Azuchi Castle

Connection to Swords

Oda Nobunaga, the revolutionary who transformed Japanese history from its foundations, was equally significant in sword history. Nobunaga devoted passionate enthusiasm to collecting famous swords, and the number of celebrated blades gathered from daimyo families throughout his campaign of unification was immense. The most renowned sword that Nobunaga possessed was the "Heshikiri Hasebe." This celebrated blade, designated a National Treasure, was crafted by Hasebe Kunishige, a swordsmith of Yamashiro Province during the Nanboku-chō period. It earned its name when Nobunaga, acting in anger, crushed a tea servant hiding beneath a shelf together with the shelf itself (heshi-kiri). The sword was later bestowed upon Kuroda Kanbe (Jōsui), and is currently housed in the Fukuoka City Museum. The "Sōza Samonji" is a tachi said to have been worn by Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama. In Eiroku 3 (1560), on the nineteenth day of the fifth month, Nobunaga obtained this blade after defeating Yoshimoto. Nobunaga had a gold inlay inscription engraved upon the sword: "Eiroku 3, fifth month, nineteenth day—at the capture of Yoshimoto, this sword was worn by Oda Owari no Kami Nobunaga." This act was not merely a record of war spoils, but rather Nobunaga's attempt to eternally prove his own legitimacy by engraving this historic achievement upon the blade. The Sōza Samonji subsequently passed to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and then Tokugawa Ieyasu, becoming the only sword carried by all three great men, the realm's unifiers. It is currently housed at Kenkun Shrine in Kyoto. Nobunaga was the first daimyo to strategically employ swords as rewards for retainers, maximizing their political value to secure loyalty and clarify master-retainer relationships. For retainers who received famous swords, they served as both proof of their lord's trust and a restraint against betrayal. Nobunaga's sword policy was inherited by Hideyoshi and Ieyasu, eventually leading to the "meimono chō" (celebrated blade records) culture of the Edo period's system of daimyo control.