The Honjō Masamune, forged in the 13th or 14th century and passed from shōgun to shōgun as a symbol of the Tokugawa dynasty, is considered one of the finest Japanese swords ever made. It was designated a National Treasure in 1939. In December 1945, the last owner, Tokugawa Iemasa, surrendered it along with 13 other heirloom swords to a police station in Mejiro, complying with the American occupation's order to disarm Japan.
In January 1946, the Mejiro police transferred the swords to "a man identified as 'Sgt. Coldy Bimore' (possibly a garbled phonetic spelling of the man's name) of the Foreign Liquidations Commission of AFWESPAC (Army Forces, Western Pacific)." Neither the sergeant nor the sword has been identified or located since. "Only vague theories exist as to the location of the sword."
The Honjō Masamune remains "the most important of the missing Japanese swords." It was not re-designated under Japan's 1950 cultural property law because its whereabouts were already unknown by then.
