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50 free Katana trivia questions with answers — technology quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Katana trivia for martial artists, collectors, anime fans and anyone who has watched a smith fold steel and wanted to know why. The quiz starts with the word itself, first written down in 720, and how the katana grew out of the short sasuga knives of foot soldiers, why it is worn edge-up where the older tachi hung edge-down, and how you can tell the two apart from the signature on the tang. The middle rounds are about the making: iron sand smelted in a tatara furnace into tamahagane, folding, the clay slurry that produces both the curve and the hamon, water quenching, martensite, and the six to eight craftsmen who share the work. Then the history: Hideyoshi's sword hunt, the daishō pair only samurai could wear, the 200,000 blades exported to Ming China, the Meiji edict that ended public sword-carrying, wartime shōwatō, the post-war ban and today's two-swords-a-month limit. Later questions cover Masamune and his lost Honjō blade, the 'cursed' Muramasa, the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō, National Treasures, kendo, iaido, Guinness records and Hattori Hanzō. Questions run from easy to expert and every answer was checked against a reference page and carries its source. See also our samurai and Japan quizzes.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The word 'katana' first appears in which Japanese chronicle of 720?
the Nihon Shoki
It combines kata ('one side') and na ('blade'), in contrast to the double-edged tsurugi.
Q 02A katana is defined by a blade length of more than two shaku, which is roughly how long?
60 cm
Anything shorter is a wakizashi or tantō; a shaku is a traditional Japanese foot.
Q 03Unlike the older tachi, the katana was worn through the sash with the edge facing which way?
up
The idea was that a samurai could draw and strike in a single motion.
Q 04A signed katana is told from a tachi by the position of its signature (mei) on which part?
the tang
The mei is cut on the side that faces outward when worn, and the two swords hang edge-up and edge-down respectively.
Q 05The katana's circular or squared hand guard is called what?
tsuba
The saya is the scabbard, the tsuka the hilt and the habaki the blade collar.
Q 06The specific Japanese term for what the West calls a katana is 'uchigatana', literally meaning what?
striking sword
In Japan the bare word 'katana' often just means any single-edged sword from anywhere.
Q 07The katana developed from the sasuga, a kind of what carried by Kamakura-period foot soldiers?
a short knife
The sasuga was gradually lengthened during the 14th century until it became a katana.
Q 08The oldest surviving katana, the Hishizukuri uchigatana, was later dedicated to which shrine?
Kasuga
It was forged in the Nanbokuchō period, the era when long weapons like the ōdachi were in fashion.
Q 09The practice of shortening an old tachi by cutting its tang to make a katana is called what?
suriage
So many of Masamune's tachi were converted this way that only katana and tantō by him survive.
Q 10In the Sengoku period, the main battlefield weapons were the bow, the spear and what?
the matchlock gun
The tanegashima had arrived from Portugal, and Japanese smiths mass-produced improved copies for the ashigaru.
Q 11To which country were at least 200,000 Japanese swords exported around 1500, partly to keep them from pirates?
Ming China
The Chinese studied them to fight the wokou pirates and developed the wodao and miaodao in response.
Q 12Which warlord banned farmers from owning weapons and carried out a nationwide 'sword hunt' in 1588?
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Before that, farmers, townspeople and monks in the Sengoku era could all carry swords.
Q 13The paired long and short swords that the Edo-period shogunate required samurai to wear are called what?
daishō
The short sword was usually a wakizashi; only samurai could wear the pair, which stood for their power and honour.
Q 21The traditional steel used for katana is called what?
tamahagane
It is smelted from iron sand into layered steels of different carbon content that the smith folds and welds together.
Q 22The traditional sword steel is smelted from iron sand in a clay furnace called what?
a tatara
The sand comes from Shimane Prefecture and a smelt takes 36 to 72 hours.
Q 23Before hardening, the smith coats the blade in a slurry mainly of what, applied thinner along the edge?
clay
The process, tsuchioki, is what makes the edge harden while the spine stays soft, and it also produces the curve.
Q 14For formal castle visits, the shogunate prescribed a daishō with a hilt wrapped in what?
white ray skin
In peacetime the swords became increasingly cosmetic and ceremonial rather than practical weapons.
Q 15Which great Japanese sword-making tradition was destroyed by a flood in 1590?
Bizen
The loss shifted production to the Mino school, and the misty 'midare-utsuri' of Bizen blades all but vanished until Kunihira Kawachi reproduced it in 2014.
Q 16Roughly what share of Japanese swords designated National Treasures were made in the Kamakura period?
80%
And about 70% of those are tachi; the Kamakura blade has been the ideal that later smiths tried to recreate.
Q 17The 1876 Haitōrei Edict did what?
forbade carrying swords in public
Exceptions were made for former daimyō, the military and police; in 1889 the army chose a one-handed French-style sword instead.
Q 18Wartime swords, often oil-quenched and forged with power hammers, are called shōwatō after what?
Emperor Hirohito's regnal era
From 1937 the government required special stamps on the tang to mark them; in Japan they are not considered true nihontō and can be confiscated.
Q 19Sword-making and sword martial arts were banned in Japan between 1945 and which year?
1953
Since then smiths must be licensed after a five-year apprenticeship and may make only two long swords a month.
Q 20How many long swords per month is a licensed Japanese swordsmith allowed to produce?
Two
The limit keeps quality high, and is one reason so many 'katana' sold worldwide are Chinese-made fakes.
Q 24Quenching the heated edge suddenly turns the steel's austenite into which very hard structure?
martensite
The slowly cooled spine becomes softer ferrite and pearlite, and the density difference bends the blade into its curve.
Q 25The wavy line along the blade created by differential hardening is called what?
hamon
The white band you see is actually polish (hadori); the true hamon is a fuzzy line within it that shows when you tilt the blade in the light.
Q 26Most katana have the shinogi-zukuri cross-section, whose defining ridge line runs where?
along the blade's thickest part
The shinogi lightens and toughens the blade; the yokote is the separate line dividing tip from body.
Q 27Roughly how long does polishing a katana take?
One to three weeks
The togishi works through successively finer stones to a mirror finish, often leaving the spine matte to show off the hamon.
Q 28A Japanese sword is traditionally made by a division of labour among roughly how many craftsmen?
Six to eight
Separate specialists forge, polish, make the collar, scabbard, lacquer, hilt wrap and guard.
Q 29The pin that fixes the blade's tang inside the hilt is called what?
mekugi
Removing it lets the blade be drawn from the hilt to read the smith's signature.
Q 30The traditional chōji oil used to protect a blade is 99% mineral oil and 1% what, added for fragrance?
clove oil
Sweat left on a blade will rust it fast, so it is stored horizontally, edge up, and re-oiled regularly.