UK Sword Ban!

Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 12:35

The British government is proposing to ban all swords, including Japanese art swords from being bought and sold in the UK. This proposal has the potential of effecting Japanese art sword collectors by making their hobby illegal.

The motivation for this proposal is a number of highly sensationalized and inaccurate media reports claiming attacks were carried out by criminals using “Samurai Swords”. In all of the illustrated cases a number involved cheap replica blades, many were European or fantasy designs, and some were imitation Japanese swords. In no reported case was an authentic Japanese Sword used to commit a crime.

The British government and media have been unable, to date, to provide statistics that demonstrate that authentic art swords were used in any attacks. Nor is there any evidence that a collector or student of Nihon-To has ever been involved in such an incident. Thus banning Japanese swords will have absolutely no impact on the reduction of crimes involving edged weapons.

Many people involved in the Japanese art world including curators of museums, members of preservation societies and collectors alike believe that the passing of the ban would be shortsighted and will not have the intended benefit of deterring criminals from obtaining and misusing edged weapons of any kind. The ban does however have great potential of eliminating a considerable resource for the preservation and study of a unique part of the art world. It also has the potential of forming cultural and racial barriers with in a multi ethnic and cultural society that prides itself on understanding and tolerance.

The ban demonstrates little willingness to deal with the real issue of criminal violence and absolutely no understanding of an art that has existed and been valued for almost one thousand years.

If the Nihon-To community is going to succeed in preventing this ban from taking place it is essential that all interested parties, in the UK and throughout the world, make their views known to the British Government by writing directly to the Home Office if we are to convince the British government to reconsider their position on the proposed ban of Japanese art swords.

Please help us to save a unique part of Asian art.

Posted: Sun Apr 13, 2008 12:14

I thought this ban had already come into law? Sad