After lunch, we traveled by car again until Kuro and I arrived at our destination, the sword museum.
[……Arehh?]
[Unnn? What’s the matter, Kaito-kun?]
[No, it’s nothing.]
Several buildings lined up and a signboard that said Sword Village…… Arehh? Has this place always been like this? I thought this was just a small place with only a museum…… Did I rember it wrong?
Hmmm, well, the last ti I visited this place was when I just beca a grade-schooler…… That was over a decade ago, so I guess it’s not surprising that the place has been renovated. Of course, it’s possible that I might have simply misrembered……
Anyway, it’s good to know that there are more places to look around than I had expected.
There was a building that looked like a souvenir stand right in front of the parking lot, but we decided to check out the museum first, so we went through the wooden gate and headed in the direction of the museum.
Thereupon, I saw a directional signpost pointing to “Bizen Osafune Sword Museum” on the right and “Sword Master Imaizumi Toshimitsu morial Museum” on the left. Who is this Imaizumi Toshimitsu? Is he a great person from this area?
We could check out his morial museum later, but first, we entered the sword museum. Entering the building, we bought two adult tickets at the ticket counter. Fortunately, the clerk didn’t make any remarks regarding Kuro’s appearance.
The tickets were designed to look like the saya of a katana, which as expected, looked like fine art.
(T/N: Saya is a katana’s scabbard.)
From the pamphlet given at the entrance, it seems that this museum isn’t just the Exhibition Room where they display katanas, as it also includes an area called “Sword World”, where the process of katana-making is being introduced.
So that we could acquire basic knowledge, we headed to this Sword World first.
[Heehhh…… So this is how a katana is made huh.]
[Unnn, this is also the first ti I’ve seen one being made in detail but…… it seems like you need lots of people expert on different things to make even the most basic katana.]
Swordsmiths (toushou) who forge the Japanese katana, the polisher (togishi) who refines the shape of the blade, the engravers (choukinshi) who carve patterns on the blade, the silversmiths (hakuginshi) who make the habaki, the tallic part encircling the base of the blade, the scabbardsmiths (sayashi) who make the saya, the talsmiths (kinkoushi) who make the various tal fittings, the lacquer master (nurishi) who applies lacquer on the saya, the tsuba-makers (tsubakou) who make the tsuba (handguard), the string-maker (kumihimoshi) who makes the strings winded around the hilt, and braider (tsukamakishi) who wind those strings…… It seems that even just from what is written on this panel, so many people’s hands go into the making of a Japanese katana.
[Arehh? Speaking of which, if making a Japanese katana takes a group this much ti and effort…… Who is it that made Neun-san’s katana?]
[Shalltear made it.]
[……Ah, I see……]
Well, Alice would certainly be able to make it all by herself but…… Well, that one is a complete exception, so putting her aside, making a katana is really difficult.
In the Sword World, there is also a mini-theater where you can learn how to make swords through videos. Watching it makes feel a little more knowledgeable about Japanese katanas.
Thereupon, well, I found a well-prepared…… “Art of Katana: Craftsmanship Incoherent Ga”.
[……I guess I’ll give it a try.]
[I’m not familiar with Japanese words, so I’ll just watch. Good luck, Kaito-kun!]
[Alright……]
The buttons I could see tells that the questions they’re giving are multiple-choice questions. Wait, arehh? Is this an Art of Katana Quiz or a Craftsman ga? Ahh, there are two kinds of questions huh. So that Incoherent word written on it was just a typographical error, and this is a ga about making katanas huh…… Then, let’s start with the quiz first.
I know that my knowledge regarding this topic isn’t that great when I plunged into this quiz, but Kuro is watching , so I want to show her my cool side…… Now then, first question…… Fumufumu, tsubazeriai huh…… Fumu…… I see……
(T/N: Tsubazeriai: The act of warding off each other’s sword with their tsuba in a duel)
[…………….]
[Kaito-kun?]
I have no idea what the heck that is. Arehh? Isn’t this pretty difficult? F- For the ti being, it’s a multiple-choice anyway, so let’s choose randomly…… Oh, I luckily got the right answer.
Let’s see…… What does this an? I have no clue what the answer to the second question is either…… So let’s just click on a random button again……
The third question…… Ah, what was the answer for this one again? Errr, I don’t rember…… I- It’s probably this one…… Alright, I guessed right.
Like that, after a few monts of fumbling around the quiz……
[Ohh! That’s amazing, Kaito-kun! You got all the answers right!]
[……U- Unnn. E- E- E- Easy peasy.]
Thanks to my brilliant…… “luck”…… all the random answers I made were correct, and I ended up getting all the questions correctly…… I don’t feel like I showed her my cool side at all. Well, Kuro looks like she’s glad, so I guess all’s well that ends well?
After gaining so knowledge from the Sword World, we finally headed to the exhibition room.
[Uwaahh, how big~~]
[Amazing…… I guess this is an Odachi?]
I was overwheld by the katana that was displayed at the entrance of the Exhibition room, which was bigger than I was. I wonder if anyone could really wield such a stupidly large sword? Well, I’m sure that the little girl next to can wield it with ease……
After looking at the Odachi for a while, I went into the Exhibition room where there were many Japanese katanas on display.
……To be honest, I can’t really tell any difference between them. No, I think there are subtle differences in the patterns and appearance, so I could feel like they’re slightly different, and there’s even what looks like an explanation next to it…… Hmmm, it’s still hard for to tell the difference. The only thing I can think about, looking at all these katanas was that they’re aweso.
If soone more knowledgeable regarding Japanese katanas were nearby, I could have asked them lots of things…… but neither Neun-san, the most promising candidate, nor Alice, who seed to know a lot about Japanese katanas for so reason, was here.
Well, I don’t really need to know the details of things to enjoy looking at them, so I guess it’s alright.
[……I had thought of this when I saw Neun wielding it, but Japanese swords are beautiful, aren’t they?]
[Yes, it’s polished like a mirror, so it looks beautiful.]
[Unnn, the way the light shines on its blade shows how skillfully made it is. I could clearly see the hamon from this distance.]
(T/N: Hamon is that wavy line on the cutting edge of the katana.)
[……Ehh?]
[I wonder if this is Choji Hamon? It’s a little hard to see because of the kesho-togi though…… Moreover, even the fine details on the nakago looked amazing.]
(T/N: Choji Hamon is a pattern that looks like cloves lined up together. Kesho-togi is a style of katana design where they would make a white pattern alongside the hamon. Nakago is that part of the blade that goes into the handle)
[K- Kuro…… -san?]
Arehh? What does this an? Why the heck does it look like Kuro knows more about this than I do!? She’s saying technical sounding terms one after another, you know!?
What’s going on? What in the world is Kuro saying……
[Unnn? What’s the matter?]
[N- No, I’m just wondering how you know about it so much.]
[Ahh, you see, there’s that area with lots of books in that room we were in earlier, right?]
[Y- Yeah, there really was a place that looked like a reference room……]
[I “morized all the books” there!]
[……………….]
When I heard Kuro’s words with a smile, I was utterly astounded. You morized all those books? When did you do that? Ah, speaking of which, Kuro was acting strangely just now, picking up a book before putting it back on the shelf…… There’s no way that she read all of it at that ti, right? S- Seriously, her specs are just unbelievably high.
[……Speaking of which, you’ve been doing it so naturally that I didn’t even notice…… Kuro, were you even able to read Japanese?]
[Ehh? Ahh, I see……. Kaito-kun was so used to the Translation Magic that you may not have noticed, but I’ve been “speaking Japanese” ever since we ca here.]
[……Huh?]
I sohow managed to restrain myself from shouting in surprise. Even if there is no one else in the room at the mont, we are in an Exhibition Room…… a place where one shouldn’t raise their voice loudly.
E- Even so…… Kuro had been speaking in Japanese? Well, I didn’t notice at all. She was speaking so fluently that I didn’t notice any difference from the Japanese I usually hear through Translation Magic.
[The Translation Magic Shiro and Earth God give to people doesn’t work on . Kaito-kun may be able to hear , but other people wouldn’t understand what I was saying…… That’s why I learned how to speak your language. Pronunciation is still a bit difficult for though, so it’s not perfect yet.]
[I- I didn’t notice at all……]
[You think so? Do you think I’m speaking well before?]
[U- Unnn. You won’t look out of place from other people with the way you speak.]
[Really? I’m glad then~~]
Good gracious, she’s really quite outrageous. Well, for Kuro, who can morize the contents of large amounts of books in an instant, I guess studying Japanese is easy…… I kind of feel like she will have morized all the major languages on Earth by the ti we go back ho.
Even though I was astonished by Kuro’s shocking statent, it wasn’t any particular inconvenience, so we continued our tour.
On the second floor of the museum, there was a display of very recently made by a swordsmith called “Setouchi Toukoukai”, and I was impressed by how exquisite the swords here look.
(T/N: I’m not sure if this is a sword made by a person nad Setouchi Toukoukai, or a sword made by soone from Setouchi Swordsmith Association (Toukoukai). I can’t find a group like that from google though, so I guessed that it was a na.)
There weren’t only katanas here in the second floor Exhibition room, as there were also spears and naginatas, and thanks to Kuro’s knowledge, I was able to understand what I was looking at.
After that, we left the museum and went to the “Bizen Osafune Sword Workshop”, where we could see where the katanas were actually made.
I heard that you can even experience a little bit of the world at the forge where Japanese katanas were made. Unfortunately though, most of the craftsn were already resting, so we couldn’t see them at work.
However, the workshop was a sight to behold, with tools that I had never seen before. There was also an explanatory panel about the work here, which combined with Kuro’s explanation, allowed to clearly understand the work that they were doing.
It kind of feels like there were a lot of autographs on display in the workshop though…… Are they the autographs of swordsmiths here?
After that, we dropped by the “Sword Master Imaizumi Toshimitsu morial Museum”. It was a morial to a master swordsmith, and the tools he used to create his works were displayed.
Although there are so minor differences, it’s basically similar to the one in the workshop we just visited, and in that sense, his techniques have been passed down as well…… How should I say this…… I felt like I’m looking at a piece of history here.
At the end of our tour, we stopped by the “Fureai Bussan-kan” and picked up so knives…… with so strange kumihimo used in it, which were made with the sa manufacturing thod used for Japanese katanas.
They also had the souvenirs of Okayama, and a scissor designed like a Japanese katana looked interesting.
As a nto of our visit, Kuro and I decided to buy one Japanese katana’s tsuba each to take ho with us…… before our tour in the Sword Village ca to an end.
(T/N: It’s sothing that looks like this. The design on it is different though.)
On the way ho, I had a conversation with Kuro using my freshly-learned sword knowledge, and I realized that I had enjoyed myself more than I had imagined. I’m really glad we ca here today.
If a chance cos, I would like to co visit again……
**********
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