Subject: Once again
Author:
Posted on: 2018-08-05 19:17:00 UTC

Not quite true, the katana on it's own isn't a symbol of the Samurai class, the daishō was. The daishō (big-small) refers to a daito (longsword) and shōto (shortsword) pair. Usually this is a katana and wakizashi pair forged as sister swords, and wearing it was a symbol of office and thus was illegal for anyone other than a samurai to wear the daishō.

In any case, since the abolishment of the samurai class, anyone can use a katana, even foreigners. Actually, many people do own and can use a katana if they practice kenjutsu, and is sort of a requirement for tameshigiri (one needs a shinken to make the cuts). Although, the katana used were probably forged in China instead of Japan because of sword manufacturing restrictions. (kind of ironic if you ask me, but makes sense given the overlap between Chinese and Japanese weaponry)

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