Japanese sword terms

• AIKUCHI - a tanto with no tsuba (guard)
  
• AOI - hollyhock, commonly used as a Mon
  
• ARA-NIE - coarse or large nie
  
• ASHI - legs (streaks of nioi pointing down toward the edge)
  
• ATOBORI - horimono added at a later date
  
• ATO MEI - signature added at a later date
  
• AYASUGI - large wavey hada (grain)
  
  
• BAKUFU - military government of the Shogun
  
• BO-HI - large or wide groove
  
• BOKKEN - wooden sword for practicing sword kata
  
• BONJI - sanskrit carvings
  
• BO-UTSURI - faint utsuri
  
• BOSHI - temper line in kissaki (point)
  
• BU - Japanese measurement (approx 0.1 inch)
  
• BUKE - military man, samurai
  
• BUSHIDO -the code of the samurai
  
  
• CHIKEI - dark lines that appear in the ji
  
• CHISA KATANA - short katana
  
• CHOJI - clove shaped hamon
  
• CHOJI OIL - oil for the care of swords
  
• CHOJI-MIDARE - irregular choji hamon (temper line)
  
• CHOKUTO - prehistoric straight swords
  
• CHU - medium
  
• CHU-KISSAKI - medium sized point (kissaki)
  
• CHU-SUGUHAstraight, medium width temper line
  
  
• DAI - great or large
  
• DAI-MEI - student smith signing his teacher's name
  
• DAIMYO - feudal lord
  
• DAISHO - a matched pair of long and short swords
  
• DAITO - long sword (over 24 inches)
  
  
• FUCHI - collar on hilt
  
• FUCHI-KASHIRA - set of hilt collar (fuchi) and buttcap (kashira)
  
• FUKURA - curve of the ha or edge in the kissaki (point)
  
• FUKURE - flaw; usually a blister in the steel
  
• FUKURIN - rim cover of a tsuba
  
• FUNAGATA - ship bottom shaped nakago
  
• FUNBARI / FUMBARI - much taper of the blade from the machi to the kissaki
  
• FURISODE - shape of sword tang that resembling the sleeve of a kimono
  
  
• GAKU-MEI - original signature inlaid in a cut-off (o-suriage) tang
  
• GENDAITO - traditionally forged sword blades by modern smiths
  
• GIMEI - fake signature (mei)
  
• GIN - silver
  
• GOKADEN - the Five Schools of the Koto period
  
• GOMABASHI - parallel grooves
  
• GUNOME - undulating hamon
  
• GUNOME-MIDARE - irregularly undulating hamon
  
• GUNTO - army or military sword mountings
  
• GYAKU - angled back, reversed
  
• HA - cutting edge
  
• HABAKI - blade collar
  
• HABUCHI - the line of the hamon
  
• HADA - grain in steel, pattern of folding the steel
  
• HAGANE - steel
  
• HAGIRE -edge cracks in the hamon (fatal flaw)
  
• HAKIKAKE -broom swept portions in the boshi
  
• HAKO BA - box shaped hamon
  
• HAKO-MIDARE - uneven box shaped hamon
  
• HAKO-MUNE - square shaped blade back
  
• HAMACHI - notch at the beginning of the cutting edge
  
• HAMIDASHI - tanto or dagger with a small guard (tsuba)
  
• HAMON - temper pattern along blade edge
  
• HANDACHI - tachi mountings used on a katana or wakizashi
  
• HATARAKI - activities or workings within the hamon or temperline
  
• HAZUYA - finger stones used to show the hamon and hada
  
• HI - grooves in the blade
  
• HIRA-MUNE - flat blade backridge
  
• HIRA-TSUKURI / HIRA-ZUKURI - blade without a shinogi (flat blade)
  
• HIRO-SUGUHA - wide, straight temper line (hamon)
  
• HITATSURA - full tempered hamon
  
• HITSU / HITSU-ANA - holes in the tsuba for the kozuka or kogai
  
• HO - kozuka blade
• HONAMI - family of sword appraissers
  
• HORIMONO - arvings on sword blades
  
• HOTSURE - stray lines from hamon into the ji
  
  
• ICHI - one or first
  
• ICHIMAI - one-piece sword construction
  
• ICHIMAI BOSHI - point area (kissaki) that is fully tempered
  
• IHORI-MUNE - peaked back ridge
  
• IKUBI - boar's neck (a short, wide kissaki)
  
• INAZUMA - lightning (a type of activity in the hamon)
  
• ITAME - wood grained hada
  
• ITO - silk or cotton hilt wrapping
  
• ITOMAKI NO TACHI - tachi with top of saya wrapped with ito
  
• ITO SUGU - thin, thread like hamon
  
  
• JI - sword surface between the shinogi and the hamon
  
• JI-GANE - surface steel
  
• JI-HADA - surface pattern of the hada
  
• JINDACHI - tachi
  
• JI-NIE - islands of nie in the ji
  
• JIZO BOSHI - boshi shaped like a priest's head
  
• JUMONJI YARI - a yari with cross pieces
  
• JUYO TOKEN - highly important origami for sword by NBTHK
  
• JUZU - hamon like rosary beads
  
  
• KABUTO - helmet
  
• KABUTO-GANE - tachi style pommel cap
  
• KABUTO-WARI - helmet breaker
  
• KAEN - flame shaped boshi
  
• KAERI - turnback (refers to the boshi at the mune)
  
• KAI GUNTO - naval sword
  
• KAJI - swordsmith
  
• KAKIHAN - swordsmiths or tsuba makers monogram
  
• KAKU-MUNE - square back ridge
  
• KAMIKAZI - divine wind
  
• KANJI - Japanese characters
  
• KANMURI-OTOSHI - backridge beveled like a naginata
  
• KANTEI - sword appraisal
  
• KAO - carved monogram of swordsmith on tang (nakago)
  
• KASANE - thickness of blade
  
• KASHIRA - sword pommel or buttcap
  
• KATAKIRI - sword with one side flat (no shinogi)
  
• KATANA - sword worn in the obi, cutting edge up
  
• KATANA KAKE - sword stand
  
• KATANA-MEI - signature side that faces out when worn edge up
  
• KAWAGANE - skin or surface steel
  
• KAZU-UCHI MONO - mass produced swords
  
• KEBORI - line carving done on sword mounts
  
• KEN - straight double edged sword
  
• KENGYO - triangular or pointed nakago-jiri
  
• KESHO YASURIME - decorative file marks on nakago
  
• KIJIMATA - pheasant thigh shaped nakago
  
• KIJIMOMO - pheasant leg shaped nakago
  
• KIKU - chrysanthemum
  
• KIKUBA - chrysanthemum temperline (hamon)
  
• KIN - gold
  
• KINKO - soft metal sword fittings (not iron)
  
• KIN-MEI - gold inlay or gold lacquer appraiser's signature
  
• KINZOGAN MEI - same a kin-mei
  
• KINSUJI - golden line (type of activity in hamon)
  
• KINZOGAN-MEI - attribution in gold inlay on nakago
  
• KINSUJI - whitish line along hamon
  
• KIRI - paulownia
  
• KIRI HA - flat sword with both sides beveled to the edge
  
• KIRI KOMI - sword cut or nick on the blade from another sword
  
• KISSAKI - point of blade
  
• KITAE - forging
  
• KIZU - flaw
  
• KO - old or small
  
• KOBUSE - blade constructed with hard steel around a soft core
  
• KO-CHOJI - small choji hamon
  
• KODACHI - small tachi
  
• KODOGU - all the sword fittings except the tsuba
  
• KOGAI - hair pick accessory
  
• KOIGUCHI - the mouth of the scabbard or its fitting
  
• KOJIRI - end of the scabbard
  
• KOKUHO - national treasure class sword
  
• KO-MARU - small round boshi
  
• KO-MIDARE - small irregular hamon
  
• KO-MOKUME - small wood grain hada
  
• KO-NIE - small or fine nie
  
• KO-NIE DEKI - composed of small nie
  
• KOSHIATE - leather suspensors (hangers) for a sword
  
• KOSHIRAE - sword mountings or fittings
  
• KOSHI-ZORI - curve of the blade is near the hilt
  
• KOTO - Old Sword Period (prior to about 1596)
  
• KOZUKA - handle of accessory knife
  
• KUBIKIRI - small tanto for cutting the neck or removing heads
  
• KUNI - province
  
• KURIJIRI - rounded nakago jiri
  
• KURIKARA - dragon horimono (engraving/carving)
  
• KURIKATA - scabbard (saya) fitting for attaching the sageo
  
• KUZURE - crumbling or disintegrating
  
• KWAIKEN - short knife carried by women