You may have heard stories about swords with names that famous personalities once possessed (you can recall Excalibur of King Arthur, Zulfikar of the Prophet Muhammad, Durendal Roland). Japan, of course, has its own legendary swords. One of them, considered a relic of the entire Land of the Rising Sun, was unfortunately lost after the Second World War. We will tell you about it.
We are talking about the famous sword, created by the outstanding master of the late XIII - early XIV centuries Masamune. This blade was named Honjo Masamune. Legends were made about this master during his lifetime. One, for example, said that the weapon he created did not need signatures, since it was simply beyond the power of someone else to make something similar. Another legend tells of a dispute between Masamune and Muramasa (another famous gunsmith). The two masters, having argued about whose sword was better, put them in the stream of the stream. Muramasa's sword cut everything that touched him, and Masamune's sword, on the contrary. Oddly enough, the legend calls the sword of the latter the best, since it did not cause harm unnecessarily. Although in reality these two masters could not meet in any way, since Muramasa lived two hundred years later than Masamune.
However, back to the sword of Honjo Masamune. It is clear that the second part of the name is associated with the name of the gunsmith himself, but about the first one needs to be explained. The fact is that the sword received it on behalf of one of its owners - Honjo Shigenaga. He, in turn, got the blade as a trophy in one of the battles, defeating his opponent. After some time, Honjo Shigenaga was forced to sell the weapon to the Toyotomi samurai family, who had owned it for only a few years. The clan was defeated in the first quarter of the 16th century, and the legendary sword fell to the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu.
The sword has become a real symbol of the power of the shoguns. In the Tokugawa clan (the last owner was Tokugawa Iemasa), it was kept as a relic until 1945. It is believed that he possessed the incomparable beauty and excellent qualities of a real samurai sword. It should be noted that it was really difficult to make a good blade in the XIII-XIV centuries in Japan. Therefore, well-forged swords were considered true works of art. It is not for nothing that this sword was declared a national treasure at the end of the 30s of the XX century.
After Japan's surrender in the war, the command of the occupying forces took steps to demilitarize the country. All military formations, as well as civilians, had to lay down their arms. This concerned not only firearms, but also cold ones, which were also abundant. The fact is that in the Japanese army, officers and non-commissioned officers had swords as personal weapons. The quality of most of them, of course, left much to be desired. They were produced in droves and often not of the best metal. Nevertheless, many officers and civilians had in their possession real samurai swords, created centuries ago. They were also subject to surrender to the occupying forces.
The Americans, as it turned out, did not really understand which sword was considered a work of art, and which was the usual factory stamping. Most of the seized swords were trivially destroyed in smelting furnaces. Some of them went to the US military as an award weapon.
Tokugawa Iemasa followed the law and at the end of 1945 brought 15 swords that he had in his possession for delivery to the police station. Honjo Masamune was among these blades.
20 years later, a mention of him appeared in one of the American magazines. The article reported that the sword was taken by a certain Sergeant Caldi Bymore from the 7th Cavalry Regiment on January 18, 1946. It is known that this regiment was engaged in the search and then the destruction of equipment and weapons. There is a fear that the legendary sword could be melted down. However, on the other hand, at the liquidation points, a commission worked, which was engaged in identifying swords of cultural and historical value. She shouldn't have missed a blade like this.
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There is also a version that Honjo Masamune was taken to the United States as a trophy.