Seven-Branched Sword

Seven-Branched Sword
Replica of the Seven-Branched Sword, or Chiljido, at the War Memorial in Seoul, South Korea or Nanatsusaya no Tachi (shichishitō) in Japanese.
Japanese name
Kanji七支刀 or 七枝刀
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburnshichishitō or nanatsusaya no tachi
Korean name
Hangul칠지도
Hanja七支刀
Transcriptions
Revised Romanizationchiljido
McCune–Reischauerch'iljido

The Seven-Branched Sword (Japanese: 七支刀, Hepburn: Shichishitō) is a ceremonial sword believed to be a gift from the king of Baekje to a Yamato ruler.[1] It is mentioned in the Nihon Shoki in the fifty-second year of the reign of the semi-mythical Empress Jingū.[2][3] It is a 74.9 cm (29.5 in) long iron sword with six branch-like protrusions along the central blade. The original sword has been conserved since antiquity in the Isonokami Shrine in Nara Prefecture, Japan and is not on public display. An inscription on the side of the blade is an important source for understanding the relationships between kingdoms of the Korean peninsula and Japan in that period.

  1. ^ "ご由緒【七支刀（しちしとう）】｜石上神宮［いそのかみじんぐう］公式サイト｜奈良県天理市". Isonokami.jp. Archived from the original on 2020-07-31. Retrieved 2014-03-07.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference rekishi2020 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Nana Miyata, Die Übernahme der chinesischen Kultur in Japans Altertum, LIT Verlag, Münster p.11.