiths are limited by Japanese law to producing no more than twenty-four swords a year each.

This limit, along with highly specialized skills and the need for a great deal of manual labour, accounts for the high price that a Japanese-made shinken (Nihontō) can fetch—starting from about US$6,000 for the blade alone, and going many times higher for genuine antique (Mukansa or Ningen Kokuho are two famous types) blades.

The vast majority of these are made in China, but there are custom smiths all over the world manufacturing swords in the Japanese style.