VOL.200 FEBRUARY 2025
HISTORIC JAPANESE PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE OF THE MODERN ERA [The Beauty of Japanese Swords] Decorative sword, mountings with mother-of-pearl inlay on polished lacquered gold and gold ornaments

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Important Cultural Property: Decorative sword, mountings with mother-of-pearl inlay on polished lacquered gold and gold ornaments
(Total length 110.3cm)
Photo: ColBase

This is a kazaritachi which is “a sword that high court nobles, who were allowed by the emperor to wear a sword to court, used to wear at grand ceremonies.”¹ “There are very few kazaritachi …from the Heian period still in existence,”² in particular, and this one is believed to have been made in the 12th century, a valuable example from the Heian period. It is currently housed in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum.

The Japanese word for the handle of a Japanese sword is tsuka, and the word for sheath is saya. “The handle of this sword is lacquered in black and covered with sharkskin and has a decorative rivet with a gem in the center of the front and back. While many parts of the sheath are missing, there is a trace of raden (a shell inlay technique commonly used for lacquer ware) applied in the design of the two birds in the gold lacquer ground.”³ This polished lacquered gold ground, which is called ikakeji in Japanese, is also part of the sword’s name. It is a traditional Japanese lacquering technique that coats the surface of various practical items including swords with lacquer, densely sprinkles it with gold dust, etc., and then polishes it by reapplying lacquer to the surface.

• 1., 2., 3. Quoted from e-National Treasures:

Photo: ColBase

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