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Selecting a Shinken Katana
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Katana Maintenance

Welcome to the I Love Katana website. If you find yourself here - you probably have the same fascination with the Japanese sword as I do. I hope you will enjoy this site, but also hope you will have a new understanding of Japanese Swordsmanship.  This is the informal site of the Konjaku Kioi Toyama Ryu Dojo.  You can go to our formal pages by following the links on the left.

The Latest Stuff

1994 was the year I started down this path. It all started when my friend Pyro showed me a real katana. Before that I thought a “real” katana could be bought at the mall cutlery shop. This was not as pretty or shinny as the ones in the mall, but holding it, I knew I was holding part of history. It was a sword made in the 1920’s and carried by a Japanese officer in WWII. I remember soon after that Pyro and I made a road trip to the shop where he had gotten that sword. I was hooked when I held a sword over 400 years old that had been commissioned for a samurai. The maker had inscribed the commission on the tang along with the fact that it had cut through the bodies of two convicted criminals as proof of its quality. Then the shop owner told us about this Japanese guy named Hataya Mitsuo who was coming over from Japan and teaching swordsmanship, something called Toyama Ryu.

I was fascinated by a seminar taught by Hataya Sensei. I started because I thought it was cool. We got to dress up like Kuno Tatewaki and learned some Japanese. It has been a few years since then. I’ve come along way down the path but you never reach the end. Some journeys you take for their own sake. It has been a good journey so far. Perhaps you are one of the few who are captured by the spirit of the sword and wish to join us down this path.

- Mike Femal