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The Masamune, the legendary Divine Katana
What you see above here is the common terminology of the parts which make up a katana, and NOT a picture of the Masamune! :-)
The sword Sephiroth carries with him and uses throughout all the story is the legendary katana ( japanese sword ) called " Masamune " . Although somebody thinks about it as a mere legend that has no relation with reality, the chronicle of this katana could be really interesting if we can distinguish the mythical from the realistic elements. Here' s the most common story told about it, it' s up to you believe it or not.
Long time ago, in a Japan deranged by feudal wars among samurai and their lords, the job of a blacksmith, a swordmaker was really appreciated and rewarded, if he could create a weapon strong enough to compare with the enemies' and take them over. So, in that age, the swordmakers competed each other in order to hand their rich customers even finest weapons, working hard in producing them. It happened that one of those blacksmiths one day succeeded in creating an incredibly strong katana by using a revolutionary technique, which allowed the sword neither to break nor to be broken. In fact, it was composed by a blade made up of little scales of iron braided together: this way, even if some scales would have been broken, the others under them would have resisted, unlike a standard mono-block blade. Moreover, the hilt wasn' t applied like a normal katana, simply bounded to the blade: its hilt was created by covering with silk the inferior part of the edge and applying the characteristique iron oval to separate the " blade " properly called and the part that you could grab. The result was a full-bladed sword, with no big difference from edge and hilt ( except the exterior ) and with an uncomparable strength to substain hits and attacks. That katana was called " Masamune " , which in Japanese means about " The Essence of Justice ". Since its creation, all the warriors who wielded it never lost a battle or died while fighting, for the Masamune could cut into pieces the strongest armors and destroy the most powerful weapons. All the samurai who gained its possession, generation after generation, were considered " protected by the gods " , and therefore the Masamune was called " The Divine Katana " . When the wars ended and the social class which the samurai belonged to began to decline, the Masamune was held as a precious treasure by the descendants of the original creator. However, during the years later, the Masamune was claimed as lost and people never knew where they could find it. Nonetheless, nowadays rumors tell that somewhere, in Japan, the last members of the swordmaker' s family still possess the Masamune and hide that divine sword from the eyes of humanity, worthless to gain such a powerful weapon which has the strength to break even a wall made up of ferroconcrete.
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Copyright © Daniele (DFAT)
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