Special Exhibition: Magnificent Blade Carvings

This exhibition is about the carving cut into the blade of a Japanese sword. It runs in two halves with the works changed between them, and some blades are turned so that the other face is shown in the second half.

The carvings take the form of dragons, of the gods and buddhas of esoteric Buddhism and the Sanskrit letters that stand for them, and of flowers and animals out of legend. Among the figures is Fudo Myoo, a fierce guardian of the Buddhist teaching. The designs changed over the centuries, but most of them carried a purpose: to keep evil away, or to ask for victory in war.

The exhibition is held to mark a prize won by the carver Yanagimura Soju, who took the highest award in the blade-carving section of the annual exhibition of work by living smiths and carvers, held by the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords. He learned the work from his father, Yanagimura Senju, whom Okayama Prefecture names as a holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property.

At the centre of the exhibition is a long spear copied from Nihongo, one of the three famous spears of Japan. The original passed through the hands of Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and others. The blade of the copy was forged in Yamagata by the smith Kanbayashi Tsunehira, and the carving was cut in Okayama by Yanagimura Soju: the kurikara, a dragon coiled around a sword. Carving as fine as this makes a blade bend, so the two men sent the spear between Yamagata and Okayama many times over, correcting it in turn. It took years to finish.

Older work is shown beside it. There is a dagger by Umetada Myoju, who served Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, forged and carved by his own hand and cut on both faces with a dragon chasing a jewel; it is an Important Art Object. There is a tachi made in Bungo around 1200 by the smith Yukihira, given by the Meiji emperor to the Arisugawa house, carved near the hilt with a crane holding a spray of pine in its beak.

Two more appear for one half each. A short sword by Takahashi Sadatsugu, the first sword smith to be made a Living National Treasure, is in the first half, carved with the kurikara on one side and Sanskrit letters on the other. A dagger by the first Yasutsugu, a smith in the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu, is in the second, carved with Fudo riding on a dragon.