The Cursed Muramasa Sword

  The katanas of Japan are legendary. But one sword stands out in their history; the cursed swords of Muramasa. 

  Sengo Muramasa was a skilled sword-smith and founded a school of sword-making in 1501.  But, Muramasa had “a violent and ill-balanced mind verging on madness, that was supposed to have passed into his blades….”   One-hundred years later Muramasa’s swords were banned by the Japanese government when Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun. Ieyasu had lost many friends and relatives to Muramasa blades.  He also, had been injured by one of these razor sharp blades and forbade his samurai to wear katanas made by Muramasa.

  This only fed to the legend and stories of the common people.  Opponents of the Shogun would often struggle to acquire Muramasa blades, believing the blades held a special significance for the Shogun to ban them.  

  The current standing legend is that once a Muramasa sword has been drawn it must taste blood before it can be returned to its scabbard.  If it does not it will turn on the wielder, forcing them to injure themself or even commit suicide. It is considered a demonic, cursed sword that forces the wielder to drown in blood lust.

  I wanted to thank Takeshi Shimano of Japanese Traditional Blog for all the info.  On a side note this phenomenon is so widely spread in Japan that there is a manga (Japanese comic) called MURAMASA and the anime Bleach did an entire arc on the blood thirsty Zanpakuto- Muramasa.