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  Ever wanted to see how an actual samurai sword was made? Well, in Osafune you can. Located in Okayama prefecture, about 30 minutes by train from Okayama City, the town is known as the “home town of Japanese sword-making”.  
     
 
The main attraction in Osafune is the Bizen-Osafune Sword Museum. Costing just a few hundred yen to get in, this unprepossessing, two-story building not only has an impressive collection of all kinds of Japanese swords (katana, tanto, wakizashi and so on), but also shows their fittings and other accoutrements. Exhibits change occasionally, and visitors have commented that the ones here are just as good as those in more famous museums located in Tokyo and other places. The museum has a souvenir shop too, which has a variety of goods guaranteed to make the sword enthusiast happy. Among these are books on Japanese swords (some of which are also sold in the museum lobby).		  
     
  There is also a workshop that is open every 1st and 3rd Sunday at 11:00 and 1:00. Visitors can sit on a small section of benches arranged like bleachers and watch the process take place. This is a unique chance to see authentic katana blades being made. If you can arrange your schedule to accommodate a chance to watch, please do so. This is something that can only be seen in Osafune!  
     
 
Here is a page showing the various steps in Japanese sword making: http://www.town.osafune.okayama.jp/token/dekirumade.htm. Although the text is entirely in Japanese, you can get an idea of the process by looking at the series of pictures provided even if you don’t read Japanese. And here is an English page (http://www.sho-shin.com/osafune.pdf) that explains the lineage of many Osafune sword masters - including the incomparable Mitsutada - as well as some of the finer points of Japanese sword appreciation. If you take a look at these pages you’ll get much more out of your trip to the museum.		  
 
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