Shinken
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese
term used to describe a Japanese sword that is sharp and used for real cutting or combat, as opposed to those that are blunted for other types of practice. Today, they are primarily used for high level iaido
and/or tameshigiri
(cutting) practice. Unlike an iaito
or mogito (an unsharpened sword for iaido practice), a shinken has a sharpened edge. "Gendaito" are hand-made shinken by one of approximately 250 swordsmiths active in Japan at the moment, members of the Japanese Swordsmith Association. These swordsmiths are limited by Japanese law to producing no more than twenty-four swords a year each. This limit, along with highly specialized skills and the need for a great deal of manual labour, accounts for the high price that a Japanese-made shinken (Nihonto) can fetch - starting from about $6,000 (US) for the blade alone, and going many times higher for genuine antique (Mukansa or Ningen Kokuho are two famous types) blades.
There is also a large worldwide market for "shinken" made outside of Japan
. Many collectors consider these to be somewhat worthless as collectibles (since they are not Nihonto), but some martial artists continue to purchase and use them, because of their considerably lower price, ease of acquisition, and also to spare their valuable Nihonto from what some view as abuse. The vast majority of these are made in China, but there are custom smiths all over the world manufacturing swords "in the Japanese style", some of which approach nihonto in quality.
"Shinken" is also used in modern Japanese language to mean "to do something seriously."
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
term used to describe a Japanese sword that is sharp and used for real cutting or combat, as opposed to those that are blunted for other types of practice. Today, they are primarily used for high level iaido
Iaido
is a modern Japanese martial art associated with the smooth, controlled movements of drawing the sword from its scabbard, striking or cutting an opponent, removing blood from the blade, and then replacing the sword in the scabbard...
and/or tameshigiri
Tameshigiri
Tameshigiri is the Japanese art of target test cutting. The kanji literally mean "test cut"...
(cutting) practice. Unlike an iaito
Iaito
is the name given by practitioners of iaido to , literally meaning "mock" or "imitation sword", an imitation katana used for practicing some Japanese sword arts. A real or "live" Japanese sword is often called a shinken.-Materials and manufacture:...
or mogito (an unsharpened sword for iaido practice), a shinken has a sharpened edge. "Gendaito" are hand-made shinken by one of approximately 250 swordsmiths active in Japan at the moment, members of the Japanese Swordsmith Association. These swordsmiths are limited by Japanese law to producing no more than twenty-four swords a year each. This limit, along with highly specialized skills and the need for a great deal of manual labour, accounts for the high price that a Japanese-made shinken (Nihonto) can fetch - starting from about $6,000 (US) for the blade alone, and going many times higher for genuine antique (Mukansa or Ningen Kokuho are two famous types) blades.
There is also a large worldwide market for "shinken" made outside of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Many collectors consider these to be somewhat worthless as collectibles (since they are not Nihonto), but some martial artists continue to purchase and use them, because of their considerably lower price, ease of acquisition, and also to spare their valuable Nihonto from what some view as abuse. The vast majority of these are made in China, but there are custom smiths all over the world manufacturing swords "in the Japanese style", some of which approach nihonto in quality.
"Shinken" is also used in modern Japanese language to mean "to do something seriously."