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The history of Japan's feudal period is filled with events that make today's action movies look tame. A lot of blood was spilled across the islands before stability under the shoguns was established. The Emperor, sacred and secluded, was at the mercy of powerful generals who controlled armies composed of thousands of samurai. Highly trained, highly disciplined, skilled with a variety of lethal weapons, armed with the two swords, the samurai were known for their fanatical loyalty and heroism. They deserve the reputation that has been assigned to them. They were ruthless in battle. It was a ruthless age.
The films of Akira Kurosawa are a window into the world of feudal Japan. The Seven Samurai has been remade several times, but never in a way that captures the raw courage and heroism of the original film. Throne of Blood, mentioned in the book, is an adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth as it would have played out in the time of the shoguns. These are two great movies.
You may have seen Shogun, the made for TV adaptation of James Clavell's sweeping novel set at the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate. It's well done and captures many of the nuances of that period in Japanese history. It's well worth seeing.
The Sword is based on a real sword known as the Honjo Masamune. It was handed over to the police at the end of the war by Iyeasu Tokugawa, a descendent of the Shogun by the same name who united Japan. Obedience to the emperor's command to surrender meant cooperating with the occupying forces. With a typical sense of Japanese honor and propriety, Tokugawa wanted to set an example for the other aristocratic leaders of defeated Japan.
An American sergeant picked up the sword, his name recorded as "Coldy Bilmor" in the police log. It has never been seen since. Most of the swords collected were melted down. Others came back to the United States as souvenirs. No one knows if the Honjo Masamune still exists or where it might be.
Masamune lived in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. He is the greatest maker of swords in Japan's history, and that tells you a lot. There were many great sword smiths who created weapons of enduring beauty and craftsmanship, but none whose swords were as valued as Masamune's. That such weapons could have been created with the technology of the time is extraordinary.
Muramasa lived at a later date. Many of his swords have survived and are displayed in museums. Legend holds that his swords are cursed and must drink blood before being placed back in their scabbards. This demonic aspect of his blades is popular in contemporary Japanese entertainment and games.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was a real person. He rose from obscurity and a common birth to become the most powerful daimyo in Japan. A great general and skilled strategist, he built the castle at Osaka.
The story of the treasure known as the Tenshou Ooban is well known in Japan. What you read in the book is an accurate description of the legend of the treasure. Whether or not Hideyoshi took the money destined for the Korean armies and buried it, I can't say. But it's a heck of a story.
The Shinto shrine in Osaka that I describe does not exist, although Toyotomi Hideyoshi built many shrines in the area. I have tried to describe a typical shrine built in the older style. The sacred spirit of the shrine is called a kami in Japanese. It can be represented as a mirror.
I've been to Japan. It's a place filled with beauty and darkness, with an ancient and complex culture Westerners will never fully understand. If you have an opportunity to go there, go ahead, you won't regret it.
Thanks for reading my book. I hope you have enjoyed it.
Alex Lukeman
June, 2019