What happens to a sword after the warrior who carried it is gone?

I imagined an answer.

Before this katana became a museum object, perhaps it had a life of its own.

A hand once wrapped around its grip. Rain once ran across its blade. It may have crossed a battlefield, been drawn in moments of fear, and returned to silence after the fighting ended.

We will never know the story of the person who held it.

That uncertainty is what interested me.

The sword survived.

The warrior didn't.

The battles disappeared.

The memories remained only as an idea of what the object might have witnessed.

THE SWORD REMEMBERS is a short cinematic reimagining inspired by this work from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. I wanted to imagine the moment a new warrior touches the sword and, for a fraction of a second, sees fragments of the life that came before him.

----------------------------------------------------------- The original artwork:

印籠刻昆虫図螺鈿据文象嵌鞘打刀拵 — Blade and Mounting for a Sword (Katana) Japanese blade: 17th century mounting: 19th century

Original artwork: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/24873

FLORA project: https://app.flora.ai/join-project/b05afc1f-b7db-41be-8eb3-074143713c1a

Built as part of the FLORA Museum Challenge. @FLORA #FLORAMuseum