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More Tang Dynasty era swords.....
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Top Left Pic: Sculpture of a Chinese warrior in Tang Dynasty armour wielding a 2-handed dao.
This statue is preserved in a Tang Dynasty / Nara Period Buddhist temple in Nara, Japan.
The original upper part of the blade appears to be broken and lost, so I have taken the
liberty to recreate the top portion digitally...
Top Right Pic: Tang Dynasty mural painting (around 767 AD) showing a couple of Tang Imperial
Guardsmen with their breastplate armour and 2-handed long swords known as "yidao".
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6 -- 7th century sword preserved in the Shitenno Temple in Osaka, Japan. Its name is the "Seven Stars Sword"
and it is regarded by some Japanese scholars to be Chinese-made. Equipped with single long fullers on both
sides of the blade, it has gold inlaid artistic motifs, which are actually Tang Dynasty representations of floating
clouds.The blade also has the seven stars constellation decoration on the other side of the blade (not visible here).
The Chinese have had a tradition of decorating their swords with the seven stars constellation (representing
the Great Bear constellation) since the early Warring States Period (500 BC), to the Tang Dynasty, and
down to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Notice the dragon head motif on the part of the blade just above the tang / handle.
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8th century sword in the collection of the Tokyo National Museum.
Believed to be formerly from the collection of the Shosoin Depository, it reflects
the predominant style of sword used in China, Korea and Japan at that time.
Its traditional and historical name was the "Wading Dragon Sword". |
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