The Samurai Sword

Abstract One might say, with a reasonable degree of truthfulness, that the weapon makes the warrior and that in Japan the sword made the samurai. It formed him, his way of fighting, and his place in society. Although the samurai used other weapons besides the sword, his sword was the king of his weapons. But if the sword made the samurai what he was, it can also be said that the samurai made the sword what it was by virtue of his position in society and the nature of the samurai spirit—the kind of man the samurai was inwardly.