84643
I found this sentence in [an article about japanese
swords](https://newsinslowjapanese.com/2020/03/24/nisj-354-japanese-swords/)

> 日本刀と他の刀との違いは、どれだけ波紋と鉄が美しい **か** にこだわっている **か** です

The translation is

> The difference between japanese swords and other swords **is** how much the
> ripples and iron are particular to their beauty

But since か is used to carry a sense of questioning shouldn't it be more like

> The difference between japanese swords and other swords **could be** how
> much the ripples and iron are particular to their beauty

Any help on how to parse and understand どれだけ波紋と鉄が美しいかにこだわっているかです would be
appreciated :)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-17T10:12:25.527
84640
2021-03-18T03:15:57.330
2021-03-17T14:28:20.180
9831
41902
question
grammar particle-か embedded-question
Role of か in this sentence
I would parse it this way:

> The difference between Japanese swords and other swords is this: How much do
> they care about "how beautiful are the ripples and iron?"?

And since this way there are essentially two implicit questions in this phrase
it makes sense that there are two か.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-17T11:06:24.643
84642
2021-03-17T11:06:24.643
42189
84640
answer
The basic structure of this sentence is:

> 日本刀と他の刀との違いはX **です** 。  
>  The difference between Japanese swords and other swords **is** (in) X.

The "is" in the translation simply corresponds to the copula です at the end of
the original sentence. There is no need to change it to something else like
"could be".

The "X" part consists of two nested [embedded
questions](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/13038/5010):

> 【どれだけ【刃文と鉄が美しい **か** 】にこだわっている **か** 】  
>  【how much [blacksmiths] are particular about 【whether their
> [_hamon_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamon_\(swordsmithing\)) and iron
> are beautiful】】

(I believe 波紋 is a misspelling and thus "ripple" is a mistranslation. The
correct kanji is [刃文](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%88%83%E6%96%87). That
said, this misspelling is understandable because 刃文 has a wavy appearance.)
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-03-17T12:45:52.433
84643
2021-03-18T03:15:57.330
2021-03-18T03:15:57.330
5010
5010
84640
answer