For the first time in Russia, a fundamental work on the history of the Japanese sword is being published. Before this, all domestic publications on this topic were fragmentary. The book is the result of 15 years of research by the author, who studied Japanese primary sources and re-application exhibits in the collections of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin, the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Signal Corps (VIMAIViVS), the Central Naval Museum (TsVMM) and others. which are the basis of the illustrative material in the book. Through the science of materials science, the author came to understand ancient forging technologies. He studied the art of forging Damascus steels from the talented blacksmith-gunsmith Vyacheslav Ivanovich Basov, for whom he carried respect and gratitude through the years. A. G. Bazhenov worked in the collections of leading Russian museums to compile catalogs of collections of Japanese weapons, published a number of articles on Japanese weapons topics in special periodicals. The book is intended for military historians, museum workers, collectors and a wide range of readers interested in the history of weapons. Currently, the author has prepared for publication two more works that develop the topic started - “Examination of Japanese swords (blades and frames). Determinant" and "Making a Japanese sword: raw materials, forging, hardening, polishing."