Misc.

• Family Tree- A fun little section where I showcase other anime characters that look similiar to other Rurouni Kenshin characters.
• Iron Kenshin- A parody of "Iron Chef" Kenshin-style by yours truly.
• Overview- Quick run down of the Kenshin storyline.
• Rotating Oros/Kenshin- Coded in java script by Greg. Graphics by me. It only works in IE.
• Samurai Swords- All about the Japanese swordmaking process.
• Timeline- Manga timeline. Spoilers included.
• Top 5 Swordsmen
• TV Title Translations

  Family Tree

  Kenshin

  Kenshin's cross scar has sparked other anime characters to bear the same type of scar he does.

  

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  Sanosuke

  Even Sano has a twin and he's the main character! Thanks to Prudence-chan from Wandering through the web.
  

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  Kaoru

  Kaoru's fighting spirit and various moods are seen in other characters too.

  

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  Misao

  Misao's spunk rubs off along with her trademark braid.

  

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  Enishi

  Though no one can be as crazy as the original Enishi, here are some characters that look like him.

  

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  Tsubame

  Tsubame's shyness.

  

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  Overview

  For those of you who are new to Rurouni Kenshin or if you need to refresh your memory on Kenshin here's a quick synopsis.
  
  Rurouni Kenshin (Wandering Kenshin) is the story of a wandering swordsman in 1870s Japan...
  
  Kenshin's real name was actually Shinta, given to him by his parents. When Kenshin was little, both his parents died of cholera and he was picked up by slave traders. The group of slave traders was attacked by a group of bandits. Three sisters protect Shinta (Kenshin) with their bodies as shields as the bandits started killing. The 3 sisters got killed gruesomely by the bandits.
  
  Hiko, the teacher of the Hiten Mitsurugi (a form of swordsmanship that is the most powerful in all of Japan), happened to see the bandits attacking the group of slave traders and decided to save Shinta.
  
  Hiko realized that Shinta had been entrusted with the lives of the 3 sisters since they gave up their lives for Shinta. Hiko told Shinta that his name was too sweet for a swordsman and that he'd teach him Hiten Mitsurugi. From now on, Shinta's name would be Kenshin which means "heart of sword."
  
  Kenshin trained hard wanting to be able to someday protect people with his sword...
  
  A couple years pass and Kenshin still wants to help people. He questions his master's reasonings for wanting to stay isolated from everyone else when they both had the power to help people. Hiko explains that Kenshin will become a political pawn if he leaves. A war is raging on in Japan; clans of people that want to abolish the Tokugawa shogunate are popping up. They don't see eye to eye, so Kenshin thanked his master for training him and departs.
  
  
  Kenshin joins the Ishinshishi, fighting to bring on a new era in Japan. In order for a new era to begin, it must be first thrown into chaos. Kenshin has the cruelest role of all acting as a guard for the code of disorder. From time to time, Kenshin receives a slip of paper with a name on it. He must kill that person in the shadows of the night (he always succeeds ^_^) He become famous in his clan and earns the nickname "hitokiri battousai" (shadow killer).
  
  
  No matter how much he killed, the succession of a new era wasn't getting anywhere. As a whole, he was just being a killer over and over again...
  
  10 years pass and the year is now 1878..Kenshin acquired a sakabatou, a katana with the blunt and sharp edges reversed. He makes a promise not to kill again...and wanders around Japan. He finally stops in Tokyo after he meets a girl named Kaoru.
  
  
  That's where I'll stop! When Kenshin meets Kaoru it's where the story begins in the manga and TV series.

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  Japanese Swords

  The following information comes from the back of one of my "Blade of the Immortal" comics used without permission. Leo Sutic, the guy that sent in this information, got it from the following sources.

• http://j-entertain.co.jp/bellsystem/bell.html (dead link)
• Bryany, Anthony J. Samurai 1550-1600. Osprey Military. 1994.
• Newman, John. Bushido - The Way of the Warrior. Manga Books. Hong Kong.
• The Diagram Group. Vapen. Forum Ljublijana, Slovakia. 1997.

The Japanese Samurai swords are famous for their form and quality, and have thus been the focus of many weapon historians' attention.

The early Samurai wore a tachi, a long sword suspended from his waist with the cutting edge down. In addition, he wore a shorter sword called a uchigatana, edge up through his sash. Since the uchigatana was shorter and worn edge-up, the Samurai could draw and strike in one motion - an advantage in combat. Soon, the katana, basically a tachi that could be worn edge-up through the sash like an uchigatana, replaced the tachi as the primary weapon of the samurai. The uchigatana was shortened and became the wakizashi, or companion sword.

By 1550, it was common practice to wear a katana and a tanto (a short sword, about half the size of a wakizashi) or sometimes a katana and a wakizashi. To wear a long and short sword was called daisho which means "great (and) small," and was the mark of a warrior, though not necessarily a warrior of the samurai class. By the beginning of the 17th century, however, the possession and display of swords became strictly regulated and restricted to the Samurai class.

Old swords were and are still held in awe and respect. There are swords that are over 800 years old in museums that look as if they were just delivered by the polisher. Despite their great value, there was at least one daimyo who warned his followers of the hazard of spending too much money on a famous sword. The saying has since been attributed to dozens of people; "A sword worth one hundred ryo can easily be defeated by a hundred lances, each costing one ryo."

>>Image of Sword Hardnesses
>>Image of Sword Parts


Blades were made by a master smith working with several apprentices. The process was long and involved the folding and refolding of an iron bar several times. The finished sword blank was then given to a sword polisher and a sharpener before it was returned to the swordsmith for signing. The signature could read "Kashu [no] ju Kanewaka," "Kanewaka, living in Ka[ga] province," perhaps followed by a date of manufacture-often irritatingly inexact ("on a lucky day"), much to the chagrin of sword collectors - the name of the person it was made for and results of cutting tests (often performed on a condemned criminal). To make it worse, the famous swordsmiths never signed their swords, while many third-rate smiths chiseled in the name of a famous smith in order to increases the market value. There's an anecdote about two smiths living next to each other. One of them had just finished work and sat down with a cup of tea. He heard his neighbor working with hammer and chisel to add the finishing touch to a blade - the signature of the sword. The tapping went on and suddenly the smith left his tea and ran over to the swordsmith. "Why did you sign my name?" he demanded furiously. The other smith admitted, probably just a bit sheepishly, that he had indeed, and asked how his neighbor could have known. "My name has more strokes," was the reply. "Your name would not have taken so long."

Although the blades for the katana and the tachi are identical, the location of the signature differ. If you hold a sword with the cutting edge down, a katana will have the signature on the left side of the blade, and a tachi on the right. This is so that the signature is on the outside of the sword when it is worn.

Time Line

1849