@nikkishen heads the review of the Spring Sakura katana by Dragon King, which is an offshoot of the sword company Hanwei. and inherited Hanwei’s many traditions when it comes down to swordmaking.
The Spring Sakura katana has the sakura theme is woven throughout the design of the hilt. Instead of the typical sakura-themed tsuba that has perforations or gold paints to depict a mass of flowers and sometimes even cherry tree branches, this tsuba fashions a single sculpted blossom instead, and has a lot of 3-dimensionality in its form–rather than the most typical flat disk. The edges of the petals and even the stamens are crisply defined. The petals curve slightly upward towards the direction of the blade, and the thickness tapers by following the forms of the petal. On the side that faces the wielder, even the sepals that are the small leafy parts cradling the corolla are depicted geometrically.
This sakura tsuba is one of the most unique tsuba designs I have seen, as it defines the look and feel of the sword as a whole. It has a blackened matte finish to match the fuchi-kashira, and looks quite striking in contrast to the silver seppa and habaki, which in turn mirror the color of the silver menuki pair that also portray a mass of cherry blossom.
The fuchi kashira on this sword is a set that happily lets other hilt components take the spotlight, and adopt more streamlined designs. The pair of kashira-gane are also made of silver. I like that the overall design of the hilt has emphasis, and directs your eyes to certain parts, while not overwhelmingly busy.
The tsukamaki is done competently, with tight alternating knots, and even squares. The color has a very distinctive carmine shade with a very subtle purple tint. The ito goes very flush with the fuchi and the kashira with no ledge or overlapping.
The genuine samegawa panels are inlaid into the tsuka core. However the tsuka is bulky like many Hanwei and DK models, starting at 4cm at the fuchi, and tapers to 3.5cm at the kashira. Unlike some Hanwei and DK swords which have wide but thin tsuka, this one has a regular thickness, which makes it a bit too big to grab onto. Overall, the hilt is still well done with a balanced and tasteful design that’s not overly gaudy.
The distinctive hilt design is not to diminish the merits of the blade. It has a very typical shinogi-zukuri blade geometry, of an average length of 28" blade length with the habaki included, which leaves a nagasa of 2.25 shaku. It has a very modest degree of curvature (2cm sori), and there is no bo-hi to lighten the blade. Both the profile taper and distal taper are very evenly done throughout the blade. With a thirty-three percent profile taper and thirty percent distal taper, it feels like a very average Edo period katana. When mounted, the sword weighs 2.4 lbs (1110g), with the PoB at 5.5" (14cm) from the tsuba. When swung, it feels like an authoritative sword, with medium agility.
The blade has a smooth mirror polish as no fancy hazuya polish is needed to highlight any metallurgical fact on this mono-steel through-hardened blade. It is made of tried-and-true 5160 spring steel, and tempered to a mono-hardness of 57. So that’s slightly softer than the edges on traditionally made nihonto, but still quite hard to keep an edge well enough, while not being as brittle.
Unlike Hanwei, which is well known for using different exotic steels, such as wootz, L6, S7 and K120C Swedish powder steel, Dragon King only offers blades made out of folded steel, differentially hardened T10 tool steel, and 5160 spring steel. While the Tenga-fubu katana has a nice hamon from the clay-tempering of the T10 tool steel, this Spring Sakura’s blade doesn’t have any hamon or hada, which is fine. I like how straightforward and unpretentious it is, and modern steels–when heat treated correctly–are more durable in any event. The edge bevel is one flat grind from the shinogi-ji to the ha without any niku.
The saya following Dragon King’s tradition, offers buffalo horn koiguchi and kojiri, but not any metal furniture. Unlike the Tenga-fubu’s saya that features a horn kurigata, this one only has a wooden kurikata, but it is affixed to the saya and has lacquer painted over, and features a pair of silver shitedome that’s glued in. Other than that, it’s a very standard and simple saya with black lacquer and black sageo.
It handles light targets with ease, though not necessarily with as much grace as some of our lighter and faster katanas. The fit and finish of the mounting is excellent, with tight assembly showing almost no gap between components anywhere. Nevertheless, I can certainly recommend it to people who enjoy the sakura theme, though it might be a more interesting sword if you can remount the hilt onto a less generic blade.
Sword in question: https://casiberia.com/product/spring-...
BGM:
Mizuki - Bad Snacks
Evolution - Dead or Alive 2
The Shooted - Dead or Alive 2
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