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Jump to navigationJump to search→Muromachi Era (1394-1595)
Swords were a major Japanese export good throughout the pre-modern period, and especially in the Muromachi era, alongside [[copper]], [[sulfur]], [[folding fans]], and [[lacquerware]]. The number of swords shipped out of the country was at times quite large; according to one source, as many as 37,000 Japanese swords were imported into China in the year [[1483]] alone.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 213.</ref>
Swords were a major Japanese export good throughout the pre-modern period, and especially in the Muromachi era, alongside [[copper]], [[sulfur]], [[folding fans]], and [[lacquerware]]. The number of swords shipped out of the country was at times quite large; according to one source, as many as 37,000 Japanese swords were imported into China in the year [[1483]] alone.<ref>Geoffrey Gunn, ''History Without Borders: The Making of an Asian World Region, 1000-1800'', Hong Kong University Press (2011), 213.</ref>
Though swords are often imagined as the primary weapon of the samurai, battles were largely fought with guns (''[[teppo|teppô]]''), halberds (''[[naginata]]''), and spears (''[[yari]]''), while swords were chiefly used after an enemy was defeated, to take heads as trophies.<ref>Morgan Pitelka, ''Spectacular Accumulation'', University of Hawaii Press (2016), 126.</ref>
The swords of this era can be divided to three groups:
The swords of this era can be divided to three groups:
