Comparative Study of Ancient and Modern Japanese Swords using Neutron Tomography

Comparative Study of Ancient and Modern Japanese Swords using Neutron Tomography

Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Kenichi Watanabe, Kazuma Ohmae, Akira Uritani, Yoshiaki Kiyanagi, Hirotaka Sato, Masato Ohnuma, Anh Hoang Pham, Shigekazu Morito, Takuya Ohba, Kenichi Oikawa, Takenao Shinohara, Tetsuya Kai, Stefanus Harjo, Masakazu Ito

Abstract. We have performed neutron tomography using two ancient Japanese swords (designated Morikage and Sukemasa) and one modern Japanese sword (Masamitsu) at RADEN in the J-PARC Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility. For the ancient Japanese sword Morikage, it is found that the martensite iron is distributed in the region of about 3 mm from the cutting-edge and the ferrite iron is distributed in the inner region of the blade. The martensite iron area surrounds the inner ferrite iron area. For the ancient Japanese sword Sukemasa, the martensite iron is distributed only in a very narrow region at the cutting-edge and the homogeneous ferrite iron area is dominantly distributed in the inner region of the blade. In contrast to the ancient Japanese swords, the distribution of the martensite iron is about 8 mm from the cutting-edge and is similar to the wave pattern visible on the blade surface for the modern Japanese sword Masamitsu. Additionally for Masamitsu, a region where the neutron transmittance slightly increases was found at the interface between the martensite area and inner ferrite iron area. Line-like structures due to inclusions produced in the manufacturing process were also found in the blade. These results indicate that the manufacturing processes and raw materials of the Japanese swords are significantly different depending on the era and place of manufacture. Going forward, it is necessary to compare systematically the internal structure of more samples in order to clarify historical changes in Japanese sword making, and the non-destructive approach using neutron tomography is one of the powerful tools to elucidate them.

Keywords
Japanese Sword, Neutron Tomography, RADEN

Published online 1/5/2020, 6 pages
Copyright © 2020 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Kenichi Watanabe, Kazuma Ohmae, Akira Uritani, Yoshiaki Kiyanagi, Hirotaka Sato, Masato Ohnuma, Anh Hoang Pham, Shigekazu Morito, Takuya Ohba, Kenichi Oikawa, Takenao Shinohara, Tetsuya Kai, Stefanus Harjo, Masakazu Ito, Comparative Study of Ancient and Modern Japanese Swords using Neutron Tomography, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 15, pp 221-226, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644900574-34

The article was published as article 34 of the book Neutron Radiography

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

References
[1] M.R. Notis, The history of the metallographic study of the Japanese sword, Materials Characterization 45 (2000) 253-258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1044-5803(01)00101-2
[2] T. Inoue, The Japanese sword; the material, manufacturing and computer simulation of quenching process, Materials Science Research International 3 (1997) 193-203. https://doi.org/10.2472/jsms.46.12Appendix_193
[3] F. Grazzi, L. Bartoli, F. Civita, A.M. Paradowska, A. Scherillo, M. Zoppi, Non destructive characterization of phase distribution and residual atrain/stress map of two ancient (Koto) age Japanese swords, Materials Science Forum 652 (2010) 167-173. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/MSF.652.167
[4] F. Grazzi, L. Bartoli, F. Civita, R. Franci, A. Paradowska, A. Scherillo, M. Zoppi, From Koto age to modern times: Quantitative characterization of Japanese swords with time of flight neutron diffraction, J. Anal. At. Spectrom. 26 (2011) 1030-1039. https://doi.org/10.1039/c0ja00238k
[5] M. Yaso, T. Takaiwa, Y. Minagi, T. Kanaizumi, K. Kubota, T. Hayashi, S. Morito, T. Ohba, Study of Japanese sword from a viewpoint of steel strength, J. Alloys Compd. 577 (2013) S690-S694. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2012.06.141
[6] F. Salvemini, F. Grazzi, N. Kardjilov, I. Manke, F. Civita, M. Zoppi, Neutron computed laminography on ancient metal artefacts, Anal. Methods 7 (2015) 271-278. https://doi.org/10.1039/C4AY02014F
[7] Y. Kiyanagi, H. Sato, T. Kamiyama, T. Shinohara, A new imaging method using pulsed neutron sources for visualizing structural and dynamical information, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. (2012) 340 021010. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/340/1/012010
[8] T. Shinohara, T. Kai, K. Oikawa, M. Segawa, M. Harada, T. Nakatani, M. Ooi, K. Aizawa, H. Sato, T. Kamiyama, H. Yokota, T. Sera, K. Mochiki, Y. Kiyanagi, Final design of the Energy-Resolved Neutron Imaging System “RADEN” at J-PARC, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 746 (2016) 012007. https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/746/1/012007
[9] T. Nakatani, Y. Imamura, T. Ito, T. Otomo, The control software framework of the web base, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 8 (2015) 036013. https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.8.036013
[10] A.C. Kak, M. Slaney, Principles of computerized tomographic imaging, Classics in Applied Mathematics, SIAM, Philadelphia, USA, 2001, pp. 49-112. https://doi.org/10.1137/1.9780898719277
[11] Y. Matsumoto, M. Segawa, T. Kai, T. Shinohara, T. Nakatani, K. Oikawa, K. Hiroi, Y.H. Su, H. Hayashida, J.D. Parker, S.Y. Zhang, Y. Kiyanagi, Recent progress of radiography and tomography at the energy-resolved neutron imaging system RADEN, Phys. Procedia 88 (2017) 162-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.phpro.2017.06.022
[12] K. Oikawa, Y. Kiyanagi, H. Sato, K. Ohmae, A.H. Pham, K. Watanabe, Y. Matsumoto, T. Shinohara, T. Kai, S. Harjo, M. Ohnuma, S. Morito, T. Ohba, A. Uritani, M. Ito, Crystallographic structure study of a Japanese sword made by Sukemasa in the Muromachi period using pulsed neutron imaging, Mater. Res. Proc. (this proceedings)
[13] K. Ohmae, Y. Kiyanagi, H. Sato, K. Oikawa, A.H. Pham, K. Watanabe, Y. Matsumoto, T. Shinohara, T. Kai, S. Harjo, M. Ohnuma, S. Morito, T. Ohba, A. Uritani, M. Ito, Crystallographic structure study of a modern Japanese Masamistu using pulsed neutron imaging, Mater. Res. Proc. (these proceedings)