[Footnote 27:  The swords of Muramasa, although so finely tempered that they are said to cut hard iron as though it were a melon, have the reputation of being unlucky:  they are supposed by the superstitious to hunger after taking men’s lives, and to be unable to repose in their scabbards.  The principal duty of a sword is to preserve tranquillity in the world, by punishing the wicked and protecting the good.  But the bloodthirsty swords of Muramasa rather have the effect of maddening their owners, so that they either kill others indiscriminately or commit suicide.  At the end of the sixteenth century Prince Tokugawa Iyeyasu was in the habit of carrying a spear made by Muramasa, with which he often scratched or cut himself by mistake.  Hence the Tokugawa family avoid girding on Muramasa blades, which are supposed to be specially unlucky to their race.  The murders of Gompachi, who wore a sword by this maker, also contributed to give his weapons a bad name.

The swords of one Toshiro Yoshimitsu, on the other hand, are specially auspicious to the Tokugawa family, for the following reason.  After Iyeyasu had been defeated by Taketa Katsuyori, at the battle of the river Tenrin, he took refuge in the house of a village doctor, intending to put an end to his existence by hara-kiri, and drawing his dirk, which was made by Yoshimitsu, tried to plunge it into his belly, when, to his surprise, the blade turned.  Thinking that the dirk must be a bad one, he took up an iron mortar for grinding medicines and tried it upon that, and the point entered and transfixed the mortar.  He was about to stab himself a second time, when his followers, who had missed him, and had been searching for him everywhere, came up, and seeing their master about to kill himself, stayed his hand, and took away the dirk by force.  Then they set him upon his horse and compelled him to fly to his own province of Mikawa, whilst they kept his pursuers at bay.  After this, when, by the favour of Heaven, Iyeyasu became Shogun, it was considered that of a surety there must have been a good spirit in the blade that refused to drink his blood; and ever since that time the blades of Yoshimitsu have been considered lucky in his family.]

A third Samurai, named Takagi Umanojo, pronounced it to be the work of Shidzu Kanenji; and as they could not agree, but each maintained his opinion, their lord sent for a famous connoisseur to decide the point; and the sword proved, as Sanza had said, to be a genuine Muramasa.  Sanza was delighted at the verdict; but the other two went home rather crestfallen.  Umanojo, although he had been worsted in the argument, bore no malice nor ill-will in his heart; but Banzayemon, who was a vainglorious personage, puffed up with the idea of his own importance, conceived a spite against Sanza, and watched for an opportunity to put him to shame.  At last, one day Banzayemon, eager to be revenged upon Sanza, went to the Prince, and said, “Your lordship ought to see Sanza fence; his