Thaitsuki Nihonto specializes in melding blades of excellent quality with distinguished and elevated koshirae hilt fittings and a premium saya scabbard. Where other brands will cut corners on the finer points of fit and finish of koshirae and blade polish, Thaitsuki Nihonto follows through to create an exquisitely well crafted sword which has had the attention of a skilled craftsman hand-finishing each step to ensure an excellent fit and finish throughout. From Thaitsuki you can expect to see blades of well-tempered steel, a superb blade polish, components of higher quality metals, a well-knotted grip wrap, finely lacquered scabbard, high quality samegawa rayskin, and close attention paid to details such as a tight and flush fit between the scabbard opening and its encased koiguchi.
Akitsushima – a very old name for Japan meaning Dragonfly Islands. It is a literal and characterful reference to the many jewel-carapaced dragonflies that dart among the wet rice grasses of Nippon and were thought to bring luck to the harvest. The Samurai, oftimes keen observers of the natural world, called the dragonfly the Victory Insect because of the prowess by which the swift predator deftly plucked its prey from the air. Many samurai desired to capture and embody the graceful deadliness of the dragonfly for their own martial art and thus adorned the dragonfly upon their weapons and armor.
This Limited Edition Katana by Thaitsuki Nihonto is richly embellished with the imagery of the honored dragonfly. The blade features a traditional sanmai laminated construction which melds panels of forge-folded high carbon steel together to form a composite blade with an inner core of shock absorbing steel of 35 Hrc for resilience and an exterior of hardened 65 Hrc steel to ensure it has excellent edge retention and resistance to wear. The blade edge and its side panels are formed from folded T8 high carbon steel and this has been melded with a core and spine of folded T10 high carbon steel. After the folding process of its components the blade possesses a total of 1024 individual layers. A closer look at the blade will reveal the ripple-like patterning of the folded steel, as well as a faint line denoting where the hardened edge steel was forge-welded into form. Visible among this is also the wave-like hamon line which was created when the blade was clay tempered in the traditional manner to imbue it with a genuine hamon of hardened steel. The blade was completed with a high level of polish which was painstakingly executed to give it a fine sheen which highlights the beauty of its complex construction and its hamon.
Both the layered grain of the hada and the wave-like hamon of hardened steel are clearly visible on the blade surface. The weight from the thickest part of the blade, the spine, has been lessened by giving the blade a long and wide bo-hi groove. This creates a lighter blade without sacrificing much durability – it has a side benefit of producing an audible whoosh as the blade passes through the air with force – this is called the Tachikaze (Sword Wind). A trained ear can tell by the variation in the pitch of this whistle where their blade edge is aligned and if their strike is true and properly angled with the edge cleanly on the target.
The high quality koshirae fittings (the tsuba, fuchi and kashira) are hand-crafted and of antiqued and blackened copper and are completed with highly dimensional and detailed dragonflies of handcrafted fine silver. Both the seppa and habaki are crafted from silver to thematically match. The hardwood tsuka is inlaid with panels of high quality black-lacquered rayskin and fitted with a pair of silver dragonfly menuki before being completed with a skillfully woven tsuka ito grip wrap of imported high quality Japanese silk.
The sword is paired with a fitted saya scabbard of finely carved wood with a finish of carefully applied, multi-layer dark lacquer. The Koiguchi, Kurigata and Kojiri fittings are of silver, as are the magnificent silver dragonflies that boldly adorn the saya to complete it. The saya is fitted with a knotted sageo of black and pale gold Japanese silk.
Limited to a production of only 100, the sword comes with a silk sword bag and a signed manufacturers production certificate.
PLEASE NOTE: There may be some minor to moderate cosmetic blemishing present on the scabbard and minor blemishing on the blade. These are handcrafted and hand-finished so minor cosmetic imperfections may be present.
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