Muramasa

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Sengo Muramasa was a famous swordsmith who founded the Muramasa school and lived during the Muromachi period of 16th century in Japan. Oscar Ratti and Adele Westbrook said that Muramasa "was a most skillful smith but a violent and ill-balanced mind verging on madness, that was supposed to have passed into his blades....They were popularly believed to hunger for blood and to impel their warrior to commit murder or suicide."^[1]

The school of sword-making at Ise province was famous for the extraordinary sharpness of their blades. The earliest known work of the school is dated at 1501; the Muramasa school continued into the late 1500's.^[2] It's believed that Sengo Muramasa was a student of Heianjo Nagayoshi, a prominent Kyoto swordsmith known for spears and engravings.

Muramasa's swords fell out of favor with the Japanese government when Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun, establishing the Tokugawa Shogunate, in 1603. It is said that Ieyasu had lost many friends and relatives to Muramasa blades and had cut himself badly with one, so he forbade his samurai to wear blades made by Muramasa. This contributed even more to the Muramasa legend and led to many plays and dramas in Japanese literature featuring the blades. Due to the stigma attached to them, many Muramasa blades had their signature changed or removed. Since opponents of the Tokugawa Shoguns would often wish to acquire Muramasa blades, forgeries of Muramasa blades were also often made.

The swords of Muramasa are often contrasted with those of Masamune, another Japanese swordsmith.

There is a legend of a Masamune blade and a Muramasa blade being put into a river strewn with lotus leaves. The leaves swirled around the Masamune blade untouched, but the Muramasa blade cut them.

It has also been told that once drawn, a Muramasa blade has to draw blood before it can be returned to its scabbard, even to the point of forcing its wielder to wound himself or commit suicide.^[3] Thus, it is thought of as a demonic cursed blade that creates bloodlust in those who wield it.

[edit] References to the Muramasa

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• The Japanese electronics maker Sharp uses the name Muramasa for a line of their notebook computers, which is an obvious allusion to their company name and probably also to the sharpness of their displays.
• In the game Ragnarok Online, a sword called Muramasa is considered very strong, but has a chance for the user to curse itself. It appears in other games by Gravity.
• Muramasa is a character in the Japanese manga series Samurai Deeper Kyo, by Akimine Kamijyo. He is the teacher of Demon Eyes Kyo, and the respected swordsmith that forged Kyo's demon blade, Tenro.
• In numerous video games (FFIV, FFVII, etc.) the Muramasa is featured as a weapon. It is generally a powerful sword, but often will have a curse or drawback to its use, such as draining the player's health away, or causing the player to go berserk when used. In the Mega Man Battle Network series, "Muramasa" is a sword-based battle chip normally used by Shadowman whose attack power depends on Mega Man's hit points; the less he has, the more powerful it is. It later becomes available to MegaMan.
• In the Marvel Universe, Muramasa is an immortal demon swordsmith. The Marvel Comics fictional characters Wolverine and the Silver Samurai have wielded two separate swords known as the Muramasa Blade. The first blade is typically referred to as the Black Blade and is many centuries old. Muramasa is said to have used part of his own soul to forge this particular sword. Muramasa, who has been stated as being quite mad, also poured his madness into the blade. The wielder of this particular blade is granted various superhuman physical attributes, most notably superhuman strength and durability. However, after a period of time, the wielder is overcome by the sword's influence and slips into madness.^[4] Both Wolverine and the Silver Samurai have wielded this particular sword and it was last seen in the possession of the Silver Samurai, though he no longer uses it. The other Muramasa Blade, the one currently in Wolverine's possession, is a sword that Muramasa made specially for Wolverine himself. According to Muramasa, he used a piece of Wolverine's soul in forging the sword. The sword possesses various mystical properties similar to the Black Blade. It is extremely durable and is capable of cutting most substances. The sword does have the ability to practically nullify accelerated healing powers. Wolverine has been wounded once with the sword and, though the injury was minor, took several days to fully heal. Wolverine recently used the sword to decapitate his enemy Sabretooth after using it to cut off his right arm.^[5] Wolverine himself has stated that the Muramasa Blade is the only thing on Earth that can truly kill him.
• DC Comics superhero Katana wields a blade called Soultaker, supposedly forged by Muramasa.
• Muramasa is the name of a Japanese ska band.
• A blade in the Konami video game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is also called Muramasa. Its attack power increases when the player uses it to kill enemies.
• In Ninja Gaiden, Muramasa is a character who upgrades the player's weapons.
• In the manga Crying Freeman, the character Emu Hino gains possession of the Muramasa, which recognizes her as its true owner, enabling her to become a proficient swordswoman.
• In the video game Golden Sun there is a cursed longsword called the Muramasa. It grants moderately high attack power, but will often cause the wielder to be unable to move.
• In World of Warcraft, a there is a sword called Muramasa that drops from M'uru.

[edit] References