Yes. Licensed smiths in Japan still forge nihonto (日本刀). The licence is the making approval for each blade. A wall-hanger is a different object. It is built to hang on a wall, often in stainless steel, and it never goes through that approval.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs, on its page for the Firearms and Swords Control Act (銃砲刀剣類所持等取締法), says a nihonto in this law is a sword made for use in war or for looking at, forged by traditional methods and given a quench. After examiners accept it, the prefectural education board issues a registration certificate. That certificate is the torokusho (登録証), short for 銃砲刀剣類登録証. Keep the two papers apart from the start. Approval lets a smith make the blade. The torokusho is what lets a person possess the finished sword in Japan.
What the Agency counts as a Japanese sword
Ordinary possession of a sword is forbidden in Japan, with listed exceptions. One exception is a sword registered because it has value as an art object. The Agency says that registration protects the blade in the way cultural properties are protected, and that the registration belongs to the sword. A new owner files a change of owner with the board that issued the certificate. The certificate has to be with the sword when it is kept, carried, moved, handed over, or left with someone else. Even then, carrying it, moving it, or using it without a justified reason is prohibited. The Agency cites Article 21 for that limit.
The national gloss does not print the word tamahagane. Tokyo's registration guide, updated on 26 March 2026, is stricter in its own wording. Tokyo says a nihonto is made by the sword method, the material is tamahagane (玉鋼), the steel is forged repeatedly, and it has a quench. Tokyo's list of types is wide: tachi, katana, wakizashi, tanto, yari, ken, naginata, and hoko. English shops say katana and mean almost any curved sword. The law is talking about a registered art sword of one of those types. Read katana for the long sword itself, and sword anatomy for the quench line, the tang, and the signature.
The Agency also prints what fails. Heavy rust or damage, or work that is badly made, can fail. So can blades called Showa-to or Mantetsu-to, and blades that were only drawn out, half forged, or made in special steel, when they look like a nihonto and skipped the nihonto process. Foreign-made swords fail. So do parade swords, unquenched dedicatory blades, and archaeological finds. A beginner can use that list in a shop. If the object sits on the fail list, the hang-tag cannot promote it into a licensed blade.
Three blades that share a shop name
The same shelf can hold three different things, all tagged katana. The steel, the person allowed to make it, the papers, and the job you should expect are different. Replica samurai swords goes further into costume blades and practice swords. This table stays with the legal and material split.
| Blade | Steel | Who may make it | Papers | What a beginner should expect it to do |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licensed nihonto | Tamahagane, forged and quenched. Tokyo's 2026 registration guide names tamahagane as a condition. The Agency's national gloss says traditional forging and a quench. | A smith with approval for that blade. First approval: Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. Later approvals: the prefectural education board. | A torokusho after the board accepts the blade. A new sword also has a making-approval document and a completion report before that exam. | An art sword you may possess in Japan with the certificate. Carrying, transport, and use still need a justified reason. It is not a price quote. |
| Display replica | Often stainless, or other steel that skipped traditional forging and the quench. The Agency lists special-steel blades that skipped the nihonto process as outside registration. | A commercial workshop. No Japanese making approval. Many cheap ones are production copies made outside Japan. | A till receipt, a hang-tag, sometimes a decorative certificate. No torokusho. | Hang it on a wall or use it as costume. Do not expect a clay-tempered edge, a legal Japanese registration, or a blade that should be swung. |
| Overseas Japanese-style blade | Whatever that smith uses. Some forge carbon steel and quench it in clay. That steel is not the NBTHK tatara supply unless the smith actually received tamahagane, which the society distributes to smiths in its Japanese system. | An independent smith in the United States, Europe, or elsewhere. Japanese approval does not cover that workshop. | The maker's invoice or a collector's note. The Agency lists foreign-made swords as outside registration, so there is no Japanese torokusho. | Display or cutting practice, depending on how it was built. The word katana on the invoice is shop English. It does not make the blade a nihonto under Japanese law. |
Tamahagane from a living tatara
Tamahagane is the high-grade steel from a tatara, the old furnace that smelts iron sand with charcoal. The Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (日本美術刀剣保存協会, NBTHK) runs the Nittoho Tatara on the old Yasukuni tatara ground in Okuizumo, Shimane. The society says the traditional furnace died out in the Taisho era, returned before the war under the sword-forging society, and stopped again at the end of the war. NBTHK restored the site on 24 June 1976 and held the fire-in ceremony on 8 November 1977.
The furnace is a selected conservation technique under the cultural property law. A single heat loads iron sand and charcoal in turn for three days and nights. The bloom, the kera, is about 2.5 tons. From it the crew sorts steel by carbon. Grade 1 and grade 2 tamahagane run about 0.5 to 1.2 percent carbon, with a fairly even break. Oroshigane, used mainly as core steel, varies a lot. Pig iron, zuku, is 1.7 percent carbon or more. The society distributes that steel to smiths around the country. The supply is a campaign at one furnace, not a mill that rolls sheet for a factory.
Shimane Prefecture's note of 22 September 2025 records a recent run. Horio Kaoru became murage, the head of the firing, in July 2024. His first operation, from January into February 2025, produced tamahagane he presented to the governor. That note does not say the furnace lights only once a year, so this page does not invent a calendar. It does show the steel was made in 2025 and handed on as a public fact.
Folding that steel is the work described on sword making. The smith heats, welds, and folds to spread carbon and drive out slag. The Agency film on Miyairi Yukihira records one traditional build: tamahagane and oroshigane, a softer core wrapped in harder skin steel, then the quench. The film's caption uses the old aim for that work: a sword that will not break, will not bend, and cuts. Fold counts are a workshop choice. The licence is the approval, which does not mention a fold count.
Clay temper, display steel, and production copies
Clay tempering is the quench. The smith coats the blade with clay, thinner toward the edge, and cools it so the edge hardens and the back stays tougher. The line between those zones is the hamon. A polisher makes it visible. That sequence is what the statute points at when it says forged and quenched. The anatomy page shows where the line sits. A painted wave on a stainless blade is a picture of that line.
Display swords live in another trade. The cheap end is stainless, or a blade ground from stock that never saw a tatara or a clay quench. The Agency's fail list already names special-steel swords and blades that skipped the process. A wall-hanger belongs with those objects when the seller cannot show traditional forging, a quench, and Japanese papers. Expect it to decorate a room. Replica swords covers the shopping tiers, including costume edges. The legal point is the missing pair of papers. Without making approval and a torokusho, the object stays a display sword.
Chinese production copies are foreign-made swords, which the Agency lists as outside registration even when the shape is convincing. Some are stainless display pieces. Some are carbon steel and can be sharp. Fold marks, or a fake hamon, do not move them onto the Japanese register. The steel was not issued from the Nittoho Tatara system, the maker holds no Japanese approval, and the blade will not receive a torokusho for being a nihonto. If you are buying one, you are buying a replica. Judge it as that.
How the making approval works
People say swordsmith licence. The statute says approval, Article 18-2. You apply for the blade you intend to make. If you have never been approved, you apply to the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. If you have, you apply to the education board of the prefecture where you live. The Fine Art Sword Production Approval Regulations, on the e-Gov law site, spell out the form: who is applying, who will actually forge if that person is different, the maker's age and smithing history, the client, the type and number of blades including test blades, the purpose, the place, and the planned start and finish.
The first approval has four conditions. The blade has to have value as an art object. The maker needs five continuous years under an approved smith, proved by that smith. At least two registration examiners must guarantee the applicant. The applicant must have finished the Agency's sword-making course. A later approval is shorter. The blade must still be able to have art value, and the maker must already be someone who has been approved. The board notifies the public safety commission. None of this is a membership card you flash for every sword you feel like starting.
Sakaki Town's iron museum, in Nagano, shows the approval still being issued long after 1876. Its smith page lists Miyairi Kozaemon Yukihira as approved in 1982, Kawachi Ippei in 2005, and Miyairi Yo in 2022. The same page calls the late Miyairi Yukihira a holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property. Those lines are years of approval. They are not a count of finished swords.
| Step | Who does it | What the step checks |
|---|---|---|
| Five years at a forge | An already approved smith, writing a certificate for the apprentice | For a first approval, the maker has spent five continuous years under an approved smith, including someone who has worked as the maker on an approved blade, and that smith says the skill is enough. |
| Two guarantees | At least two registration examiners | The same first approval needs those examiners to guarantee the applicant. The prefectural board appoints examiners for registration work. A shop note is a different piece of paper. |
| Agency course | Commissioner for Cultural Affairs | The applicant has finished the Agency course on sword making, the bijutsu token tosho gijutsu hozon kenshukai. Later approvals do not repeat this gate. The first one does. |
| First making approval | Commissioner for Cultural Affairs | The blade being made can have value as an art object, and the person rules above are met. Approval is for that blade. The application names the type, the count (including test blades, kageuchi), the place, and the planned dates. |
| Later making approvals | Prefectural education board for the applicant's address | The blade can have value as an art object, and the maker has already been approved, or has been the maker on an approved blade. The board tells the prefectural public safety commission. One approval does not cover a whole working life. |
| Registration | Prefectural education board, after examiners see the finished blade | The sword meets the registration standard. The board then issues the torokusho. Tokyo's guide, updated 26 March 2026, charges 6,300 yen per blade and does not refund it if the answer is a refusal notice. |
| Minimum days, where a prefecture publishes them | The education board reviewing the approval. Aomori prints the numbers. | Aomori's standard, set in 1994 and last revised on 25 December 2000, asks for at least 15 days of forging on one new tachi, katana, or naginata, at least 10 days on a wakizashi or tanto, and at least 3 days for a re-temper. The Agency does not turn that into a national monthly quota. |
The yearly number is answered on the Agency FAQ. The Agency does not set how many swords may be made in a year. Prefectural boards, when they approve making, use a notice that sets the minimum days to allow, depending on the type of sword. Aomori publishes that floor. Other prefectures may word their own notice differently, so read the board that actually signed the approval. Aomori's notice states the day counts above. It does not state a monthly number of blades.
Checks that use a document, not a hunch
Four differences separate the objects before you talk about beauty.
- Law. A nihonto in Japan needs making approval for that blade and a torokusho afterward. A display sword and a foreign-made sword are outside that pair of papers.
- Steel. Licensed work uses tamahagane from the tatara, forged and quenched. Display stock is often stainless or other mill steel. An overseas smith chooses their own steel.
- Use. The registered sword is an art object with strict rules on carrying and use. The wall-hanger is for show. The overseas blade does the job its maker built, and Japanese registration does not describe that job.
- Papers. Ask for the torokusho, and for a new blade the approval and the completion report. An NBTHK sheet is an extra art rank. A shop tag is an advertisement.
If you are standing in front of a blade in Japan, or reading a listing that claims the blade is a Japanese studio sword, walk this order.
- Ask whether this exact blade received making approval, and which office signed it. First blades are the Commissioner. Later blades are a prefectural education board.
- Ask to see the torokusho if the seller calls it a legal Japanese sword. The Agency says the certificate stays with the sword. A missing certificate is a stop sign, not a detail to fix after you pay.
- Read the signature on the tang and compare it with the certificate. The anatomy page names that signature the mei. A new blade's approval papers should name the maker as well.
- Ask what the steel is. Tamahagane, a clay quench, and a visible hamon belong to the licensed process. Stainless, a printed wave, or "made in" another country belongs to the other two rows of the table.
- If an NBTHK paper is offered, read the rank and still ask for the torokusho. The society paper does not license the smith and does not set a fair price.
Mukansa and living national treasures
Two titles sit beside the licence and do different jobs. The Agency's pamphlet on intangible cultural properties says the state designates important crafts and performing arts, then certifies the people or groups who carry the skill. The individual certification is what people call a Living National Treasure, ningen kokuho (人間国宝). The formal name is holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property. The Agency's film page uses that form for the sword: Important Intangible Cultural Property "nihonto," individual holder Miyairi Yukihira. The film follows his forging. Sakaki's museum page marks him as deceased. The title is a recognition of a person who embodies the craft. The title names that person. It says nothing about how many swords a living smith finishes.
Mukansa belongs to NBTHK, not to the Agency's approval desk. The society's appointment rules say mukansa means a qualification for work entered in the society's new-sword exhibition, or its polishing and mount exhibition, which does not need to be judged. The chair grants it, after the board, when a prize record in the appendix is met. Swordsmiths, carvers, polishers, and fittings makers have separate tracks. A mukansa smith is still expected to submit work in those shows, with exceptions for age and illness. The same rules let the chair offer an honorary mukansa to someone the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has certified as a holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property. That sentence is useful because it shows the two systems touching. One is a state certification of skill. The other is a society's exhibition rank. Neither one replaces Article 18-2.
Older famous names belong on the famous swordsmiths page. A modern mei can be excellent and still be a working smith you have not heard of. Fame is a bad substitute for the approval and the torokusho.
What a buyer or a student should ask to see
Papers record legal status and, separately, whether NBTHK has graded the art. They are not investment advice, and they do not name a price.
For a blade offered as a Japanese studio sword, ask for three things in this order. First, the maker's making approval for that blade, or a clear statement of which office granted it. On a finished sword the approval may already have been folded into the registration file, so the second item matters more in the hand: the torokusho, matched to the tang. Third, any NBTHK certificate, read as a rank. Students visiting a forge can ask which of those documents the smith's recent work carries, and they can look up the public smith list of a town museum the way Sakaki publishes approval years. A studio that cannot name the approving office is offering you a story.
If registration is refused, believe the refusal notice. Do not hide the blade and hope the hamon will talk a later clerk around. The Agency's route is the police and the education board, then either a public-safety possession permit or a gift to a national or public museum. Owning a beautiful failure is still owning an unregistered sword.
Smiths outside Japan
Smiths in the United States and in Europe do make Japanese-style blades. Some study the sequence on the sword-making page: a folded billet, a clay coat, a quench, a polish. Their best work is serious craft. Japanese law still calls a sword made abroad a foreign-made sword. The Agency puts that category on the list of things that are not registered. The blade is not a nihonto under that statute. The smith does not hold Japanese making approval. There is no torokusho to keep in the saya bag.
What changes is practical. Inside Japan, a registered sword moves with its certificate, and export means sending that certificate back to the issuing board. An overseas blade has no certificate to surrender, because it was never on the register. Importing a sword into Japan is a different paperwork problem. The Agency says the steps depend on how you bring it in, and it tells you to ask the education board where you live. The foreign-made line on the same page is the reason a new overseas katana should not be treated as a registrable nihonto. The United States and European countries keep their own weapon statutes. What changes under Japanese law is the missing approval and the missing torokusho.
The word katana is the loose part. In shop English it covers a licensed nihonto, a zinc practice sword, a stainless wall-hanger, and a carbon-steel copy from a foreign smith. Ask which of the three rows in the table you are looking at. The answer is in the steel and the papers, not in the font on the box.
How to tell a studio blade from a souvenir
Use this in a shop or on a listing. Five checks. Stop at the first one that fails.
- Step 1: Ask who made it, and where — A studio blade has a smith's name and a place in Japan. A souvenir often has a brand, a country of manufacture, or no maker at all. Match the name to the signature on the tang.
- Step 2: Ask for the torokusho — If the seller says this is a legal Japanese sword, the registration certificate should be there. No certificate means you are not looking at a registered nihonto. Outside Japan, ask why a Japanese certificate is absent and which row of the table the blade belongs on.
- Step 3: Separate approval papers from shop paper — A new Japanese blade has a making-approval document and a completion report before the education board examines it. A hang-tag, a wooden stand, or a certificate that only says authentic katana is souvenir paperwork.
- Step 4: Look at the steel, not the polish on the fitting — Licensed work is tamahagane, forged and clay tempered, with a hamon from the quench. Stainless markings, a painted wave, or a blade that was only ground into shape are display signs. The sword-making page shows what the real sequence is.
- Step 5: Read any NBTHK sheet last — Hozon and the higher ranks are the society's art grades. They do not replace the torokusho, they do not license the maker, and they do not name a price. If the only paper is a society photocopy with no government certificate, you still do not have the legal set.
Five questions on modern blades
The answers follow the Agency page, Aomori's published day counts, and the NBTHK split between registration and art rank.
1. Can a smith in Japan still make a nihonto?
- A. Yes, with making approval for that blade
- B. No, the 1876 order closed every forge
- C. Only if the blade is stainless
- D. Only if the workshop is outside Japan
Show answer
Answer: A. Yes, with making approval for that blade
The Agency for Cultural Affairs still approves art swords under Article 18-2. The 1876 order restricted wearing a sword.
2. What is a torokusho?
- A. The prefectural registration certificate for that sword
- B. An NBTHK prize given to a new apprentice
- C. A shop warranty for a wall-hanger
- D. A charcoal licence for the tatara crew
Show answer
Answer: A. The prefectural registration certificate for that sword
The education board issues it after the registration exam. It travels with the sword inside Japan.
3. What does the Agency for Cultural Affairs say about a yearly blade count?
- A. It does not set one; prefectures set minimum days by type
- B. The sword law prints a cap of two long swords a month
- C. Every smith may register 24 blades, stated on the Agency FAQ
- D. There is no approval and no time rule at all
Show answer
Answer: A. It does not set one; prefectures set minimum days by type
The Agency FAQ denies a national count. Aomori's public standard uses 15, 10, and 3 days. Those figures are a minimum for one blade. The notice does not print a monthly cap.
4. A production copy made outside Japan is which object?
- A. A foreign-made sword, outside Japanese registration
- B. A licensed nihonto if the steel was folded
- C. A Living National Treasure by the shop label
- D. A blade that receives a torokusho at customs automatically
Show answer
Answer: A. A foreign-made sword, outside Japanese registration
The Agency lists foreign-made swords among items that are not registered. Folding does not change that line.
5. What does an NBTHK hozon paper do?
- A. Records the society's art rank for that piece
- B. Replaces the torokusho for legal possession
- C. Lets the owner carry the sword with no reason
- D. Sets the price a buyer should pay
Show answer
Answer: A. Records the society's art rank for that piece
Hozon is the first of four society ranks. The museum says the society does not appraise money value, and the legal certificate is separate.
Frequently asked questions
- Can modern smiths in Japan still make a katana?
- Yes. A smith in Japan may still forge a nihonto, including the long sword English speakers call a katana, if that blade has making approval under the Firearms and Swords Control Act. A stainless wall-hanger is a different object and is not that approval.
- What approval does a swordsmith need in Japan?
- The first blade needs approval from the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs. Later blades need approval from the prefectural education board where the applicant lives. The applicant must already have been approved, or have worked as the maker on an approved blade. Each application is for the blade being made.
- Does the Agency for Cultural Affairs cap how many blades a smith may make?
- The Agency says it does not set a yearly number of blades. Prefectural boards set a minimum number of making days by sword type when they approve production. Aomori, in a standard last revised on 25 December 2000, requires at least 15 days for one new tachi, katana, or naginata, at least 10 days for a wakizashi or tanto, and at least 3 days for a re-temper.
- What is a torokusho?
- A torokusho is the registration certificate (銃砲刀剣類登録証) issued by a prefectural education board after examiners accept the blade as a nihonto with artistic value. In Japan the certificate stays with the sword for possession, transport, transfer, and storage. If the sword is exported, the certificate goes back to the board that issued it.
- Does an NBTHK paper replace registration?
- No. A certificate from the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords records an art rank: hozon, tokubetsu hozon, juyo, or tokubetsu juyo. The society asks for the original torokusho when a sword is submitted. The museum FAQ says the society does not give a money valuation. The legal possession paper is still the torokusho.
- Is every folded blade a legal Japanese sword?
- Folding the steel is one part of traditional making. The Agency for Cultural Affairs also requires a traditional quench, and it excludes foreign-made swords and blades that skipped the nihonto process, including special-steel swords sold under names such as Showa-to. A folded wall-hanger can still be a display object.
- Did Japanese sword making end in 1876?
- The National Archives of Japan record a 28 March 1876 order that banned wearing a sword, with exceptions for court dress and for military, police, and officials in uniform. That order did not abolish the forge. The Agency for Cultural Affairs still approves new art swords, and the craft is an Important Intangible Cultural Property titled nihonto.
People also ask
- How can a beginner tell a studio blade from a souvenir?
- Ask who made it, where, and which papers come with it. A studio blade in Japan should be able to meet a torokusho, and a new one also has a trail of making approval and a completion report. A souvenir often says stainless, carries a shop tag that only says katana, and has no registration certificate.
- Are swords made in the United States or Europe Japanese nihonto?
- Under the Agency for Cultural Affairs, a foreign-made sword is outside registration. A smith abroad can forge a Japanese-style blade, and some use a clay quench, but that blade is not a nihonto for Japanese registration. It has no torokusho. Shop English may still call it a katana.
- What is mukansa?
- Mukansa is a rank of the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords. It means the society does not need to judge that person's entries at its new-sword exhibition or its polishing and fittings exhibition. The society grants it from a published prize record. It is not the government approval to make a sword.
- Where do modern smiths get tamahagane?
- The Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords runs the Nittoho Tatara in Okuizumo, Shimane, and distributes tamahagane to smiths. A heat charges sand iron and charcoal for three days and nights. Shimane Prefecture's note of 22 September 2025 records a firing from January into February 2025 under murage Horio Kaoru.
The rule you can check on paper
Treat a blade as a legal Japanese sword only when two documents line up. The maker needed approval for that blade under Article 18-2 of the Firearms and Swords Control Act, from the Commissioner for Cultural Affairs the first time and from the prefectural education board after that. The finished blade needs a torokusho from a prefectural education board, and that certificate has to stay with the sword. The Agency for Cultural Affairs says it does not set a yearly count of blades. Where a prefecture prints a time floor, use that page. Aomori's review standard, last revised on 25 December 2000, requires at least 15 days of forging for one new tachi, katana, or naginata, at least 10 days for a wakizashi or tanto, and at least 3 days for a re-temper. A wall-hanger has neither document. A folded copy made abroad lacks both as well.