Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum

Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum 奥出雲たたらと刀剣館

Jake Davies

There are a variety of different ways of producing a genuine Japanese sword, and they all involve different types of steel in their manufacture. However, at the heart of a true Japanese sword is a type of steel called tamahagane, and tamahagane can only be produced in a traditional type of forge called a tatara.

Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum in Okuizumo, Shimane Prefecture

In front of the Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum in Shimane Prefecture is a modern sculpture of eight intertwined serpents. This represents one of the earliest Japanese myths called Yamata No Orochi.

In the story the hero, Susano no Mikoto, brother of Amaterasu the Sun Goddess, comes across some villagers about to sacrifice their last daughter to the fearful eight headed, eight bodied serpent Yamata no Orochi.

The hero successfully destroys the serpent and marries the girl and the myth is credited with explaining the origin of much Japanese culture including chopsticks, sake, marriage, Waka poetry, and sword-making.

In the tail of the slain serpent Susano discovered an iron sword which he gave to his sister, the famed kusanagi sword, one of the three Imperial Regalia. It is believed that what the myth is about is the eight tributaries of the Hii river that flow through the Okuizumo region and the discovery of iron sand here.

Some of the many Japanese swords on display at Okuizumo Tatara Sword MuseumOkuizumo Tatara Sword Museum displays the history of the traditional iron industry in Japan and the process of making a sword from iron sand to finished blade

The History of Iron in Japan

The earliest iron used in Japan was imported from mainland Asia, but following the discovery of iron sand an indigenous iron industry began. Iron sand is found at other places in Japan, but that found here in Okuizumo is considered the highest quality. Subsequently, the region became the biggest exporter of iron to other regions of Japan in the Edo Period. That is until the introduction of the modern steel industry at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Museum Exhibits

This new, spacious museum takes you through the history of iron production in the region using models, diagrams as well as old tools. In addition displaying many examples of different kinds of swords. The main hall has a full size replica of an early modern tatara forge. Next to it is a giant type of bellows called tenbin, invented locally, that drastically increased the efficiency of iron production. You can climb on and try operating the bellows yourself.

Attached to the museum is a small, modern forge, and twice a month a master sword-smith and his team give demonstrations of a piece of tamahagane being worked. Members of the audience are invited in to try their hand at wielding a hammer and working the red-hot metal.

Sometimes there is also a demonstration of tameshigiri, the test-cutting of a newly forged sword.

A visitor tries operating a tenbin bellows that greatly increased the efficiency of the tatara
A sword-smith working on a piece of tamahagane at Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum

Access - Getting There

Tatara Sword Museum
1380-1 Yokota, Okuizumo-cho, Nita-gun
Shimane Prefecture 699-1832
Tel: 0854 52 2770

Open from 9.30am to 4.30pm. Closed Mondays and over the New Year.
Entry 520 yen for adults, kids 200.
For the demonstration days it's 1,250 yen and 620 yen.

The museum is located 1 kilometer from JR Izumo-Yokota Station on the Kisuki Line, about 2 hours from either Matsue or Izumo stations. Izumo-Yokota Station is one of the stops on the exciting Orochi Sightseeing Train.

The Japan Rail Pass can be used on the Okuizumo Orochi train.

A master sword-smith explaining about a Japanese sword
A demonstration of Tameshigiri, sword testing, at Okuizumo Tatara Sword Museum

Video

Books on Japan Travel