Nihonto Club

**Tsukumogami** (付喪神, "artifact spirit") are a type of Japanese spirit. According to the Tsukumogami-emaki, tsukumogami originate from items or artifacts that have reached their 100th birthday and thus become alive and aware. Any object of this age, from _swords_ to toys, can become a tsukumogami. Tsukumogami are considered spirits and supernatural beings, as opposed to enchanted items.

The belief that objects possess a spirit survives even today in Japan, as revealed in comments by the contemporary master carpenter Odate Toshio. In his article "The Soul of the Tool," Odate states, "For a shokunin, a craftsman with skill, speed, and professional responsibility, tools aren't just things; they have a soul". Odate describes a ritual followed by Japanese craftsmen, dedicated to the spirits of their tools: At the end of every year, the shokunin cleans and oils his tools. My master and I would honor our tools on New Year's Eve [with a simple gesture that] was a traditional way of thanking the tools for their hard work on our behalf and for the crucial part they play in the shokunin's life. As Odate explains, the way in which craftsmen of the Edo period made swords illustrates perfectly the belief that utensils can have spirits.

The sword smiths of Edo Japan knew the soul of the tool. The sword, the Japanese say, is the soul of the samurai. Before the sword smith started his work, he purified his body and mind. He also performed a ritual at his place of work to rid it of the evil spirits. During the forging process, while the sword smith folded the steel thousands of times, he wove his spirit into the sword blade.

There seems to be a contradiction here between the sword as the "soul of the samurai" and the sword as an object "woven with the spirit of the swordsmith"; nevertheless, Odate indicates that the "soul of a tool" results, at least in part, from the maker imbuing the object with his or her own soul. Similarly, the belief that tools can possess spirits may stem from the intimate or intensely personal ways in which men and women used such implements year after year. Perhaps the protracted use of such objects led people to consider the objects as extensions of their own life or their own soul.