Bunka–Bunsei Era

The Cultural Efflorescence of the Late Edo Period and Swords

This period, named after the Bunka (1804–1818) and Bunsei (1818–1830) eras, was the time when the popular culture of Edo flowered most richly under the political stability of the Tokugawa shogunate. Diverse forms of cultural expression, including haikai, yomihon, ukiyo-e, kabuki, and kyōka, developed explosively, and networks of intellectuals, men of letters, and connoisseurs were functioning actively. Within this cultural soil, Japanese swords too came to be eagerly studied and collected as purely "objects of scholarly and artistic interest" and "objects of collection as works of art."

In the field of sword research, while inheriting the appraisal tradition of the Hon'ami family, a movement emerged seeking more scholarly and systematic approaches. It was also in this period that works of "sword books," which classify and record the shape, hamon, and jigane characteristics of swords, appeared one after another, and the foundations of later sword studies were formed.

Suishinshi Masahide and the Revivalist Movement

Indispensable to any account of the sword history of the Bunka-Bunsei period is the figure of Suishinshi Masahide (1750–1825). Masahide, who was active in Edo, took a critical view of the techniques of "Edo Shintō" that the smiths of his day had mastered, particularly the bright, crisp jigane and nioi-deki hamon of the Ōsaka school. He called for a revival of kotō, holding that one "should return to the kotō of the Kamakura period."

In his works Tōken Bengi and Kenkō Hidenshi, among others, Masahide argued that the complex forging texture of kotō jigane (a surface mixing mokume, itame, and masame) and the deep nie and nioi of the hamon constitute the true beauty of the sword. This view won wide support among the smiths, enthusiasts, and men of letters of the time and gave rise to a new current known as Shinshintō. Shinshintō refers to swords made during the Edo period that consciously sought to restore and inherit the techniques of the kotō of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods.

Koyama Munetsugu and Taikei Naotane

Disciples of Suishinshi Masahide and smiths who drew on his lineage carried the sword world from the Bunka-Bunsei period onward. Among them, the most important were Koyama Munetsugu and Taikei Naotane.

Koyama Munetsugu was from Shirakawa in Mutsu Province (present-day Shirakawa City, Fukushima Prefecture). He studied under Chōunsai Tsunatoshi, a disciple of Masahide, and became a leading Shinshintō smith who excelled in the Bizen tradition. He fired flamboyant chōji-midare, and his greatest strength is considered to be that no ara-nie appears along the edge.

Taikei Naotane (1779–1857) was from Dewa Province (present-day Yamagata Prefecture) and, as a direct disciple of Suishinshi, faithfully inherited the revivalist techniques. He studied the characteristics of each kotō tradition and excelled at "utsushi," consciously reproducing diverse styles such as the Bizen tradition and the Sōshū (Sagami) tradition. Owing to the breadth of his skill and the high level of his finish, he is counted, together with his teacher Suishinshi Masahide and Minamoto Kiyomaro, among the "Three Masters of Edo" (Edo Sansaku).

Sword Appreciation and Its Links to Literati Culture

The sword boom of the Bunka-Bunsei period was not limited to technical innovation by smiths. It was a broad cultural phenomenon that crossed samurai, merchants, men of letters, and connoisseurs. Oshigata collections, gathering oshigata (blade rubbings), became fashionable, and numerous essays and scholarly studies on swords were written. Kotō were unearthed from the storehouses of daimyo and hatamoto families and reappraised, and debates over famous swords (meibutsu) became topics in literati salons.

Within this cultural context, a modern perspective gradually took shape in which swords were recognized not as weapons but as "historical artworks and cultural properties." This shift in perception became the ideological foundation for the "artification of the Japanese sword" after the Meiji era and for preservation activities.

Position in Collecting

Many of the outstanding swords of the Bunka-Bunsei period, particularly those by Suishinshi Masahide, Koyama Munetsugu, and Taikei Naotane, have received Jūyō Tōken or Tokubetsu Hozon Tōken designations in NBTHK appraisals. Among Shinshintō, works of this period have the closest affinity to kotō and can be said to be well suited for training one's connoisseurship. It is also one of the best options for collectors who find it difficult to obtain kotō, allowing them to experience the aesthetic sensibility of kotō in an attainable form.