"This index contains a comprehensive listing of more than 20,000 Japanese swordsmiths, from the early days right down to modern times, i.e. from kotô to shinsakutô. It is not simply a list of names, it also provides biographical information according to the extent of a smith's fame. Aim is to give the reader a coherent picture of a certain smith, that means his civilian name, how did he sign, in which style did he work, and who was his master or his school environment. Thereby, the most common theories on a smith are included and discrepancies in the transmissions are pointed out. This work is a revised and completely new recorded list of smiths by incorporating all relevant Japanese and non-Japanese sources. Incorrect entries and double listings were deleted and readings corrected. The smiths are listed in alphabetical order and sorted according to their used characters. A list of all characters used in the names of the smiths in this index is available, sorted by stroke order, so that the search of a smith with an unknown reading is also possible."--Back cover.

"This index contains a comprehensive listing of more than 20,000 Japanese swordsmiths, from the early days right down to modern times, i.e. from kotô to shinsakutô. It is not simply a list of names, it also provides biographical information according to the extent of a smith's fame. Aim is to give the reader a coherent picture of a certain smith, that means his civilian name, how did he sign, in which style did he work, and who was his master or his school environment. Thereby, the most common theories on a smith are included and discrepancies in the transmissions are pointed out. This work is a revised and completely new recorded list of smiths by incorporating all relevant Japanese and non-Japanese sources. Incorrect entries and double listings were deleted and readings corrected. The smiths are listed in alphabetical order and sorted according to their used characters. A list of all characters used in the names of the smiths in this index is available, sorted by stroke order, so that the search of a smith with an unknown reading is also possible."--Back cover.

With this publication I try to systematically and comprehensively process the subject of ,,Japanese sword mountings". It was not my goal to depict as many extant interpretations of sword mountings as possible but to deal with their different styles. With this publication the reader will be informed in which way the Japanese swords were mounted over time, the origins of the various styles, what changes they underwent and it will also serve as a reference material to classify extant specimen. In this sense the descriptions were embedded in an explanation of their historical context rather then listing them simply by their interpretation or in alphabetical order. As the main focus lies on ,,koshirae", explanations on the sword fittings - the tosogu - were omitted because their descriptions can be easily found elsewhere. Also, the military mountings - the gunto-koshirae - were left out because there are excellent publications available which deal with them in great detail.

This completely new encyclopedic reference for the Japanese sword contains about 2,500 terms, many of them illustrated by photos and drawings. The Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords is an A-Z general encyclopedia covering each and every part of the sword: the blade, the mountings, the fittings, and all their different interpretations. Further, this encyclopedia also explains the literal or etymological meaning of each Japanese term and provides an even deeper insight into the subject.

This is now the second volume of my book ,,Legends and Stories around the Japanese Sword". Once more I try to bring the reader closer to the Japanese sword and dig deeper into the matter by the means of legends, stories and anecdotes about famous swords and their swordsmiths. Like in the first volume, I introduce several famous meito or meibutsu, for example the Kogarasu-maru, Yoshimoto-Samonji, Takemata-Kanemitsu, Kuronbogiri-Kagehide, Tsurumaru-Kuninaga and many more. And the stories deal among other things with the greatest swordsmiths in Japanese history like Masamune, Muramasa, Samonji, Kiyomaro and Kotetsu, to name only a few.

My aim with this publication is to make the major genealogies of Japanese swordsmiths and their schools from the kotô to the shintô and shinshintô periods easily accessible to the Western reader, namely in that they are complete and have been revised for the first time, in a single book. The publication begins with a brief introduction to the history of Japanese sword literature. Ziel dieser Publikation ist es, dem westlichen Leser die Stammbäume japanischer Schmiede und deren Schulen von der kotô- über die shintô- bis zur shinshintô-Periode erstmals gesammelt und revidiert zugänglich zu machen. Diese Publikation beinhaltet zudem eine kurze Einführung in die Geschichte der japanischen Schwertliteratur.