The legendary Masamune

[Hikaro Takayama]

Well, in the fifteenth century, there was another swordsmith named Muramasa. For whatever reason, there were stories that his swords were possessed with malice and bloodthirst--the polar opposites of Masamune's swords, which were supposed to be pure. The main depiction of this was in the myth that if you took one of Muramasa's swords and stuck it in a riverbed, all the leaves floating downstream would be attracted to the blade and end up cut in two; meanwhile, if you stuck one of Masamune's swords in the riverbed, all the leaves would float peacefully on by.

Actually, his name was Murasame which means something like 'village of the rain.' As a matter of fact, the Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (Nippon Kaijou Jieitai) has a Murasame class of guided missile destroyers, and there is also a JDS Masamune as well. In addition, both the Murasame and Masamune also appear in the Edge master mode of Soul Calibur II (a game by Namco), the Masamune being the best weapon for Mitsurugi and the Murasame being the best weapon for Yoshimitsu, IIRC. Masamune basically means "true/righteous heart" (literally, the words translate as 'right/true chest/heart')