In its simplest, the Way of the Sword is an intense focus on learning how to use the samurai sword in the most effective way. The implication, then, is that the ‘way’ of the sword is a complete philosophy as well as a military technique which centers on the sword. The word can be applied in a wide variety of contexts and also has the meaning of ‘road’ as in Nakasendo. This word is frequently applied in other contexts to other ‘Ways’: Shinto is the Way of the Gods, Bushido is the Way of the Warrior, Judo is literally the ‘Way of Softness’ or a form of unarmed combat. The term borrows the word ‘way’ from the tao or Way of Taoism. Of the military arts, the Way of the Sword was the supreme. During the Edo period, the social position of the samurai class was ideologically affirmed by the use of Confucian social philosophy under which the samurai was to embody the best of the literary arts with the best of the arts of war. All other classes of people were prohibited from bearing any arms. The sword was the preferred weapon of the samurai as well as the warrior’s symbol of office in the Edo period.

The way of the sword