In Shintoism, the natural world is infused with the Kami spirits, who are drawn to inhabit landmarks and places of power. It is with this understanding that traditional Japanese culture is infused with an astute respect and attention for the natural world and its events. Dragon Kings Winter Sun Katana is in this respect no mere sword, but a homage to Winter made manifest in cutting steel. It is a part of Dragon Katanas four season-themed katana collection.
The through-tempered and sharpened blade of the Winter Sun is crafted from 5160 high carbon steel. The thick-spined blade with a long, wedge-shaped cutting plane is designed to resolutely cut soft and semi-hard targets in extensive cutting sessions without suffering chipping or edge deformation.
The blackened tsuba has a two snowflakes on a single side; its reverse has a pair of Japanese Macaque Snow Monkeys picked out in detailed relief. The fuchi and kashira fittings are likewise blackened metal and the habaki and seppa have a silvered finish. The wooden tsuka grip is overlaid with rayskin and wrapped with black tsuka ito cord; silvered wintry snowflake menuki are fitted beneath the raykin.
The carved wood saya scabbard is finished with a textured black lacquer and fitted with a black sageo cord. The Koiguchi and Kojiri are of carved and fitted buffalo horn. This sword comes with a protective cloth sword bag.
With its robust blade geometry of through-hardened 5160 steel, this sword is designed to not simply be a themed display katana, but a reliable, and forgiving cutting Katana that resists both edge-chipping and taking a bend when used in lengthy cutting practice against proper targets.
Kyle –
Very well made, Good looking blade. The sword is very solid, everything is tightly fitted and came with a fairly sharp edge. The blade feels perhaps a bit heavier in the hand than I’d like but not enough to be a problem. The whole blade has a very simple, understated elegance to it. It was $400 when I purchased it and at that price it almost feels like I stole it, definitely feel like I got more than I paid for on this one. Only real complaints is the wooden peg through the hand was long enough to scrape the hand while swinging but that was an easy fix. As a final note I’m not sure what the scabbard is made of but the wood is very fragrant, its not unpleasant by any means but inspecting it up close it is strong and certainly caught me by surprise.
Sidney Yau (verified owner) –
I got this as the first item I ordered from this site. Figured $321 was a good place to start in terms of seeing what this site had to offer. Overall, it’s a really nice sword. The blade is a slightly longer than what I normally picture on a katana, which to me is a great thing. Only real downside is that it was a bit heavier than I expected, but it makes sense given its size. It’s a nice, clean-looking weapon that feels good to wield and for the price, it’s definitely 5 stars.
Outlaw samurai47 (verified owner) –
Let me stop by saying I absolutely love this sword but there were a few discrepancies between the picture and the actual product that I had received for one the snowflakes that were on the tsuba we’re not on my model The habaki and sepa we’re supposed to be silver but they were very much dull version of silver if that unlike in the picture that it is a very bright silver almost I would say a polished nickel plating would have been a preferred finish if the pieces were not actually made to be silver I do not know I do not claim to know whether or not that they are actual silver or not but I would have preferred it to be more accurate to the picture that is on the listing for cult of Athena selling a quality control issue that I have addressed in the review of my sword for my YouTube channel outlaw samurai 47 now I am not a very hard man to please so long as my swords do what they are supposed to do and that is cut what I put in front of them to cut then I do not really care if there are cosmetic discrepancies but I do care that I get the same product that is in the pictures listed on the website as the one I ordered though these are nothing more than cosmetic issues I do believe that they should be addressed for further potential buyers of this product that are expecting these to be on this swords the sagas was a reasonable quality as to what I would suspect it to be as I am not an expert in sagas the issue Mae lacquering on the saya is quite well done in my opinion the buffalo horn fittings are also well done I do not know if they are real however for I have never actually had a sword that came with real horn fittings so I will only say this with a grain of salt LOL however overall I cannot find any structural fault with this sword except for that the shitadome prices may come loose on you but that is a universal problem that a lot of manufactured Japanese katana swords suffer from but as I said before I have no problem with this sword and I absolutely love the way it’s constructed I have just felt the need to address these slides cosmetic discrepancies as to allow cult of Athena to rectify this so that you get the same product that you see online as you unwrap in the delivery box I also purchased the sword with the sizzle payment plan which I honestly suggest you do if you intend to buy any more higher priced pieces you pay a quarterly payment every second week of a 6-week period in my case it was 90 something dollars and I only have two more payments to go and if this is to be the quality I am to expect from any other dragon King sword then I will say this right now they have made a damn good customer out of me and I intend to buy the following swords from their collection the spring sakura the Autumn leaf and the summer lotus to complete the four seasons collection at dragon King offers in any case I hope my review of this sword has proven to be very useful and helpful for future buyers of this product and for the cult of Athena staff who I do not have any fault or blame for these cosmetic problems for it could have just simply been an oversight that was not addressed probably by the manufacturer or them themselves so do not think that I am poking a provocation at anyone any individual person I am simply stating that cosmetically the sword was not the same one depicted in the pictures this does not however affect the functionality of the blade as I’ve already stated before and I do hope that I continue to get the same great quality from dragon King blades as I did in this one so as I say in my YouTube videos until next time my Noble band of outlaws outlaw samurai tells all y’all be crazy rednecks be safe in using your weapons I’m out peace and I highly recommend this sword for anyone who wants a good quality large katana that is more of Itachi than an actual katana but that’s a whole other thing I’m out peace
Jordan (verified owner) –
I just got it, seems great! Please note I have no experience with katana swords, so no real basis for comparison. Also I have not cut anything with it, just handled it and some dry swinging. I echo what other reviewers have said in almost everything. I didn’t think much about the 6″ or so point of balance or the weight, but in the hand, they both amplify each other and it does feel a bit heavy. But perhaps that’s the trade-off for a stout, longer blade like this. The handle is long enough to allow the leverage you need to compensate. Only slight gripes with weight and balance and that is for an untrained wielder. Someone who knows what they’re doing and has stronger forearms probably won’t have much issue with it.
If you smack the handle to see the vibration to find the ‘sweet spot’, it vibrates so little you can’t really see where it is. Again, stout blade. Also no rattle when you do that anywhere. The blade is pretty scary sharp. It’s not gaudy as many katanas tend to be. Dare I say ‘classy’? The fit and finish seem great. So far, the scabbard is decently snug and only slightly rattles a bit towards the tip if shaken around but not at all bad. As of the time of me buying mine, the pegs in the handle seem to be addressed and are nearly flush. Maybe I just got a good one. Overall, it is almost flawless, really.
Side note, most katana sizes are based off historical models made for guys under 5.5 ft tall. I actually did the math of samurai height vs blade length and this is just about right for a guy 6 ft tall and the length does feel right to me as someone about that tall. If you’re serious about this purchase and are attentive to detail, you would do well to watch Matthew Jensen’s painstakingly detailed review of this sword on YouTube. Spoiler, it’s quite positive.
Vandon Sparkman (verified owner) –
This exceeded all my expectations. Sharp, clean blade. Zero marks. Fittings and dress are perfect. Thank you to the KOA crew for all of there help and patience. Can’t say enough good things about you fine folks.