In Japan, from the late 1600’s to the mid 1800’s, the samurai sword transitioned from being a tool for fighting battles into a symbol of the warrior class. The quality and amount of decoration on the sword handle and sheath became an indicator of ones social status and wealth of the samurai. The level of craftsmanship demonstrated in many of these sword furnishings is second to none. The sword smiths developed a wide array of techniques for use in the decoration of these swords. The traditional technique of mokume gane (moku = wood, me = eye and gane = metal) was one such technique.
Denbei Shoami, a 17th century master metalsmith from the Akita prefecture, who used it for the adornment of samurai swords, is credited with inventing mokume. Using the mokume gane technique the smith would create laminated metal billets that were fused by heat and pressure. The billets, composed of various metal combinations were forged, carved and finished to produce uniquely patterned metal stock, were then used to fabricate parts for the samurai sword. The beautiful patterns in these pieces for the handle would reflect similar patterns developed in the forging of the sword blade.
Mokume gane as traditionally practiced was a very difficult process to learn; this was partly due to the difficultly of successfully fusing the metals and partly due to the skill required to forge the laminated billet down to useable material without separating the layers.
In May 2002 Jim presented a paper about Mokume Gane to the Santa Fe Symposium, an international conference on jewelry manufacturing technology. View a copy of this paper: "Old Process, New Technology: Modern Mokume Gane" (PDF file 212K).
