The Honjo Masamune, Japan's Greatest Sword, Handed to a Police Station in 1945 and Never Seen Again
The Honjo Masamune — masterwork of Japan's greatest swordsmith, heirloom of the Tokugawa shoguns, a designated national treasure — was surrendered to occupation authorities via a Tokyo police station in December 1945, signed for under a garbled American name, and vanished. It remains the most famous missing sword in the world.
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