It’s a chilly evening in Emeryville, where half-a-dozen martial arts students at a community center are practicing with katana. They kneel, jump and slash, then slowly mimic wiping blood off their ...

Following is a transcript of the video. Kaito Suiju: My name is Kaito Suiju. I am the master of the HiSui Tokyo dojo in Ginza, Tokyo. At HiSui Tokyo we offer instruction on the dignity, conduct and ...

At Fusahiro Shimojima’s workshop, in the industrial city of Saitama, fires rage in small pits and an earthen floor absorbs the din of hammering. The Japanese swordsmith pounds the nascent blade of his ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. As you enter the suitably frightening half-light of the British Museum’s new Samurai exhibition, you are ...