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There’s a lot going on at the base of Tokyo Skytree. Not content with being the tallest structure in Japan and the tallest tower in the world, Skytree also boasts an entertainment complex the size of a small town. Hiding among the shops and restaurants is an aquarium, a planetarium, and a university campus…

Well, sort of. The Chiba Institute of Technology’s ‘Skytree Town Campus’ is more science exhibition than campus – but it does have this badass Japanese sword made from a 450-million-year-old meteorite.

The wonderfully named Sword of Heaven (tentetsutou 天鉄刀) is exhibited alongside the meteorite from which it was forged. This awesome sword is the work of modern-day master craftsman Yoshindo Yoshiwara, said to be the finest swordsmith in Japan.

It is thought that humans’ first encounter with iron was meteorite iron – before the invention of smelting, meteoric iron was already being used to to make weapons and tools, including those owned by Inuit tribes first encountered by explorers in the early 1800s. 

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▼ The Gibeon meteorite (a fragment of which is exhibited alongside the Sword of Heaven) is an iron meteorite that fell in Namibia in prehistoric times.

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So what are you waiting for? Do what Twitter user Zan_Woo suggests:

▼ “Grab the Sword of Heaven, climb the Skytree and beat the last boss!”

Sources: Tokyo Skytree Chiba Campus, Daigaku Press Center, Twitter (Zan_Woo)
Featured image: Twitter/Zan_Woo