15
kind of whetstone, which is extremely rare in Japan, and finally they are polished.
Japanese historians give no exact account of the time when iron and steel were for the first time cash in Japan. They have noted only the first copper, silver and gold melting. On the authority of Von Siebold[1] a certain Prince called Tui shiki, who lived under the reign of the Mikado Sui-nin (29 B.C.–71 A.D.,) has the credit of having invented the forging of the first Japanese sword, but Mr. McClatchie gives us another version in his paper and informs us that the exact date cannot be fixed, because the history of the sword is mixed up so much with mythological relations, at least in those Japanese works which he had perused. According to Mr. McClatchie the Koto Meijin, a Japanese work on the history of the sword, written by Kamada Saburo-daiyu in 1791, tells us first, that a certain Amakuni from Uda in the province of Yamato is believed to have forged the first old divine sword (ken) under the reign of Siu-jin Tenno, (that is in 97–30 B.C.), and 2nd, that another Amakuni from the same place in the same province, it is believed, made the first sword in imitation of the divine blade called “Clustering Clouds,” during the reign of Mon-mu Tenno (697-707 A.D.) It seems to us, too, that the exact time of the first iron-industry cannot be given and that it is certain only that the Japanese have worked their iron-ores from the 10th century.
The principal districts where iron is worked in Japan are, according to Ranzan and others, Idzumo, Bingo, Mutsu, Hiuga, Tazima, Wakasa, Satsuma, Suruga, Shinano, Kai, Tōtomi, Bizen and Bichiu.
The best steel is manufactured in Harima, Hoki, Idsumo and Iwami.
(To be continued.)
- ↑ Nippon Archiv: Von den Waffen: page 18.
