[Illustration: TERMINOLOGY OF THE SWORD, FROM JOLY'S _Sword Book_.] His sword was tested, sometimes officially by cutting up corpses, and thus we come across blades on the tang of which is inscribed a statement that it cut one or two or even three bodies at a blow. No sword in Europe ever came through such an ordeal; indeed, it is doubtful whether its shape and constitution would have allowed a similar test to be successful. Looked upon as a cutting weapon, the Japanese blade has been pronounced perfect by all experts; that perfection is the result of thorough work undertaken with only one aim in view: to turn out a sword which was not only reliable, but a credit to the maker as well; and, indeed, the names of the smiths are as well known as those of the foremost painters, they rank with the expert calligraphers, with the poets, with the writers and the statesmen, with those who made history, Masamune, Muramasa, are names which have found their way even amongst the novels of the West; not a dozen names of Japanese sculptors can be mentioned, although their works are to be found in any and every temple, but 11,000 names of swordsmiths remain.... Where the carver could repair a faulty chisel stroke the smith has no such resource, a slight flaw in welding his metal, a little dirt remaining between two layers of steel, and where in a smithy can one exclude dirt? Overhaste in heating the metal resulting in a wrong temper, or in spots on the blade, and, lo, a fortnight's patient work was wasted, a patron offended, a reputation marred. No less important than the smith's skill was that of the polisher grinding away the blade to its final shape, settling the planes and the curves, whose intersections are geometrically true on every side of the blade. A volume rather than a preface is required to do the scantiest justice to the Japanese blade, but space is limited, and the blades exhibited here speak for themselves. H. L. J. [Illustration] CATALOGUE. 1. KATANA. _2 shaku, 2 sun, 6 bu._ 890, 685, 17 mm.[A] Ko Gunomé midare yakiba, deep Kaeri bōshi, signed Sasaki Niudo Ippo of Gōshū. Kwanyei period (1624-1643). 2. KATANA. 855, 650, 11 mm. Narrow yakiba, engraved on one side with Ono no Tofu, the frog and willow, on the other with characters, _Yanagi amé Kan Ki_. [_Plate._ 3. KATANA. _2 shaku, 1 sun._ 795, 645, 13 mm. Very fine wave yakiba with deep niyé, signed Kagekuni of Settsu. (Manji period.) 4. KATANA. _2 shaku, 2 sun, 8 bu._ 880, 695, 11 mm. Midare yakiba Bōshi majiri, signed Kaneuji, in gold inlay, attributed to Kaneuji of Mino. 5. KATANA. Large heavy blade. _2 shaku, 4 sun, 4 bu._ 932, 710, 6. With long bōshi kaeri, midare yakiba, wave form with tsuyu, signed Korekazu, attributed to Fujiwara Korekazu of Yedo, Bushu. Circa Kwanbun (1661-1672).