Weapon Procurement and Sword Prices in the Sengoku Period: The Actual Market Rates and Acquisition Methods for Swords, Spears, and Firearms Paid by Warring Lords

The Sengoku-Era Weapons Market—Explosive Demand and Supply Challenges

After the Ōnin War (1467), the Sengoku period, when warfare became endemic throughout Japan, was a historically explosive period for weapons demand. For the Sengoku daimyo who mobilized armies ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of troops, stable procurement of weapons was a matter of military survival—a life-and-death issue.

The main combat weapons of the Sengoku period can be divided into three categories. The first is bladed weapons such as katana, wakizashi, and tanto; the second is edged polearms such as spears and naginata; the third is firearms (matchlock guns). The procurement costs, acquisition routes, and market structures of these differed significantly.

Weapon prices that can be confirmed in historical records come only from limited primary sources such as the ledgers of daimyo houses' treasury territories (kurairiachi), supply records, and merchant transaction records. However, the surviving historical records are fragmentary, so I must note in advance that the prices shown below are estimates based on the calculations and comparative analysis of multiple scholars.

Sword Price Ranges—From "Mass-Produced Blades" to "Master Craftsman's Swords"

During the Sengoku period, sword prices varied by more than several dozen times depending on quality.

• Kazuuchimono (mass-produced blades)—cheap swords for foot soldiers: Low-quality swords produced for mass manufacture, with simplified forging processes in rapid production ("hurried-forging") distributed in large quantities. The price was roughly several hundred mon (several dozen pairs) per blade, equivalent to 10-20 sho of rice (calculated as 1 kan mon ≈ 1 koku of rice based on Sengoku-period rice prices). Osafune in Bizen Province (present-day Okayama Prefecture) and Seki in Mino Province (present-day Gifu Prefecture) are known as major production centers for mass-produced blades.
• Mid-grade swords: Practical combat blades forged to a certain standard, widely used as basic equipment for samurai. The price range is estimated at approximately 1-3 kan mon per blade (equivalent to 1-3 koku of rice).
• One-of-a-kind works by master craftsmen: High-end pieces bearing the smith's signature (mei) with quality guarantees were also recorded as selling for 10 kan mon to 30 kan mon or more per blade. "Goyōtō" (official swords) ordered from specific swordsmiths by hegemons such as Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu were paid for with rewards such as fiefs (chigyōchi), gold, and silver, making them such special transactions that they were difficult to calculate in monetary terms.

Spear Prices—The Reality of Mass Procurement

The spear explosively proliferated as the primary weapon of foot soldiers during the Sengoku period. Before the Ōnin War, the sword was the centerpiece of individual armament, but by the mid-16th century, collective spear wall (yarisbusuma) tactics became the standard, making mass procurement of spears a strategic necessity.

The price of plain spears (suyari) was cheaper than mass-produced blades, and it is said that spear points alone circulated for tens to hundreds of mon. However, spears are constructed by combining a point (made by swordsmiths) with a shaft (made by shaft makers or woodworkers), and the total price varies greatly depending on the shaft's length, material, and decoration.

When Sengoku daimyo procured spears in units of thousands, they likely placed bulk orders in advance with smith groups in production centers to negotiate lower unit prices. The rapid growth of sword-forging production centers in Bizen, Mino, and Echizen (present-day Fukui Prefecture) during the Sengoku period was driven by this demand for large-scale orders from daimyo.

Firearm (Matchlock Gun) Prices—The Sengoku Period's Most Expensive Weapon

After firearms reached Tanegashima in 1543 (Tenbun 12), they spread rapidly, but prices in the early period of adoption were extraordinarily high by modern standards.

Shortly after their arrival at Tanegashima, records indicate that daimyo Tanegashima Tokitaka paid "2,000 ryō of gold" when purchasing from Portuguese merchants (though this may include later exaggeration). After domestic production began, prices dropped sharply, but even during the Tenshō era (1573-1592), a quality firearm was estimated to cost approximately 10s to 100 kan mon, many times the price of swords.

The procurement cost of ammunition (gunpowder and lead shot) was also a non-negligible factor. Saltpeter (shōseki), the raw material for gunpowder, had limited domestic production and relied on imports from China, Korea, and Southeast Asia, so sustained firearm tactics required enormous logistics costs. This was also one factor that highlighted Oda Nobunaga's "economic superiority" in being able to equip large numbers of firearms.

Compensation Systems for Swordsmiths—From Currency to Fiefs

The compensation Sengoku daimyo paid to swordsmiths took various forms depending on the era and the daimyo's economic power.

• Payment in currency or rice: When placing large orders for mass-produced blades, payment was made in currency or rice, either in advance or upon delivery. In records of commissions received by Osafune swordsmiths from daimyo, a payment structure is confirmed consisting of a certain quantity of iron (materials cost) and currency as processing fees.
• Bestowal of fiefs (chigyōchi): Master swordsmiths were also compensated with the granting of small fiefs or tax-exempt lands. The case of Echizen swordsmith Yasutsugi receiving special treatment from Tokugawa Ieyasu is famous as a continuation into the early Edo period, but similar arrangements were seen in various places during the Sengoku period.
• Provision of raw materials: Transactions also occurred where daimyo procured and provided raw materials such as iron, charcoal, and iron sand, with swordsmiths handling only the processing. In regions far from production centers, iron was difficult to obtain, so controlling the distribution routes for raw materials became a means for daimyo to secure and monopolize swordsmiths.

Weapons Smuggling and Embargoes Between Daimyo

One cannot overlook the issue of weapons embargoes and smuggling (nukegi) between daimyo in Sengoku-period weapons distribution. To prevent weapons from flowing into the territories of hostile daimyo, daimyo controlling major sword-forging centers adopted policies restricting weapons sales to other domains.

The Ukita clan (and before them the Urakami clan) controlling Osafune in Bizen, and the Saito and Oda clans controlling Seki in Mino, reportedly attempted to control the distribution networks of their sword-forging centers to some degree, but in reality, merchants engaged in smuggling via roundabout routes, limiting the effectiveness of embargoes.

As a commodity, swords were lightweight yet high-value, allowing a small group of merchants to move large amounts of value. This was a structural factor that made it difficult for anyone to completely control weapons distribution during the Sengoku period.

The Arrival of Peace and the Transformation of the Weapons Market

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi achieved unification through the conquest of Odawara in 1590 (Tenshō 18), followed by the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 (Keichō 5) and the Summer Campaign of Osaka in 1615 (Keichō 20), large-scale warfare ceased and the demand for mass weapon procurement rapidly disappeared.

Production centers that had mass-produced cheap mass-made blades saw demand from their primary customers (daimyo and samurai preparing for war) plummet, forcing them to reduce production scale. Meanwhile, as peace continued into the Edo period, a shift in demand occurred from "practical combat swords" to "swords as works of art and symbols of status."

The price structure of swords also transformed. The evaluation criteria of the Sengoku period, which prioritized quantity over quality, shifted in the Edo period toward aesthetic and cultural values emphasizing the beauty of the jigane and hamon, the smith's reputation, and the blade's provenance (yusho). The weapons procurement economy of the Sengoku period was a historical turning point that fundamentally transformed the structure of the subsequent Japanese sword market.

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