Credits and Sources

Image and footage credits for History of Katana videos. Listed per episode, newest first. Only sources whose licence requires attribution appear here; public domain and CC0 material, our own footage, and film excerpts used for commentary are not listed.

Episode index

Japan's 5 Rival Katana Schools and the 1 that Dominated for Centuries

Published 2026-09-29 · Watch on YouTube · 55 credited sources

Japan's five traditional sword schools, the Gokaden, ranked: the Yamato temple smiths of Nara, the Mino forges of Seki, the Yamashiro smiths of the Kyoto court, the Soshu school of Masamune in Kamakura, and Bizen on the Yoshii River, where about forty percent of Japan's National Treasure swords were forged and the forges are still working today.

Images from ColBase and from the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage have been cropped, reframed and animated for this video. Edited by History of Katana; not edited or endorsed by the Institutes. Source: ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan (https://colbase.nich.go.jp/)

ColBase, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

Museum open access

Wikimedia Commons

e-Museum, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

4 NATIONAL TREASURE KATANAS: Surrendered. Stained. Slain. Seized.

Published 2026-09-11 · Watch on YouTube · 37 credited sources

Four National Treasure katana, all held at the Tokyo National Museum, each named for a mark on the iron, a killing, or the people who owned it: a flower carved inside a hexagon on a bare tang, a dragon peering out from under a blade's collar, a killing at Nagashima castle in 1584, and a Masamune taken from a family of Noh actors.

Images from ColBase and from the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage have been cropped, reframed and animated for this video. Edited by History of Katana; not edited or endorsed by the Institutes. Source: ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan (https://colbase.nich.go.jp/)

ColBase, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

Museum open access

5 MORE SHARPEST KATANA: The Blade That Cut Through Samurai Armor

Published 2026-08-23 · Watch on YouTube · 62 credited sources

Five famous Japanese swords, each named for something nobody expected it to cut: a dagger driven into rock to hold a ship against a storm, a blade notched by other swords in battle that kept its edge, a sword that killed a cat by accident, a blade that took a stone lantern in half, and the katana that went through an armoured sleeve.

Museum open access

Original artwork by History of Katana

Wikimedia Commons

TOP 4 OLDEST SWORDS: Before the Katana, Before the Samurai — Japan's Oldest Swords

Published 2026-08-08 · Watch on YouTube · 25 credited sources

A countdown of the four oldest surviving swords in Japan, ranked by when each blade was forged. All four were excavated from Kofun period burial mounds and all four carry an inscription cut into the metal.

Images from ColBase and from the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage have been cropped, reframed and animated for this video. Edited by History of Katana; not edited or endorsed by the Institutes. Source: ColBase: Integrated Collections Database of the National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan (https://colbase.nich.go.jp/)

ColBase, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

Museum press materials

Wikimedia Commons

HISTORY'S MOST DANGEROUS KATANA: Thirty-Six "Immortal" Poets, Thirty-Six Corpses — Kasen Kanesada

Published 2026-01-20 · Watch on YouTube · 6 credited sources

The Kokindenju No Tachi and the secret poetry transmission it is named for.

Wikimedia Commons

HISTORY'S MOST DANGEROUS KATANA: Demon Dosetsu vs. The Lightning God — Raikiri "The Thunder Cutter"

Published 2025-12-22 · Watch on YouTube · 7 credited sources

Tachibana Dosetsu and the blade said to have cut a lightning god.

Wikimedia Commons

HISTORY'S MOST DANGEROUS KATANA: The "Bone-Eater" Blade that Refused to Die — Honebami Toshiro

Published 2025-12-08 · Watch on YouTube · 5 credited sources

Honebami Toshiro, the Bone-Eater, and how it kept being given away.

ColBase, National Institutes for Cultural Heritage

Wikimedia Commons