Is Gintoki's sword one of the strongest swords?

Question

In episode 29 an amanto sword collector who is looking for the best sword in the universe tries to steal Gintoki's sword.

After hearing Kagura broke a bridge with this sword (which she stole from Gintoki), the amanto (who is supposed to be harder than steal and inmune to bullets) attacks Kagura and Kagura blocks the attack with Gintoki's sword. Then the amanto claims Gintoki's sword is the "Youtou Hoshikudaki" a special sword he's been looking for. Then Shinpachi tells Gintoki the amanto is looking for "the strongest sword in the universe". Then Shinpachi says to Gintoki that his sword might be the objective of the amanto, since it's stronger than other swords and can break anything. Then the amanto claims he has seen may swords, but Gintoki's sword is unique. Then we see a tv commercial showing swords like Gintoki's on sale, they are indeed called "Youtou Hoshikudaki" and are claimed to be able to destroy "rocks, meteorites and muscles" and then...

Kagura breaks the sword. Sure Kagura is very strong because she's a Yato. But later in the series we see the sword being broken several times. Once the sword is broken in the fight against the benizakura, and Gintoki's given a stronger sword by Tetsuko to be able to fight the benizakura's wielder. And then Gintoki doesnt seem to be using this special " stronger than the Youtou Hoshikudaki" anymore, and in his battle with Jirochou his wooden sword is broken again and he loses, and in the rematch with Jirochou he wins using another apparently ordinary steal sword.

Is Gintoki's wooden sword one of the strongest swords, or is Gintoki's strenght (or Kagura's when she used it) what makes it seems to be strong?

Answer 1

Gintama is primarily a comedy gag manga, so it's wise to not take everything seriously.

The main reason for Gintoki having a wooden sword is so that he can walk around Edo without getting arrested for illegally carrying a sword. It also keeps the series somewhat light-hearted because he does not often cut people up with it. But despite it being just a wooden sword, he uses it to smash everything from heads to giant alien spaceships. Gintoki himself is sometimes depicted as being on even footing with Alien species which are supposed to be far stronger than any human. This apparent strength of Gintoki's wooden sword is a good example that highlights the gag nature of the series.

To answer your question though, it is shown at one point in the series that his sword has broken on multiple occasions, and each time that happens Gintoki just buys another one from teleshopping. So the swords themselves are definitely nothing special.

I don't remember exactly when, but at a later point they showed an episode in which it was revealed that a spirit actually resides in his sword. So if anything, its power can be attributed to that spirit.