Oren Ishii Shirisaya

[Taskmaster99]

As a huge Kill Bill fan and sword collector.....I had to have functional movie replicas. I quickly obtained Masahiro's versions of the Bride, Bill and Budd's swords. All that was missing was the shirisaya weilded by the beautiful and deadly Oren Ishii. After searching and searching.....I found one and bought it:

http://www.hanzoswords.com/Hanzo-Steel--Oren-Fully-Functional-Forged-Steel-Snowflake-Shirasaya-Sword-with-Free-Stand_p_327.html


Made of high carbon steel and fully sharpened...i couldnt wait to add it to my collection. Hadnt heard of the Hanzo Steel brand.....turns out that it is this company's house brand. I was a little skeptical...but said hell with it. I needed it for the collection. It came days later so naturally I ripped open the box, removed the cloth sword bag and went outside to decapitate some milk jugs.

This sword sliced through 1,2 then 3 jugs with relative ease. Next was a nice little pool noodle. It wasnt long before that fell under my blade as well. Done for the day....I went inside and rolled some beach mats to soak for the next day. Got home from work the next day........took the beach mats (dried for 1 hour) placed them on my Katsumoto stand and got ready to go off. Now i know everybody says not to cut with shirisaya's....but i never listen. Swing one....perfect cut. swing two...perfect cut and so on and so forth.

All in all....this thing is very sharp (comparable to the Musashi Rosewood). A great addition for your collection and for Kill Bill fans. I now see also that Masahiro makes the same exact replica and Jason has it for a spot cheaper than my link. Check it out. Thanks for reading.

[Jason Moore]

I am pretty sure they are close, but looks like the Hanzo has no bo-hi:

http://www.swordsofmight.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=599

[Taskmaster99]

Nope....no Bohi on the Hanzo. And silver snowflakes instead of gold.

[RobbyDoom]

Nope....no Bohi on the Hanzo. And silver snowflakes instead of gold.
I've heard that Masahiro/Musashi(being the same forge including Ryumon) make the O-Ren Shirarsaya, but they did an exclusive deal with hanzo sword to make it under their name and in silver. I bought the hanzo version for my girlfriend. I too gave it a couple of chops. I was amazed as to its ability. One downside is the wax on the inside of the saya.

[the blade master]

Nope....no Bohi on the Hanzo. And silver snowflakes instead of gold.
hi taskmaster
i think you will find there called sakura flowers
or as we know them cherry blossom
just a bit of useless info for you:ohyeah:

[Jason Moore]

I've heard that Masahiro/Musashi(being the same forge including Ryumon) make the O-Ren Shirarsaya, but they did an exclusive deal with hanzo sword to make it under their name and in silver. I bought the hanzo version for my girlfriend. I too gave it a couple of chops. I was amazed as to its ability. One downside is the wax on the inside of the saya.

Musashi and Masahiro are not made in the same forge. Ryumon and Masahiro come from the same forge. The "exclusive" deal with hanzo was not with that forge but the one I use.

[RobbyDoom]

Musashi and Masahiro are not made in the same forge. Ryumon and Masahiro come from the same forge. The "exclusive" deal with hanzo was not with that forge but the one I use.
I may be wrong about the exclusive the deal, like I said that was something I heard. As far as masahiro, musashi and ryumon being from the same forge, I got that from SBG. Paul said (even though he's taken that info off his page now for some reason..hmmmm wonder why that is. He's now put "secret forge") that his custom SBG is forged by the same forge that masahiro, musashi and ryumon come from. I also found a website for a forge in china that claims they are the ones whom forge masahiro, musashi and ryumons lower end blades. I do know that all three of those manufacturers have several forges that forge their blades. I read a report about it online somewhere. It also said that nobody knows exactly where, or who these forges are. The finished products just go to the manufacturers main warehouse, and all orders come from there. I guess swords are like everything else. Proctor and Gamble make almost every house hold product ranging from tampons to vicks cough drops, and all made under different names and sold as competitors. I only know this because I used to work for P&G as an order taker.

[Jason Moore]

Getting to work with the forges is the real secret. It is jealously defended by anyone who has a brand name on their swords and has actually started lawsuits when the secret is given away...

[RobbyDoom]

Getting to work with the forges is the real secret. It is jealously defended by anyone who has a brand name on their swords and has actually started lawsuits when the secret is given away...
So perhaps the info he did have on there was correct, and now he has retracted it, so not to ensue a lawsuit?

[Jason Moore]

No, the info he had was false, I imagine that is why he retracted it. Many people read stuff on the internet and post it as true. I deal with the manufacturers every day as well as the forges. I do not see how someone in Australia that does not deal with the manufacturers know as much about them as someone who does. The reason why merchants do not want that info getting out is because of the competition. It took me a long time to find some of the manufacturers and I would not give up my sources to my competition willingly.

[RobbyDoom]

No, the info he had was false, I imagine that is why he retracted it. Many people read stuff on the internet and post it as true. I deal with the manufacturers every day as well as the forges. I do not see how someone in Australia that does not deal with the manufacturers know as much about them as someone who does. The reason why merchants do not want that info getting out is because of the competition. It took me a long time to find some of the manufacturers and I would not give up my sources to my competition willingly.
Ok, I get what you are saying.
So to sum it up. Musashi is a forge by themselves. Masahiro and Ryumon are the same forge and another to the mix is Kawashima and Katsumoto being the same forge as well?

[Jason Moore]

Pretty much. All "brands" have different forges they go to to contract certain swords depending on price and quality they want. Not all Masahiros and Ryumons are made at the same forges.

[Shadowhowler]

Pretty much. All "brands" have different forges they go to to contract certain swords depending on price and quality they want. Not all Masahiros and Ryumons are made at the same forges.


This what I thought. I always got the impression that Masahiro is a sort of 'rebranding' company. They get swords from more then one forge and then take them into their brand.

[Jason Moore]

Basically Masahiro and Ryumon were coined by a distributor here in the US that owns and contracts forges in China to make their swords. Kinda like me contracting the forge I did to make the SOM swords only on a much larger scale.