Nihonto Club

Each sword is represented by a record which, similar to smith records, contains a list of formal ‘facts’ and less formal free text notes. Choice of formal sword properties was made is such a way that the blade could be identified regardless of its condition and state of polishing by the parameters which don’t change in time or change in predictable fashion (e.g. the blade never gets longer of thicker). Properties which can be ambiguous and hard to formalize, like the style of hamon and jihada, will be left in the free text section.

Sword records contain the following fields:

• Type (Wakizashi, Tanto, Katana, Tachi,, Naginata etc)
• Tsukurikomi (Hira-zukuri, Shinogi-zukuri, Shobu-zukuri etc)
• Nagasa (cm)
• Sori (cm)
• Moto-haba (cm)
• Saki-haba (cm)
• Moto-kasane (cm)
• Saki-kasane (cm)
• Number of mekugi-ana
• Nakago condition (Ubu, Suriage, Ō-suriage, Machi-okuri etc)
• Mei type (Mumei, Normal, Attribution, etc)
• Mei (list of inscriptions on the tang)
• Public References (books, magazines, articles etc)
• Web References
• Location (museums, collections etc)
• Smith (link to smith record or a text, if unsure)
• School (link or text)
• Period
• Year of production (if known)
• Tags
• Notes

Notes

Notes field in the Sword Record is the main free text field for any information about the sword which doesn't fit into the standard fields. However, in order to keep all the records uniform, the following structure is advised:

## History ## (or ## Description ##)

## Workmanship and style ##

### Shape and construction ###

### Horimono ###

### Hamon ###

### Boshi ###

### Jitetsu and hada ###

### Nakago ###

## Koshirae ##

(Hash tags define headers when using Markdown syntax, which is the suggested input method for Comments field. Double hash tag means 'header level 2' and triple hash tag - 'header level 3'.)

All sections are optional.