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Schlachten, Zwischenfälle und historische Ereignisse rund um japanische Schwerter
4 Ereignisse
February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 Gregorian)
On February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 in the Gregorian calendar), a massive fire broke out at Daien-ji temple on Meguro Gyōninzaka slope in Edo, burning until the following noon and incinerating approximately one-third of the city. The Meiwa Great Fire—also known as the Gyōninzaka Fire—killed around 14,700 people and destroyed over 100,000 structures. Countless sword-smith workshops concentrated in Edo were lost, forcing a major reorganization of the Edo sword-smithing community in the decades that followed.
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February 12, 1603 (Keichō 8)
On February 12, 1603 (Keichō 8), Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed Sei-i Taishōgun and established his shogunate in Edo. This consolidation of power, achieved two years after the Battle of Sekigahara, laid the foundation for over 260 years of Edo-period rule. Through the buke shohatto regulations, the sankin-kōtai alternate-attendance system, and codified class structures, samurai identity and sword culture were highly institutionalized—transforming the Japanese sword from weapon to symbol of authority and refined artistry.
c. 1781 (Tenmei 1) through the Bunsei era (1818–1830)
After arriving in Edo in 1781 (Tenmei 1), Suishinshi Masahide (1749–1823) criticized the ornamental formalism of contemporary sword-making and advocated a return to the aesthetic ideals of the classical Kamakura and Nanbokuchō periods. Through influential treatises and hands-on teaching to over one hundred disciples, he launched the Shinshintō (New-New Sword) movement, which dramatically revitalized Japanese sword culture from a period of decline. Together with his students Ōkei Naotane and Minamoto Kiyomaro, Masahide formed the "Three Masters of Edo" (Edo Sansaku), and his legacy shaped the final flourishing of sword culture in the late Edo period before the Haitōrei edict of 1876.
November 3, 1719 (Kyōhō 4)
On November 3, 1719 (Kyōhō 4), Honami Mitsutada presented the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō to the eighth shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune. This systematic catalogue recorded 274 famous swords from the Heian period onward—168 surviving and 80 destroyed—together with their signatures, provenance, dimensions, and certified valuations. Compiled as part of Yoshimune's Kyōhō Reforms to cultivate the martial sensibility of the samurai class, the Meibutsuchō remains the indispensable reference for Japanese sword research and stands as the most important systematic documentation of Japanese sword culture ever produced.