 |
EVENT - DEMONSTRATION
TRADITIONAL JAPANESE SWORDSMITHING
Quench-hardening of a japanese sword
Held in Toronto (Oct.28) and Montréal (Nov.4th) 2006
Over 130 people, many standing in the cold for several hours...
THANK YOU!
227, Riverside St., where the event was held in Montréal.
The event in review...
- By Pierre
Nadeau -
December 8th, 2006
Our
intention was to come Toronto and Montréal in order to give
interested people a chance to observe a japanese swordsmith at work,
and to obtain first-hand information...
The schedule, for Toronto as well as Montréal, was to start the
event with a presentation by the swordsmith and a short film on the
making of a japanese sword.
Participants would then be invited to attend the demonstration of the
quench-hardening of a sword. This would include the application of clay
on the blade (tsuchi-oki), the heating in the forge and quenchin in
water (yaki-ire), and a base polish (kaji-togi) in order to let the
hardening mark appear.
The demonstration would be completed with a session of mei-kiri, i.e. the method used to sign sword tangs.
- IN TORONTO -
With the help of the Toronto JCCC friends (see page bottom) et after
many nights spent organizing details all the way from Japan, we arrived
to Toronto on October 25th from Osaka, Japan.
After a modest day of tourism, the forge was built the day preceding
the event. It was cold and rainy, but our mood and our tent held tight!
That same evening, there was a party in the gym right next door where 200 teen fans of Anime
(japanese animations) met. Unfortunately, a handful of them had fun
vandalizing the forge by setting fire to it and leaving with several
tools. Rain was on their side: the forge was flooded (and burnt?!) when
we got there the next morning, the day of the event.
Betweeen interviews, a presentation, and the last preparatives of the
day, we managed to make the forge functional and thus start our main
prensentation on time. Over 70 people will have demonstrated their
patience and enthusiasm by standing the cold, wind, and light rain of
November to observe the hardening of a japanese sword.
- THEN
MONTRÉAL -
The next day we were driven to Montréal in order to get ready for the next Saturday.
Dinners, meetings, visits... too busy to appreciate
Québec's pace of life. Our blacksmith friend Mathieu Collette
and his apprentice Sean worked like dogs to make a nice little hole in
a foot-thick concrete slab. It would be used for the forge.
The week
is spent lightning-fast as we try to arrange the site as best we can.
On November 4th, a Saturday, over 130 people show up in this former
Montréal city sewage pumping facility renovated into a
blacksmithing promotion center.
After an
hour of talking and the presentation of a brief film on the making of a
japanese sword in the ambiant cold, a tea served by Camellia
Sinensis will have warmed up at least the tip of fingers and the stomach...
The demonstration, scheduled to start just before sunset in order to
allow for everyone to appreciate the red-hot heated blade in the dark,
started around 15h00. The application of clay (tsuchi-oki) require a
certain period of time during which some attendees were seriously
annoyed by the cold.
However, the entire crowd shown a deep interest, enthusiasm, and
respect, along with a sharp attention for the whole event: something
never seen in a classroom!
As
expected, the sun said goodbye for the day and made room for darkness,
allowing the smith to judge well the blade temperature, and the people
to appreciate the show.
- - -
|
To learn more about the swordsmith and his apprentice...
Kiyota,
Jirokunietsu
Japanese swordsmith |
Pierre
Nadeau
Swordsmith apprentice |
WE WISH TO THANK...
|
The Toronto JCCC
Without which the event would
not have been made possible
|
|
As well as...
JCCC Token Kai
Ken Noma, president
Japanese sword study group
Tutored by the JCCC
JCCC Iaido
Club
JCCC
Heritage Committee |
|
