60 More Years to Master the Japanese Sword

60 More Years to Master the Japanese Sword



I have seen an unbelievable news report.

Two old Japanese craftsmen have been making Japanese scissors for over 60 years.

They are brothers, 80 years old or a little younger.

They burn iron bars and hit them with an iron hammer to form each part of a pair of scissors, mainly used for garment cutting.

They started this profession just after WWII, namely in 1945.
* * *

The technique is the same as the one employed for making a Japanese sword.

Traditionally Japanese used iron sands to make ironware. There are no large-scale iron mines except those including the mangetic iron ore in Japan.

What is worse, though we have had some coals, they are mostly deep under the ground. Therefore, until Japan introduced western technology late in the 19th century, it was not easy to make ironware, including the Japanese sword, from any types of iron sources.

However, it is well known that there are no swords or knives in the world that can match the Japanese sword in terms of quality and strength.

The nearest quality is only found in razors manufactured by German Solingen, though even Germans could not figure out another way to acheive the same quality as the Japanese sword.
* * *

Europeans have been historically lucky to have cokes that can provide necessary heat to melt iron. Iron needs heat at 1,800 degrees Celsius for melting. Cokes meets this condition. But, Japanese had to use charcoals that can provide heat at most at 1,200 degrees Celsius, though they chose a special type.

So, ancient Japanese invented special skills to make the high-quality of ironware through the use of charcoals, which requires the striking of iron with a hammer in very many times as well as water kept at a certain temperature for delicately contracting iron heated and hit well.

Each layer of a Japanese sword (usually consisting of three layers through a blade) includes a specific amount of carbon within iron to the best ratio, respectively.

It is not only material that makes the Japanese sword superb. The warp of a blade is also a key to makeing it especially edged and sharp. With this figure, the Japanese sword has sharpness that matches a safety razor.
* * *

In a certain test which was conducted in the U.S. and televised in Japan some time ago, they found that even a bullet fired from a heavy handgun was completely split in half when hitting the blade of a Japanese sword vertically positioned.

They needed several bullets fired from a heavy military machinegun to break the Japanese sword.

Peaceful nature of Japan's soil allowed for creation of the best and the strongest sword in the world, instaed of forcing the people to be poorly armed with, say, a hard but brittle knife.
* * *

Europe has had enough iron and coal mines that made it easier to make any ironware. But, Japanese had to take some time to establish a unique method to make ironware using iron sands and charcoals, which was accomplished in the sixth century.

(But, in this modern age, Japan has been one of top steel-making as well as iron-ore importing countries since its massive rebuilding of the nation's economy after WWII, while defeating the U.K. and other Western competitors and helping China and Korea luanch their own steel industry.)
* * *

If Europeans came to Japan, they could use neither iron ore nor cokes. And if Japanese visited Europe, they could not use iron sands and charcoals of a special type.

Either side cannot produce their best weapons in the foreign territory.
* * *

However, there are such ordinary people in Japan who have spent all of their professional lives, namely for 60 years, making Japanese scissors by hands with fire, water, and a hammer.

And they are respected and so televised.

But, we may need 60 more years to master how to use Japanese swords in Europe.

Then Japanese warriors, or samurai, might be well respected and so televised.



"NOT ABONDONED IN THE WORLD OF THE DEAD"

Chief Executive vs. Missionaries

Chief Executive vs. Missionaries


The issue is neither how to choose a leader nor whom to choose.

But, it is as to whether we have a mechanism to save the nation if we choose a wrong leader who might bring a disaster to the people.

You might choose Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin if you have a strong mechanism to stop him when he started to venture to kill an uncountable number of innocent people mainly in order to secure his assets and position or for wahtsoever reasons.
* * *

Vote for a leader, let him carry the nation, and forget about one's own duty to the nation is a very dangerous thing.

You had better try to change a leader as much as possible and as often as possible.

It is at most one year, I suppose, that anybody can do his best at the top of government. In the second year, he must be exhausted too much to carry out his duty if he has been working as he is supposed to be.
* * *

We cannot trust the media too much.

We cannot trust bureaucrats, financial circles, and lawmakers, either.

However, we need trustworthy missionaries by the roadside of society (but not in a church).

They must shout to the people that our leader is a Hitler or a Stalin, if necessary.
* * *

As the Diet session in Japan was over, now political focus is on who will succeed the incumbent prime minister, Mr. Junichiro Koizumi, this fall.

Whoever will accede to the highest post of the Japanese Government through democratic process, we had better prepare as many missionaries as possible who can be mobilized in case.
* * *

For people outside Japan, you had better regard future Japanese prime minister as a symbol of the Government.

It is also a Japanese tradition that a decisive power is in the hand of a top's surrogate's surrogate.

Of course, a poor man like me has to also act as his own surrogate's surrogate.



"MAKE A STRAIGHT PATH FOR THE LORD TO TRAVEL"

God's Anger on 9 Billion Dollars and 3.6 Billion Dollars (Endorsed by 10 Million Yen)

God's Anger on 9 Billion Dollars and 3.6 Billion Dollars (Endorsed by 10 Million Yen)



In the Wall Street, we know, they got a report on the governor of the Bank of Japan.

The governor supported Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami who quite actively helped Mr. Takafumi Horie get big money, nearly 9 billion dollars as aggregate market price, through very dubious stock-market transactions which also brought big profit to Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami's fund.

And, both Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami and Mr. Takafumi Horie were arrested this year.

The governor several years ago, when he was working outside the Bank of Japan, invested about 90,000 dollars (10 million yen) in Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami's fund. After he was appointed as the governor of the Bank of Japan, he still continued to entrust the money to the fund till this February.

Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami was manipulating 3.6 billion dollar fund till recently. His fund got many overseas clients, for example, from the U.S.
* * *

Now it is widely known that Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami, a former high-ranking bureaucrat of the Japanese Government, had a lot of eminent friends while actively operating his fund, including the governor of the Bank of Japan, some parliament members of Japan's Diet, and a certain tycoon in the financial sector.

Any American investors would trust Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami, if they are advised that his fund includes a private investment of the governor of the Bank of Japan who once served as an advisory-board member of the very fund.
* * *

As the Bank of Japan is the central bank of Japan, this news has attracted a great deal of attention even in the Wall Street.

But, the saddest part of this report is that Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami has never invented any creative financial instruments based on science and economics, just like Mr. Takafumi Horie did not invent any innovative technology and business in the IT sector, though they got big money personally in unit of 100 million dollars through transactions in the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

And, we are yet to see if the governor of the Bank of Japan has ever achieved something professionally innovative.
* * *

When the 9/11 general election was called last year, no Japanese dreamed of this sequence of incidents to happen soon.

At that time, Mr. Takafumi Horie war running for the election, while the media was praising Mr. Yoshiaki Murakami as a hero in a new era of Japan's financial sector.

But now, if you are a Japanese voter or taxpayer and informed that it is truly an expression of God's anger, you might find that it could be an only rationale for such fates of those super-rich people.
* * *

I do not recommend you to become super-rich.

If you are, make every effort not to be so, as I did very humbly on my part with the fear of God.



"MAKE THE DRY TREES BECOME GREEN AGAIN"