Editor’s Note: Traders highlights the business of global trading by showcasing extraordinary individuals worldwide who are trading goods and services across borders. Seventeenth century general ...

NARA, Japan — They were once weapons of war. The most famous blades from Japan's rich history. Legendary swords that date back a thousand years or more. Travel across the country and you will see them ...

Though their meticulously crafted battle armor and elaborate helmets shaped into utterly frightening countenances could fill the hearts of any foe with terror, Japan's famous samurai warriors also had ...

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 ...

It can take more than a year to make a single razor-sharp katana. In Japan, business is booming for the few remaining smiths who know how to do it. At Nippon Genshosha, a sword workshop on Japan’s ...

Samurai swords may be some of the sharpest blades ever made, but many were never drawn in anger. A new exhibit called “Samurai and the Culture of Japan’s Great Peace” shows that samurai were not only ...

LE CENTER — Jeff Traxler has long had collections of World War II and other military memorabilia, but a samurai sword he got decades ago in lieu of payment for construction work and displayed for ...