Musashi Masamune

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"正宗の刀も使い手次第 - Even a Masamune sword needs a master swordsman"

―Japanese proverb

The Musashi Masamune was the signature katana of the legendary Japanese ronin Miyamoto Musashi who lived in the 17th century. Appropriate to its ownership, the blade would come to be in the possession of Musashi by the dawn of the Tokugawa Regime, who used this legendary blade in his lifetime as a prodigal swordsman, from fighting in wars and civil disturbances, to his 61 lossless duels between other master warriors of his time, cementing him as his own legend to the end of his life.

After his death, the blade passed onto the Saigo Clan who kept it as a family heirloom. By the time of the Boshin War, Saigo Kayano was the owner of the blade but his incompetence in battle led him to being killed. The Masamune was later claimed by Matsudaira Katamori after Japanese Assassins Shiba Atsuko and Nakano Takeko protected it from British Templar William Lloyd, who was tasked with stealing the blade for Emperor Meiji. During the Battle of Aizu, Lloyd finally took possession of the blade, but he was later killed by Ibuka and the sword was brought back to the Assassins.

Behind the Scenes

The Musashi Masamune is a real life katana, given to the Kii Domain branch of the Tokugawa Shogunate at an unspecified date, and was prominently documented upon the Meiji Restoration by its ownership by Yamaoka Tesshu, the elite bodyguard of Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu and pacifist civil rights advocate samurai Kaishu Katsu, and supervisor of the Shinsengumi. Unknown to how it was found, the sword itself bears all known metallurgical trademarks signature of the Late Kamakura era swordsmith Goro Nyudo Masamune, who would be known as the greatest smith of the katana in history for creating such blades of penultimate reputation that they would be the bar for future swordsmiths to aim for. Having lived through the Mongol Invasions of 1264 and 1278 in his youth, and in the era where the Kikuichimonji collaboration began, Masamune's study of smithing katana under the Kamakura Shogunate lead him to forge blades that meshed attributes of beauty as synonymous of their quality, crystalizing martensite and pearlite with higher heat for extremely tensile and enduring blades that could hold unyielding cutting edges, and the legends of his life and of the swords he wielded eventually came to blossom further reputation of his works being sacred and pure works meant to be beheld by the fair and just, from the exorcism of a demon witnessed as a child, to his contest against the wicked smith Muramasa.

Believed to have been wielded by Miyamoto Musashi himself, this is a fanciful, if believable rumor of legend, as it is weighted out by the possibility of its namesake instead coming to be named in honor of Musashi Province, where current day Tokyo stands. Some records and other tellings state that he preferred blades made by the Mino school of swordsmithing or Soshu/Sagami stemmed schools of swords more reputed for their cutting power and durability, from Shizu Kaneuji to Kinju/Kaneshige, respectively. Even then, Musashi did not seek the life of his opponents and sought to spare them if he could, and opted for using bokken, or wooden swords for his battles. Due to his inspiring and prodigious life and ways as a kensei, or sword saint, however, it is not out of the question that Musashi did bear a Masamune, as in context of the spiritual and philosophical of bushido and samurai, that "the soul of the sword matches the soul of its user", and that Musashi may have given the Musashi Masamune as tribute to the Kii Domain, which the practice of giving powerful and famous weapons was not an uncommon one during his time.

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Fragments – The Blade of Aizu