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 ...

Our earliest ancestors knew that survival depended on a combination of brains and brawn. Since the Bronze Age, humankind learned the value of using earth, fire, and water in the invention of weapons.

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 ...