The Mysterious Disappearance Of The Most Famous Medieval Sword In History | Myth Hunters

[Music] sh the honjo masam is the ultimate samurai sword in Japan it's regarded as a National Treasure a thing of beauty shaped by fire a thing of power born of water forged centuries ago by Master swordsmith Mamon if it's a Mamon it's almost like having to crown jewels proven in battle for centuries Legend tell HS of a just blade Discerning and honorable it was venerated as the hereditary sword of Power by the ruling Shoguns passed from generation to generation for 700 years but in the aftermath of the second world war it disappeared it is the vanished embodiment of Japanese tradition and an object of great desire records tell us a mysterious us sergeant took it to be destroyed but some say he saved it and took it home to America now worth millions of dollars experts believe it may still be out there I still somehow feel that it still does exist possibly unrecognized this is the story of the ancient legendary honjo masaman lost sword of the Samurai [Music] right in the late 13th century the rulers of Kamakura Province near Tokyo had a serious problem the invading Mongol hordes of kublan under the onslaught their weapons simply weren't up to the task when Mongol invasion happened Japanese swords were nice slender beautiful looking things but they broke on the Mongol armor to solve this problem they turned to swordsmith naudo masaman maman's task was to redesign the Japanese sword to withstand the armor and kill the Mongol Invaders Mamon developed techniques that have never been surpassed first Mamon beat red hot high carbon steel into a thick rectangular Billet then cutting and folding it again and again he forged a blade composed of over 30,000 layers to the thick back Edge and the thin Cutting Edge he gave very diff different properties and these were borne not from the heat of the fire but how the steel cooled in water The Cutting Edge because it hardened quickly is very very hard almost as hard as glass but it's brittle the thicker heavier back Edge gave up its heat more slowly this changed the structure of the iron itself making it far less hard but more flexible than the vulnerable sharp edge the back because it CS slowly is tough and malleable and it supports and stops that brittle Edge cracking in battle the thin Edge was used offensively to cut it is rigid and razor sharp and the back used defensively as a shield it's flexible spine absorbing impact but to withstand the mongal armor Mamon also made his blades broader from Edge to back for strength the point longer to pierce and the hardened Edge deeper to aid [Music] repair and so Mamon brought the samurai sword to the peak of Perfection exemplified by the honjo Mamon not just a weapon but a work of art an object of beauty and maman's name still resonates throughout Japan today he's known to school children in Japan they might know nothing else about Japanese soul but his name is [Music] known over the centuries many Legends have grown up about the great Mamon and the Magical qualities of his [Music] swords one of maman's pupils thought that after many years training he had surpassed his [Music] master to test the quality of their respective blades they suspended them in a stream the student blade was so sharp that it cut leaves and twigs everything in its path [Music] maman's blade just a sharp cut nothing the student claimed Victory but a bystander disagreed he observed that Mason's blade did not cut needlessly it was Discerning and honorable a just blade Mamon is generally given the titles Goro naudo which have Buddhist uh implications suggesting he was of the priesthood or at least a devout follower of Buddha his finest work the Hanjo M armony was primarily a weapon for cutting human flesh and the samurai would develop a very practical method for testing blades for a fee an official tester would use a blade on a corpse from from the execution grounds and report back to the owner on how it cut and how it behaved and how many bodies and which particular part of the body to cut the edge was sharp and the back strong but yet another key property made the swords so deadly its curve swords were made curved because they cut flesh better than they curved there's a slicing action that's automatically built into the cut there are diagrams which show the various cuts that were tested the easiest was to chop through a wrist or an ankle the most difficult would be through the pelvic girdle or the shoulder girdle diagonally Downs through the rib cage and cuts like that as a permanent record the test results would be carved into the sword's T h under the mounted grip it shows that these sword Smiths had great concern not only just for the look of their swords but of the effectiveness of the [Music] swords history doesn't record precisely when Maman Drew from his furnace the greatest blade ever made the honjo [Music] Mamon around the year 1300 is the closest anyone can [Music] say nothing is known of its early life or battles who wore it proudly in his belt or who inherited it over the centuries such a fine sword would have have played an important part in the rigid social structure of feudal Japan in which everyone knew their place at the top was the Shogun who was a if you like a military dictator below him would be various large land owners the powerful landowning Lords the dios were protected by the nightly class the samurai the name literally means one who serves the soul of a samurai is to serve the soul of a samurai is to wait the soul of a samurai is to follow his Lord until such time as his Lord may want him the sword was an essential part of a Samurai's dress the uniform of his class the long sword was a large part of who he was the sword was something more than just a weapon uh it was his most priced possession it was was described as the soul of the Samurai the sword was an important thing for the samurai because it was their Badge of rank it was their status symbol if you like just as a Samurai's life belonged to his Lord lives of those with a lower rank farmers and peasants belong to him the samurai were allowed to cut down anybody without any EX excuse if you insulted me and you were a peasant I could just cut you down and that was [Music] it the honjo Mason first enters recorded history when 300 years after it was made it got its name in the 16th century in battle General honjo shanaga was attacked by an enemy with maman's masterpiece the sword had already claimed a number of trophy heads that day but General honjo shanaga prevailed and finally Victorious took the sword as his prize from then on it Bears his name honjo [Music] masaman history hit is an award-winning streaming platform built by history fans for history fans enjoy our Rich library of documentaries covering key events and locations of the medieval period history hits medieval offering features leading historians such as Dan Jones Elena yanega and Cat jman not only that but we have a rich library of audio documentaries covering every period of History through our network of podcasts sign up now for a free trial and Chronicle fans get 50% off their first 3 months just be sure to use the code Chronicle at checkout soon afterwards General shenago was ordered to fimi Castle but short of money he sold the now Priceless sword for 13 large gold coins at today's gold prices around £2,500 it was now that the hono Mamon was transformed from valued weapon to Priceless symbol of absolute power the superlative sword became the Ultimate gift to pass up the social ladder to Nobles of ascending rank as a token of esteem eventually it was received in tribute by warlord tagawa EAS with the Hanjo Mamon at his side tagawa EAS was about to change the course of Japanese [Music] history Japan was being torn apart by Civil War Dao against Dao Samurai against Samurai each fighting loyally for his Lord to the death finally in 163 togawa Eis amassed enough military power to seize overall control he made the emperor a mere figurehead Eis himself would rule all Japan as military dictator he would be the Shogun Japan was at War for 150 years between the 15th and the 16th centuries and the great toaga achievement is to make peace break out if you [Music] like the tagawa Shoguns brought 250 years of peace to [Music] Japan and their ceremonial sword was the honjo Mamon over the centuries the hereditary sword of the Shoguns was passed from generation to [Music] generation even after the tagaras fell from power in 1868 the great sword continued to be handed down within the aristocratic family into the 20th century in 1939 in Tokyo it was designated a Japanese National Treasure a survivor of 700 years of turbulent history it was only in the upheaval of the second world war that the mystery of the honjo masaman begins when it [Music] [Music] disappeared Japan entered World War II in 1941 with a surprise attack on the US Navy anchored at pul Harbor Hawaii as Japan poured millions of troops into battle the high command boosted Recruitment and morale by fostering the ideals of Japan's ancient past Bushido the way of the warrior and the heroic exploits of the Samurai so they gave out swords if you were recruiting people from backgrounds which were had no military history whatsoever the simple Act of um recruiting them giving them a sword or allowing them to wear a sword and carry a sword was in a way um elevating them in status and giving them a pride every officer sergeant and Corporal had to wear a sword as part of his uniform the sheer number required was huge so these modern military swords were not hand beaten by mastercraftsman in the traditional way a lot of swords made for office class were mass produced from pieces of Steel usually a piece of rail whe line a lot were made in factories uh all of swords made for ncos were mass-produced in factories from ordinary Steel by the second world war there are estimated to have been as many as 2 million swords worn by the Japanese military the symbolism of the sword continued to be promoted in Japanese propaganda throughout World War II this pilot on the cover of Japanese propaganda magazine front in 1943 carries his sword Center frame as a symbol of Honor Justice and fighting [Music] spirit it's a very well-informed very well-composed highly artistic and very effective image um but it's not true this is not how Pilots got into planes this is staged but Samurai myths about sacrifice become very useful for stealing yourself before you are going to get into the cockpit of a plane in which you are probably going to die [Music] for the Japanese war was a fight to the death the emperor and the government could not countenance [Music] surrender on August the 6th and 9th 1945 American b29 aircraft dropped a nuclear bomb on two Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki just 6 days later the Japanese had to Bear the unbearable think the unthinkable they surrendered across the radio comes the voice of the emperor which nobody's heard before and it's a very strange voice it's a very high voice it's a very weak voice he's talking in a language that most of them don't understand but the message is clear we've lost at the end of the second world war the average Japanese person would have been totally devastated by having suffered defeat loss of face but on the other hand the war was over and and the hardship they've been through the fire bombing the starvation was finished not for the first time in Japanese history the emperor had to move aside for a powerful Shogun Shogun is a very old title in Japanese history it means not just military commander but Supreme dictator and the man the United States sent to rule occupy Japan was certainly that five-star general Douglas MacArthur you get this tall white American stepping out of an airplane um in a very theatrical way he's dressed very particularly his color is open you know and this is the new guy in town MacArthur was a dictator and he was the Supreme Commander it's a time of chaos and MacArthur is there to do a very particular job and he's very aware of the job he's going to do he's very charismatic is very Savvy there's a very famous photograph for example of MacArthur standing next to the emperor the emperor in morning coat looking incredibly formal MacArthur again with the open shirt color and towering over him and of course it's a way of making a very profound statement MacArthur officially accepted the Japanese surrender in a ceremony aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay on the 2nd of September 1945 it is my Earnest hope and indeed the hope of all man kind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and Carnage of the past as soon as the surrender was signed MacArthur as Supreme Commander Allied Powers set to work he issued scap general order number one the immediate surrender of all Japanese Armed Forces MacArthur demanded they cease hostilities and lay down their [Music] arms at the beginning of the occupation though there are two main objectives the first the the Urgent one um is demilitarization you have to take the stuff away you have to make sure they don't do it again MacArthur's plan was to make sure Japan could never wage war again total demilitarization and disarmament were [Music] Paramount they destroyed a lot of honest to God modern military material planes and so on and so forth they also collected a lot of gunpowder which of course has its uses they just collected everything MacArthur soon destroyed hundreds of ships and thousands of planes but what should he do with all those swords every Japanese officer sergeant and Corporal carried one at his side there were millions of them but mathur was determined to collect everyone not because the swords were a military threat but because of their enduring symbolic importance certainly taking away weapons is one way of demonstrating your Authority and of course the sword is not a in the end a weapon it's it's a symbolic statement about Authority it's the thing that somebody would carry who was in charge so to take the symbol of authority away is [Music] important all over the Pacific surrender ceremonies were organized by the Victorious allies on Parade grounds in samatra Burma and Malaya Japanese fighting men suffered the humiliation of surrendering their treasured swords to the [Music] Americans your government regarding military swords as weapons does not acknowledged the wearing of swords as dress and we have been ordered to surrender all kinds of Swords Japanese officers are extremely dejected a trouble what the Allies didn't realize was that some of the swords were not modern mass-- produced weapons but handcrafted antiques of Great Value some families at the beginning of the war who did own swords that had been in the family for many many generations and possibly had been used in Warfare in the distant past took them to battle having picked up a tradition that had been going on know for centuries of carrying an ancestor's sword into [Music] battle surrendering a venerable family heirloom was especially painful I cannot help heaving a deep sigh of sorrow imparting with my most beloved sword my spirit with which my ancestors went to war and which my father himself handed over to me when I set out from home for this one praying for my heroic victory in every action hundreds of thousands of Swords were surrendered but what to do with them some were awarded to Allied officers or to civilians who had distinguished themselves in the war effort to one a crude mass-produced blade to another perhaps a centuries old work of art the Americans didn't know or [Music] care but most of the swords were not given away they were destroyed the scap instruction for disarmament applied not only to Frontline soldiers but the people of Japan at home home too even swords in private hands the honjo Mamon in the tagawa mansion in Tokyo was no exception collect and deliver all arms in the possession of the Japanese civilian population all of the swords in Japan were rounded up into centers uh usually warehouses or School gymnasiums and piled high ready for d [Music] destruction the order to collect all swords meant just that these seizures were indiscriminate family heirlooms decorating homes and masterpieces in collections were command deared as quickly as military blades the people who were handling the swords who were sweeping them up in the drag net were quite low-level functionaries very hard pressed for timelines lowlevel functionaries normally are they're not Colonels with an enormous amount of time on their hand they don't know what they're dealing with the owners of Swords were instructed to take them to collection points such as police stations even the aristocratic tagawa family who his Shoguns once ruled Japan were not exempt the scap instructions were lore and they were ordered to relinquish all their fine swords including the legendary honjo Mamon in Japan there was outrage would they really have to give it up to the Americans who appreciated nothing of its history or symbolism influential people collectors and museum curators were soon complaining to scap about this assault on the Japanese Heritage very quickly they discover that there's blowback if you like um that they are being indiscriminate and that they're annoying some people of course they learn more very quickly they learn that some people don't like having their swords taken away they learn that there are collectors of Japanese swords who have nice collections which got caught up in the draget a key figure in trying to save swords like the honu Mamon was Dr junji hmer of the Tokyo Museum he met military police Commander Colonel Victor Z Cadwell of the US 8th Army the officer in charge of weapons collection Dr hommer explained that some swords were ancient works of an almost forgotten art like the cathedrals of the West a vivid symbol that was an extension of the Samurai himself influencing Japanese art and literature Dr Homer argued that they were not military weapons at all Treasures like the honjo masony were art swords it was people like hmer who coined the phrase of Japanese art swords in order to save them from destruction uh by the occupying forces it was essential they were preserved because they were part of Jeff B's historic artistic inheritance then this term art sword was devised hmer succeeded and convinced Colonel Cadwell that Japanese swords were not simply wartime weapons and should no longer be treated as such scap instruction 12 tried to clarify the situation you are advised is that if these swords are the personal property of those offices concerned they may be retained on condition that henceforth it will be understood that they have no military significance whatsoever but are household Treasures but Cadwell didn't have the final word as late as November the 11th 1945 contradictory orders were issued by scap all swords including privately owned swords shall be treated as symbols of militarism and destroyed as a result valuable antique blades continued to be swept up sadly a lot of very fine traditional swords did go into the Melting Pot some families Protected Their heirlooms by deceiving the Americans so certain families in Japan deliberately acquired what I can only describe as very poor quality swords and hid their better swords because they knew they were going to be taken by the [Music] victors but the tagawa family did no such thing they took a very different honorable course and accepted the latest edict from scap just before Christmas 1945 the last known owner of the honjo Mason tagawa yamas a descendant of the Shoguns obeyed the law and delivered the family swords to mairo police station the family still does have ownership of it and so they can do something useful which is their Duty because of course the symbolic value of the old military family of Japan the first military family of Japan giving up the symbol of their authority to the new occupiers in order that Japan can embark on A New [Music] Path tagawa Mass handed in 15 swords bundled all together and among them was the finest sword ever made the honjo [Music] Mamon Mr tagawa never saw the great family sword [Music] again the hanono masaman disappeared and entered the realm of conjecture and [Music] [Music] mystery the first clue to what became of the Lost sword of the Samurai appeared in New York 20 years after the end of World War II the August 1966 edition of saga an American adventure and mystery magazine contained an article listing Japanese National Treasures that went missing after the [Music] war the list of 14 swords included the honjo [Music] Mamon here in black and white it recorded that a Sergeant CI bore of the 7th us Cavalry had collected it from the police station at majiro but how reliable was this record what is undoubtedly true is that the seventh Cavalry patrols were in Tokyo and did make inventories of all arsenals factories barracks and storage depos they also disposed of Munitions and conducted Patrols in search of hidden Japanese weapons including a swords this corroborates The Saga magazine [Music] article the next question is did Sergeant CI bore take the sword from the police station unfortunately all police records for the period in question are lost but there is another source the the Japanese Department of Education their records at the time make it clear that the honjo Mamon certainly was taken from mairo police station by Sergeant bore but where did he take [Music] it all over Japan collected swords were piled high in warehouses before being dumped at sea or melted down for scrap iron in Tokyo for sergeant CI bore storage was at the aaban Depot to avoid the destruction of art swords every blade at aabani was scrutinized by Dr junji Homer's inspection committee it was a big success nearly 5,000 swords were identified as important cultural artifacts and returned to their owners but the honjo Mamon was not among them was it fed to the furnace and destroyed or did CI bore keep it for himself I think it's most unlikely that the honjo mamun sword did go into a Melting Pot the tagawa having been Shogun of Japan and hence at the Pinnacle of Japanese society would have had some extremely fine swords and I'm pretty sure that even the uh police in the local police station and the sergeant to which they were handed over to would have recognized the quality of the mountings if nothing else and therefore I suspect they were shipped back to America pretty [Music] quickly what is certainly true is that the American Army operated an official War trophy system a GI who had taken part in the Pacific War could with the correct permission slip take home one enemy gun and one sword as personal souvenirs most of these returning men were carrying mass-produced military swords nothing special but some GIS unknowingly had centuries old works of art of great cultural and monetary value it's very possible that the honjo Maman was taken by CI bore as his personal momento if this was true the question then became when did Sergeant bore get shipped home and did he carry the honjo Mamon with [Music] him at this point the trail becomes even more obscured seventh Cavalry record should reveal when Sergeant CI bore left Japan and when he arrived home but the sth Cavalry veterans association lists No One by that name does that mean there never was a CI bore the facts are more complicated The Saga magazine article contains another clue it describes the name CI bore as phonetic this indicates it's a translation from English into Japanese the strange name CI bore may be inaccurate with moving between languages we're moving between languages fast on a busy day when there are hundred different things to do by somebody scribbling in a book so when you hear the name that's come down to us the first thing that comes to mind is this isn't an American name this is a problem of transliteration the Japanese have developed phonetic alphabets to help transcode English and other languages the characters are not words as in Japanese but represent particular sounds it is not precise in order to get the Sergeant's name down what the Japanese Sergeant would have done would have been to write his name in a Japanese syll an alphabet but we call it a syllabary because it's a way of transliterating English into Japanese this system of transliteration is far from perfect as Japanese sounds don't appear in English and English sounds have no Japanese equivalent the name may not be CI bore but something that sounds a bit like it if you think back to that moment when he wrote it down it sounds something like G or maybe beu and actually transcribing back CU it went both ways so maybe this is Goldie Beamer maybe this is Cody maybe this is builtmore God knows when the American sergeant said oh my name's goldi beima the Japanese would say goru and then put it into these characters which then come back to us in a scrambled [Music] form so was there a seventh Cavalry sergeant in Tokyo on the 18th of January 1946 with a name similar to CI bore unfortunately the scap records of lowly sergeants have been routinely destroyed the true name of the sergeant can never be found but even so many believe the honjo masaman could still turn [Music] up in the years since the war Americans began to understand the prestige and value of fine Japanese swords properly President Truman was given a 6 50-year old sword in a 350 year old Silk wrapping as a war souvenir the Allied occupation of Japan continued until 1952 and the influx of Swords to America after the second world war was like a [Music] tsunami for the handful of knowledgeable sword enthusiasts who recognized the characteristics which made a blade great there was the opportunity to make a lot of money I could quite easily buy swords one day for £15 and sell them the next day for £300 or something which incredible sort of stuff dealers discovered that hidden in the Stream of confiscated weapons there were historically important swords now scattered all over the US [Music] in America has still got thousands of Swords stashed away in attics box rooms garages which was brought back as trophies and are merely regarded as oh granddad's old sword could the honjo M armony be among granddad's old swords since World War II there have been thousands of ads placed in newspapers all over the US offering to buy Japanese swords these were the days when a Fine Collection could still be acquired very cheaply in America especially over the 1970s and ' 80s I've heard it termed as the gold rush over there and people were making fortunes buying selling swords and mostly selling them back to Japan as this Market developed some important art swords did occasionally turn up Avid collector Clive Sinclair came by a sword when it surfaced in just this way wonderfully preserved it was made especially for the shogun's chief test cutter it turned up in a antique Fair swapped hands for £400 within half an hour it's got up £1,500 and I paid £1,000 for and I've spent another 3,000 on it since then and it's been exhibited in Japan it's a very good sword could this one day happen to the honjo Mamon if it did emerge from someone's attic how could it be recognized there is a Telltale way of knowing [Music] 700 years ago when Mamon plunged the hot blade into cold water he gave birth to a razor sharp weapon but he also gave the honjo Mamon a unique signature if a sword turned up that was claimed to be the hona samon because it was a National Treasure prior to the war there were very very accurate drawings made of its sh shape the pattering of the hardened Edge which you could use to compare a sword with to say yes it's the same or no it isn't for centuries it was customary for an artist to maticulously draw the unique pattern on the edge of a fine sword the hamon when in 1939 the Japanese declared the honjo Mamon a National Treasure such fine detailed drawings of the hamon were made if the honjo Mamon ever appeared at an antique sphere or auction there could be no mistake its fingerprints have been taken at this point perhaps the best way of understanding the meaning of that sword is is as an artistic object so it's made by a famous maker and it has fabulous provenance if you go to an auction house today you need something with provenance you need to know which hands it's passed through but any lucky finder in the US would face a catch 22 for a collector to be certain for its identity to be official the Hanjo masam would have to be sent to Japan for shinsa a rigorous examination by Japanese experts the problem with that is if you live in America and you own this sword and you send it to Japan for shinsa they won't allow it to export be exported again so you you've actually got to give it to back to Japan basically to get it [Music] verified so if anyone did find it they would have every incentive to keep it secret for fear of losing it whatever the case the whereabouts of the hono armony remains a complete mystery to this day anyone trying to trace it faces huge obst obstacles the few Clues there are are sparse the identity of the elusive Cavalry Sergeant is still a mystery precisely what happened that day at the majiro police station may never be known if only we had the paperwork a signature the honjo masaman might yet be [Music] found it's one of the ironies of this story that the honjo Mison needn't have been handed in at all if the toag gaas had only waited just a few months until the law was changed they could have kept it maybe even 6 months later it would have been protected it would still be there it would probably be somewhere deep in a vault in the Tokyo National Museum the honjo masamune um would have become again firmly finally a National Treasure a National Property put on show for the people of the new nation not as a weapon as a work of art [Music] there is another irony because it is lost the homas armony has been transformed from a historical artifact to a thing of Legend maybe the most important fact about this sword is that it's lost a thing that no longer is there or a thing that you've never seen is much more powerful than one that you have close at hand the legend will only ever grow stronger until more evidence can establish where it is or whether it has been destroyed unless we see it's corpse or something we never know will we unless we see it broken Tang or something we we will never know anyone with a love of Japanese swords can never give up hope I still s somehow feel that it still does exist possibly unrecognized somewhere things usually Turn Up when somebody dies and um hirs go in and discover objects it could still turn up if it did it would be a media spectacle it would be wonderful if somebody could find that sword while a treasure such as the honjo M armony remains lost stories will be told of its possible location and people will dream of it hunt for it the Lost sword of the [Music] [Music] [Music] Samurai [Music]

Channel: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries

Views: 221,546

Keywords: Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries, Japanese artistry, Japanese craftsmanship, ancient relics, authority, beginnings of the Renaissance, documentary series, educational content, goro nyudo masamune, historical discoveries, historical investigation, historical legacies, history buffs, intrigue, japanese sword, master swordsmiths, medieval artifacts, medieval documentaries, medieval tales, prestige, world war II

Id: WY4mMF1_hIw

Length: 49min 23sec (2963 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024