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Schlachten, Zwischenfälle und historische Ereignisse rund um japanische Schwerter
8 Ereignisse
January 26, 1869 (Meiji 2, 1st month, 5th day)
On January 5, 1869 (Meiji 2), Confucian scholar Yokoi Shonan was assassinated when his palanquin was attacked along Teramachi-dōri in Kyoto by six anti-foreign faction samurai from Tottokawa. He was 61 years old. Shonan, who had been recruited as a sanyo in the Meiji government, was killed by gunfire and sword blows. The assassination of this enlightened advocate of open trade by anti-foreign blades was the first high-ranking official assassination in the Meiji government, exemplifying the practical combat use of the Japanese sword on the eve of the Edict on the Abolition of the Wearing of Swords.
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May 14, 1878 (Meiji 11)
On May 14, Meiji 11 (1878), Okubo Toshimichi, Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated at Kioizaka in Kojimachi Ward, Tokyo, slashed 16 times with a katana by six samurai from Ishikawa and Shimane prefectures (ringleader: Shimada Ichirō). He died at age 49. Occurring two years after the Sword Abolition Edict (1876), the katana used in the attack is preserved today in the Special Archives Room of the Metropolitan Police Department. As the last major incident in which a post-abolition katana was wielded in political assassination, it is etched into both Meiji history and sword history.
May 30, 1863 (Bunkyū 3, 4th month, 13th day)
On May 30, 1863, the sonnō jōi activist Kiyokawa Hachiro was ambushed and killed near Azabu Ichinohashi in Edo by shogunate agents led by swordsman Sasaki Tadasaburō. His death came weeks after he had led some 240 rōnin to Kyoto and declared their loyalty to the emperor rather than the shogunate — an act that indirectly precipitated the founding of the Shinsengumi. He was 34.
January 27, 1219 (Kenpo 7)
On January 27, 1219 (Kenpo 7), Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, was assassinated on the stone steps of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine by his nephew Kugyo immediately following Sanetomo's investiture as Right Minister. The killing ended the direct Minamoto shogunal line in its third generation, cementing the dominance of the Hojo regents. Sanetomo's beheading stands as one of the most consequential political murders in Japanese history.
March 24, 1860 (3rd day, 3rd month, Man'en 1)
On March 3, 1860 (Manen 1), Tairō Ii Naosuke was assassinated by 18 rōnin from Mito and Satsuma outside Sakuradamon Gate of Edo Castle—the greatest political terrorism of the late Tokugawa period. This incident, carried out as retaliation for the Ansei Purge, symbolized the collapse of shogunate authority and intensified the Sonnō Jōi movement.
November 15, 1867 (Keiō 3, 11th month, 15th day)
On the night of November 15, 1867, Sakamoto Ryōma—architect of the Satchō Alliance and broker of the peaceful restoration—was assassinated at the Ōmiya inn in Kyoto. Aged thirty-three, he died days after witnessing the success of the Taisei Hōkan. The identity of the assassins remains contested to this day, and his death by the sword—despite his preference for firearms—symbolizes the violent twilight of the sword-bearing era.
April 21, 1701 (Genroku 14) / Raid: January 30, 1703 (Genroku 15, 12th month, 14th day)
In 1701–1703, Lord Asano of Akō domain attacked Kira Yoshinaka in Edo Castle and was sentenced to seppuku. The following year, forty-seven loyal retainers led by Ōishi Kuranosuke avenged their lord by raiding Kira's mansion — Japan's most celebrated act of samurai loyalty.
June 21, 1582 (Tenshō 10, 6th month, 2nd day)
In the early hours of June 2, 1582 (Tenshō 10), Oda Nobunaga, on the verge of unifying Japan, was slain at Honnō-ji in Kyoto by the revolt of his retainer Akechi Mitsuhide. As the greatest rebellion in Japanese history, this event left an indelible mark on posterity.