C ages and calendar years of Japanese swords measured with accelerator mass spectrometry

Nagata, Kazahiro*; Matsubara, Akihiro*; Kokubu, Yoko   ; Nakamura, Toshio*

Steel of Japanese swords has been produced with Tatara process from iron sand and charcoal. Carbon dissolved in steel was absorbed from wooden charcoal fuel at the production of the steel. From the decay of C activity in the steel, the C age of Japanese sword can be determined. The C ages of 4 Japanese swords were calibrated to a few calendar years. There are several generations of the same names of sword masters. The year of production of each sword was determined from the calendar year and the sword master's name cut in the grip of his sword after taking the age of charcoal into account. The oldest calendar year with high probability agreed with the age of sword master.