Archaeologists unearthed a symbolic 17th-century Japanese sword amid ongoing excavations on the oldest market square in Berlin, Germany, the Berlin State Museums announced Thursday.
The archaeologists, from the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation, found the rusty sword amid World War II-related rubble dug up from cellars buried beneath the Stralauer Straße in the Molkenmarkt (“Whey Market”) area, a translation of the announcement revealed.
Initially believed to be a WWII parade saber, the sword was later found during restoration work to be a fragmentary Japanese short sword called a wakizashi, according to the statement.
The wakizashi’s ferrule sported the motif of the Daikoku — “one of Japan’s seven gods of luck, recognizable by his attributes of [a] hammer and [a] rice sack,” the statement revealed.
The wakizashi’s guard plate bore a detail comprising chrysanthemum and waterline motifs, one of the photographs of the sword published in the statement showed.
A pre-restoration X-ray of the sword reportedly showed no blacksmith’s signature on it but revealed that the blade was originally longer and that the handle had been added later. While the handle reportedly is from Japan’s Edo period (17th–19th century), the blade is possibly a 16th-century one. (RELATED: Archaeologists Find ‘Very Powerful’ Man And His Big Sword In Rare Discovery)
A 17th century samurai sword – a wakizashi – has been found during excavations of 20th-century war-damaged cellars in the Molkenmarkt area, Berlin. pic.twitter.com/HaDgdwW3bi
— Stone Age Herbalist (@Paracelsus1092) August 23, 2024
“This discovery shows once again what surprising objects are waiting to be discovered in Berlin’s soil,” Matthias Wemhoff, State Archaeologist of Berlin and Director of the Museum of Prehistory and Early History of the Berlin State Museums, reportedly said.
“Who could have imagined that at a time when Japan was isolated and hardly any European travelers came to the country, such a long-used and richly decorated weapon would end up here in Berlin?” he added.
The wakizashi probably ended up in Berlin through Japanese ambassadors on the Takenochi Mission to Germany’s Wilhelm I in 1862 or the Iwakura Mission ambassage 11 years later. “The spatial proximity of the Molkenmarkt with its surrounding aristocratic palaces to the Berlin Palace suggests this,” the statement noted.
The wakizashi means “side-inserted” sword as it is worn at one’s side and is about 1–2 feet long, according to Ogyū Sorai, a 17th-century Japanese Confucian historian and philosopher. Used as an auxiliary sword by the samurai, the wakizashi could also be used to commit seppuku, a Japanese ritualistic suicide, Sorai observed.
Excavations at the Molkenmarkt, Berlin‘s oldest market square, also revealed Berlin’s oldest street underneath the modern-day Stralauer Straße back in Jan. 2022, according to the European Heritage Tribune.
