"Did you know? #Terressens - RSS feed
De la Forge à votre Main : Katanas Artisanaux et Épées d'Exception | Studio #Terressens

"Did you know? #Terressens

Subscribe to RSS feed
Publications " Did you know? #Terressens, RSS feed validated.
Updated: Wed. Sept. 3, 2025

Samurai rentiers... from koku to Dōjima futures

Tue. Sept. 2, 2025
Paid in koku, the samurai of the XVIIIᵉ century lived on a rice salary that had to be "monetized" to pay rents, debts and purchases. Hence the need to visit the brokers of Osaka, where Dōjima Square...
#Samurai #Dōjima #Koku

The Chinon parchment, the Templars' forgotten absolution

Mon. Sept. 1, 2025
August 1308, Chinon. Mandated by Pope Clement V, cardinals Bérenger Frédol, Étienne de Suisy and Landolfo Brancaccio question Jacques de Molay and the main Templar dignitaries. At the end of the hearings, they...
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

The katana wasn't always curved

Sat. August 30, 2025
Contrary to popular belief, the samurai katana is not a thousand-year-old weapon in its current form. Before its famous curvature, Japanese warriors used straight blades called chokutō ,...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

I.33, the first fencing manual... written by a priest

Wed. Aug. 27, 2025
Dating from the early XIVᵉ century, manuscript I.33 is the oldest surviving European fechtbuch. It shows a priest teaching a pupil the art of the sword and the bocle in a highly structured progression: seven "guards"...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

The whistling arrow: the kabura-ya, samurai battle cry

Fri. August 22, 2025
Beyond the image of the sword duel, many battles opened with the bow. The kabura-ya (lit. "shuttle-arrow") bears an openwork bulb at the head which, in flight, emits a piercing whistle. This sound heralded engagement,...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The odoshi color code: reading Sengoku armor at a glance

Fri. August 22, 2025
Beneath the shiny lacquer, the armor speaks through its laces. Kebiki-odoshi (tight lacing) denotes expensive workmanship, typical of small-slat armor ( kozane ) and prestige equipment; sugake-odoshi...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Saigō Takamori: the spark of the "last samurai

Thu. Aug. 21, 2025
A major figure of the Meiji Restoration, Saigō Takamori (1828-1877) paradoxically became the symbol of a fading world. In 1876, the Haitōrei decree banned the wearing of swords in public, the final step in the...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Vibrant colors, not a gray world

Sun. August 10, 2025
No, the Middle Ages were not gray. Workshops painted with ultramarine (Asian lapis lazuli), vermilion (cinnabar), minium, azurite, verdigris or orpiment, and highlighted with gold in...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

Blades "certified" by cutting tests

Sun. August 10, 2025
In Edo Japan, you didn't just admire a blade: you tested it. The results, tameshigiri , on straw bales, bamboo, or even the corpses of condemned men, could be inscribed on silk: tameshi-mei...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The daishō, a samurai's legal privilege

Sun. August 10, 2025
In Edo Japan, wearing "two swords" ( daishō ) was not just a habit: it was a statutory right. After 1629 (two swords required on duty), a 1683 regulation reserved the daishō for samurai and...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Castles were whitewashed

Sun. August 10, 2025
The Middle Ages didn't like grey stone: facades were frequently rendered and whitewashed. Lime, which was breathable, fungicidal and inexpensive, protected the masonry, brightened up the volumes and sometimes served as a coloured background...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

A suit of armour... and yet we're running!

Sun. August 10, 2025
The image of the "knight-canet" is tenacious, but misleading. War armor from the end of the XVᵉ century weighs an average of 20 to 25 kg , the equivalent of a modern sack, evenly distributed over the torso, the...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

From tachi (downward cutting) to katana (upward cutting)

Sat. August 9, 2025
Before the XVᵉ century, the tachi sword was carried suspended, cutting downwards: a legacy of horseback combat. By the Muromachi period, the uchigatana/katana had become the norm: it was slipped sharp upwards into the obi,...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The Amazons of Aizu: the samurai's last stand

Sun. August 3, 2025
October 1868. As the imperial army encircles Tsuruga-jō castle, some thirty young women from the warrior nobility of Aizu organize themselves around the spirited 21-year-old Nakano Takeko. Named Joshitai ("...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

When samurai wielded the axe: Edo's firefighting samurai

Sun. August 3, 2025
In 17thᵉ century Edo, protecting the shōgun was more important than saving houses: buke hikeshi , brigades made up of low-ranking samurai, climbed onto roofs in squads to... demolish them! Armed...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Before being bitten, zombies take... an exam!

Thu. Jul. 31, 2025
Before joining the hordes of walkers, each The Walking Dead extra had to graduate from the dreaded "Zombie School". Two to three days of auditions held in Senoia, Georgia, allowed...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Fish: the secret trump card of Lenten knights

Wed. Jul. 30, 2025
There was more to the chivalric diet than rare roasts. Isotope signatures from the skeletons of medieval warriors and noblemen show a high intake of marine proteins: salted herring,...
#LeSaviezVous

The secret vineyard of the Knights Templar of Bologna

Fri. July 25, 2025
In the XIIIᵉ century, the Knights Templar of Bologna managed 83 hectares of vineyards. Recent cores have yielded preserved vine pollen; its DNA, amplified by NGS sequencing, matches Albana , a white grape variety from...
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

The hollow bokken: the air blade of the modern samurai

Fri. July 25, 2025
Did you know that a simple vacuum can change practice? The "Teikō" molded polypropylene bokken is hollow: it embeds only a thin grooved wall that encloses... air! The result: just 490 g, or almost...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The hi of the katana: the throat that makes steel sing

Thu. Jul. 24, 2025
The hi ( bō-hi ) makes a groove on the blade where stresses are lowest: it removes metal without weakening the cutting edge. Inertia measurements show that a katana can lose 10 to 20% of its mass...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

PLA: the bioplastic that forges our katana holders

Thu. Jul. 24, 2025
PLA (polylactic acid) is obtained by fermenting corn or cane sugar; its synthesis consumes up to 65% less energy than an equivalent petrochemical plastic, and emits no toxic fumes...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Atlit, the unassailable fortress

Tue. Jul. 22, 2025
In the spring of 1218, at the height of the Fifth Crusade, the engineers of the Temple settled on the narrow peninsula of Atlit to build Château Pèlerin . The sea rock is cut like a quarry: the stone is...
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

Zatoïchi's hidden brotherly duel

Mon. Jul. 21, 2025
In the spring of 1964, the episode Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold offered viewers a discreet shock: the fearsome ronin Jushirō who challenges Zatoichi is played by Tomisaburō Wakayama... the older brother of Shintarō Katsu . The...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Cressing Temple: the 1220 barn still standing

Sun. Jul. 20, 2025
In the heart of Essex (England), the barley barn at Cressing Temple is intriguing archaeologists: its beams were felled around 1220, as revealed by dendrochronological analysis (reading of wood rings)....
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

Katana or tachi: the blade that changes everything!

Sat. Jul. 19, 2025
In the XVᵉ century, the transition from the tachi to the katana marked a turning point in Japanese warrior weaponry. Worn sharp downwards and attached to a silk belt ( sashigawa ), the tachi, more curved and...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The little nail that saves the blade

Sat. Jul. 19, 2025
A katana is only held to its handle (tsuka) by a tiny bamboo mekugi. This peg, carved from smoked bamboo for greater density, compresses slightly and provides a perfect hold, but must be...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

New Zealand, the real Middle-earth

Wed. Jul. 16, 2025
In all, over 150 New Zealand sites were used as backdrops for the trilogy, from the green hills of Matamata (Hobbiton), to the Ngauruhoe volcano in Tongariro National Park, now known as Mount Doom in Mordor. On the...
#LeSaviezVous

Kill Bill: world tour of katana & cactus

Tue. Jul. 15, 2025
When Quentin Tarantino wanted to bring together Japanese swordplay and spaghetti westerns, he literally took his team on a journey! Tokyo: the silhouette of the Bride glides over the Rainbow Bridge before the...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

When the Templars changed their seal to change their message

Sun. Jul. 13, 2025
The famous "two riders on one horse" seal is just one of the official faces of the Order: it symbolizes both the humility of the brothers, who are supposed to share their mounts and fortunes, and their solidarity in battle....
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

Le Beaucéant: the black & white flag of the Knights Templar

Thu. Jul. 10, 2025
In battle, the Knights Templar advanced behind a two-tone standard: white at the top, black at the bottom, sometimes adorned with a red cross pattee. Called Beaucéant , it symbolized the Templar duality: "gentle to the...
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

Sheath lightning: Hayashizaki's revelation

Wed. Jul. 9, 2025
According to tradition, the young samurai Hayashizaki Jinsuke Minamoto no Shigenobu (1542-1621) prayed and meditated for a hundred days at the Hayashizaki Myōjin shrine to avenge his murdered father. At the end of this retreat, he...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

X-rays on the Templars' lost sword

Tue. Jul. 8, 2025
In 2021, off the coast of the Templar fortress of Atlit (Israel), divers unearthed a medieval sword measuring almost a metre long, which had been trapped in the sand for over eight centuries. Rather than remove the limestone gangue, the...
#LeSaviezVous #Templiers #MoyenAge

Ryūjin, the dragon who watches over the blade!

Mon. Jul. 7, 2025
In Japan, engraving a dragon ( ryū ) on the blade or mount of a katana has never been a simple ornament. According to Shinto tradition, it is an invocation to Ryūjin (龍神), the dragon-god of seas and storms,...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Jules Brunet, Belfort's "samurai

Sat. Jul. 5, 2025
In 1867, Belfort artilleryman Jules Brunet (1838-1911) arrived in Japan with the French military mission. When the Boshin War broke out (1868-1869) between shogun supporters and imperial forces, Brunet...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Type XV chivalric swords: the answer to plate armor

Fri. Jul 4, 2025
At the heart of the Hundred Years' War, knights no longer swore by sharpness alone. To neutralize the new plate armors, blacksmiths designed the type XV chivalric sword (typology...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

Mitsudomoe: the sacred vortex of the samurai

Thu. Jul. 3, 2025
In Japan, the tomoe, that coiled comma, becomes a true emblem when it multiplies by three to form the mitsudomoe. Associated as early as the Xᵉ century with the god Hachiman, protector of warriors, the triple swirl...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The d'Este's sleepless dragon

Wed. Jul. 2, 2025
Ab insomni non custodita dracone ("unguarded by the sleepless dragon") is the mysterious motto of the powerful House of Este, which ruled Ferrara and Modena between the XIIᵉ and XIXᵉ centuries. It refers to the myth...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

Japan cut off from the world: 200 years of feudal isolation

Mon. June 30, 2025
In 1635, under the reign of the Tokugawa Iemitsu shogun, Japan entered an era of extreme isolation known as sakoku, literally "closed country". This policy prohibited the Japanese from leaving the...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The celestial dragon, master of rains and emperors

Fri. June 27, 2025
Unlike the fire-breathing dragons of the European Middle Ages, the Asian dragon is a celestial creature, wingless but capable of flight, often linked to water and weather. In imperial China, dragons were...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Musashi: the wooden blade that conquered steel

Fri. June 27, 2025
On the morning of April 13, 1612, legendary swordsman Miyamoto Musashi landed on the island of Ganryū-jima to face his formidable rival Sasaki Kojiro . On the boat leading up to the duel, Musashi hastily fashioned a long...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

The dagger of mercy: the last gesture of chivalry

Wed. June 25, 2025
At the heart of the Crusades, every knight wore a fine dagger on his belt, called "misericorde", from the Latin misericordia, meaning "act of mercy". Its triangular blade, as long and narrow as a needle, slid...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge

When steel bends to legend

Tue. June 24, 2025
In Japan, the master blacksmith repeats up to 16 bends to transform tamahagane (65,536 layers), a high-carbon steel, into the supple, sharp blade of a katana. Each bend removes impurities,...
#LeSaviezVous #Samourais

Mythical honor: knights and samurai unmasked

Mon. June 23, 2025
For centuries, the figures of the Western knight and the Japanese samurai have been erected as symbols of honor and moral rectitude, embodying supposedly unshakeable ethical codes. However, a...
#LeSaviezVous #MoyenAge