Bakumatsu

Arrival of the Black Ships

In the sixth month of Kaei 6 (1853), four black ships led by Commodore Matthew Perry, commander of the United States East India Squadron, arrived off Uraga, and the 260-year peace of the Tokugawa era came to an end. The nation was split over whether to open the country or expel the foreigners, and the storm of sonnō jōi (revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians) swept across the land. The Ansei Purge (1858), the Sakuradamon Incident (1860), the Teradaya Incident (1862), the Ikedaya Incident (1864), the Kinmon Incident (1864), the Chōshū expeditions (1864 and 1866), and the Battle of Toba-Fushimi (1868) made the fifteen years of the late Bakumatsu period a continuous upheaval in which blood was answered with blood. In this turbulent age, Japanese swords that had slept in their scabbards for more than two hundred years were revived as weapons for real combat.

Upheaval in Society

Bakumatsu warriors preferred long blades. The robust uchigatana (a curved single-edged sword) with shallow curvature, which seemed to embody the spirit of sonnō jōi, was called the "kinnō-tō" (loyalist sword), and many of these long examples were commissioned. The defining features of the kinnō-tō are a wide blade body, thick shinogi (ridgeline), and shallow curvature, a design built for practical combat. This differed fundamentally from the ornamental swords of the Shintō period. It was a design specialized for the practical function of cutting.

Demand for Combat Swords

The smiths of the Shinshintō (new-new swords) period devoted themselves to making practical blades that combined cutting ability with durability. Koyama Munetsugu, though known for the Bizen tradition's chōji hamon (clove-blossom-pattern temper line), gained a reputation for sturdy craftsmanship in response to the practical demands of the Bakumatsu period. Munetsugu's swords achieve, at a high level, both the beauty of their finely worked hamon and the practical robustness of the blade. Kurihara Nobuhide carried on the Sōshū tradition in Edo and answered the orders of many warriors amid the turmoil of the late Bakumatsu period. He is also known as a master of blade carving.

Practical Style

After Kiyomaro passed away in the eleventh month of Kaei 7 (January 1855), his innovative Sōshū techniques were carried on by his disciples. Kiyomaro's elder brother, Yamaura Saneo, continued his work in Shinano Province (Komoro) and is recognized as a smith whose skill rivaled Kiyomaro's. Suzuki Masao was a promising disciple of Kiyomaro active in Edo, and he faithfully inherited his master's Sōshū tradition.

Notable Swordsmiths

The Satsuma domain possessed the strongest military power at the end of the Edo period, and the swords worn by its samurai also had a distinctive presence. The Satsuma smiths Oku Yamato-no-kami Motohira and Hōki-no-kami Masayuki, active in the late Edo period (roughly the Tenmei to Bunsei eras), forged many combat swords fitted in a distinctive style of mounting called "Satsuma koshirae." Satsuma koshirae feature a small tsuba (sword guard) and a long handle, and the design was optimized for the one-strike-kill swordsmanship of the Jigen-ryū. The swords of Satsuma samurai who fought in the Anglo-Satsuma War (1863) and the Boshin War have special historical significance as blades that experienced their final real combat.

Turning Point of the Era

The most dramatic story in the history of Bakumatsu swords belongs to the Shinsengumi. Kondō Isami, the commander, is said to have favored the Nagasone Kotetsu; Hijikata Toshizō, the vice-commander, the Izumi-no-kami Kanesada; and Okita Sōji, captain of the First Unit, is said to have carried the Kiku-ichimonji Norimune. Opinions differ on whether Okita's Kiku-ichimonji was genuine, but it is certain that the members of the Shinsengumi sought the finest swords of their age, and at the Ikedaya Incident (1864) fighting raged so fiercely that blades actually broke. These anecdotes symbolically convey the relationship between the Bakumatsu sword and the samurai, and they remain among the most popular themes for modern sword enthusiasts.

However, the age of the sword was steadily coming to an end. In the Boshin War (1868–1869), firearms and artillery became the main force, and swords were no longer the leading weapons on the battlefield. After the Hair-Cutting and Sword-Abandonment Edict of Meiji 4 (1871), the Haitōrei (Sword Abolishment Edict) of Meiji 9 (1876) banned the wearing of swords by everyone except military personnel and police officers. Many smiths lost their livelihoods and were forced out of business, and the thousand-year tradition of Japanese sword forging faced the danger of extinction. The Japanese sword ended its role as a weapon and began its new path as an art object and cultural property.

Bakumatsu swords hold a special place among collectors, both for the romance of being the "last combat swords" and for their significance as a symbol of the historic turning point from weapon to art object. Swords tied to the stories of the loyalist warriors and the Shinsengumi carry exceptionally high historical value, and pieces with a reliable provenance always command high regard in the sword market.