"Gotoba" is a name of emperor in the early 13th century. We named this project after the emperor's episode. He invited master smiths to his palace and made swords by himself. Probably he did only a small part of sword making. The hardening work (tempering) is most possible for amateurs.
Now, we introduce blades what customers have done the hardening work (or some other stages) by themselves. Of course they are amateurs, and our smith who supports customer's challenge is not a master smith. But those blades show something useful to study "what sword is".
Tanto "Q"
Big success of hardening work
Tanto "Ryo"
Calling the choji hamon out of the steel
Tanto "US"
Hardening work (tempering) was done by University Students.
Tantos in kobuse style
Sisters in the sandwich style
Ken blade
As a matter of fact, there were many failed challenges behind of these successes.