<div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote"><a href="https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=22322.msg903138#msg903138">Quote from: Akiko on 28-10-2008, 06:28:54</a></div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">No, old nobility still in possession of a family heirloom katana are permitted to carry them.</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div>The only social class permitted to carry katana are the samurai class, yes?<br/><br/>And as a class they were abolished in the Meiji Era. The carrying of swords in public was made illegal in 1876.<br/><br/>Have you anything to support what you're saying Akiko? I'm not having a go at you I am simply stunned that there is a legal loophole in Japanese society that gives some people the right to bear swords in public. My thinking is that it may be a technical 'right' such that while it is allowed, it in fact simply does not happen for a variety of social reasons, of which I can think of a couple of strong ones straight away.<br/><br/>I'm thinking that even if such a law was in existence in 1945, the US occupation or interim government would have banned it at once as it was a symbol of the old Japan that post-WW2 reforms wanted stamped out.<br/><br/>http://samurai-archives.com/mds.html