Arms and Armour

I will be making a small detour on the return trip from the Hiroshima area. There is a small island in between Honshu and Shikoku called Omishima. On Omishima is a museum that purportedly houses 80% of Japan's Samurai swords and artifacts. Definitely worth a visit since I will be in that area and since it is such a small island it is probably not a very big tourist destination, which is an added bonus.

On Sunday, March 9th I will be travelling to Okayama prefecture to visit the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum. They hold katana (sword) crafting demonstrations where they use traditional Japanese blacksmithing techniques. The English website does not contain very much information about their demonstrations but thanks to my contact in Japan I was able to find out that the demonstrations are held on the second Sunday of each month.

Also, thanks again to my Japanese contact Makoto-san, my friend and I may have an opportunity to visit and meet Yoshindo Yoshihara perhaps one of Japan's most famous sword makers. Makoto-san offered to contact Yoshindo-san on my behalf and see if it is possible to visit his workshop and it looks like on March 24th we may get to do that. Arigatoo gozaimasu Makoto-san!!