Himetsuru-Ichimonji
Kenshin's famous sword, that can summon a princess acting as a secondary servant to wield it.
History
As the story goes, Kenshin one day acquired a beautiful long sword & grew attached to its well crafted edge. However, it was a little too long for his preferences so he ordered a blacksmith to shorten the sword to half its length. That night when he slept, Kenshin met a beautiful maiden within a dream. She had lovely, long black hair and wept bitterly to herself. When she noticed Kenshin, she tearfully pleaded him to not chop her up. Kenshin realized she was the spirit of the sword he acquired & therefore canceled his order the next morning. Meeting the woman in the dream he had that night, he asked the maiden her name. Answering him before she disappeared forever, Kenshin named the blade after the meetings he had with her ("princess" for when he first saw her and "Tsuru" for when he learned her name). Later Kenshin would give the sword to his nephew, Kagekatsu. During the postwar period, this sword was sold out of Uesugi Clan. When Heisei era came, Yonezawa City in Yamagata Prefecture acquired the sword for 80 million yen & is now part of the Uesugi Museum's collection.
Significance
On May 30, 1949, this sword was designated as one of the country's Important Cultural Properties.
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