* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Imjin War Period
文禄・慶長の役期
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's two invasions of Korea (1592 and 1597) created unprecedented demand for Japanese swords and introduced cross-cultural blade influences. Swords served as weapons, tribute gifts, trophies, and souvenirs in this uniquely transnational conflict.
Description
Korean Invasions and Mass Mobilization of Swords
In April of Bunroku 1 (1592), Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent an enormous force of over 150,000 troops to the Korean Peninsula. This unprecedented large-scale expedition created extraordinary demand for swords in Japanese sword history. Many soldiers crossed the sea carrying practical combat blades—katana, wakizashi, and tantō—and during the protracted fighting, swords suffered constant wear, loss, and replacement. During the seven-year conflict period, including the Keichō Campaign (1597–1598), sword smiths across the nation were mobilized for military production and forced into a mass-production system that prioritized quantity over quality. This experience exerted a complex influence on the later establishment of the Keichō New Sword.
Master Smiths' Korean Experience
It is transmitted that sword smiths from various regions also crossed the sea following their daimyo and engaged in blade forging and repair work in the field. Moreover, swordsmiths in the employ of Toyotomi Hideyoshi also accompanied the expedition to the Korean Peninsula and may have engaged in local forging or repair. More importantly, the Korean invasions coincided precisely with the period of activity of master smiths of the Keichō New Sword—most notably Horikawa Kunihiro. After passing through Echigo, Kai, and Suruga, Kunihiro settled in the Horikawa district of Kyoto during the Bunroku years (1592–1596) and created pioneering New Sword works. The military-demand boom brought by the Korean invasions, followed by the arrival of peace through the Battle of Sekigahara and the establishment of the Edo shogunate—these social transformations became important external conditions that promoted the transition from Old Sword to New Sword.
Ear-Cutting and the Outflow of Swords to Korea
It is historically recorded that during the Bunroku and Keichō campaigns, the brutal custom emerged of severing noses and ears in place of the verification of enemy generals' heads. These severed parts were presented as battle trophies, and the small blades and wakizashi used in this practice were afforded special status as proof of combat. On the other hand, valuable katana were employed as tribute to Hideyoshi and in diplomatic contexts; records also document the outflow of celebrated swords as gifts to Korean and Ming officials. Korean historical sources contain references to the exceptional sharpness of Japanese blades, testifying to the high international reputation of Japanese swords in this era.
Korean Smiths and Technical Exchange
It is known that during the Korean invasions, some Korean sword smiths and metalworkers were brought to Japan. Just as Japan's Satsuma and Hizen provinces experienced documented influence on their ceramic industries through the arrival of Korean pottery craftsmen, the field of swordmaking may similarly have been affected by the arrival of Korean metal technicians. Current research shows concrete evidence of technical transfer is limited; however, some scholars point to Korean metalworking influence on smiths in northern Kyushu. Additionally, records in the documents of certain daimyo houses preserve mention of blacksmiths among the Korean captives brought as prisoners of war, drawing attention from scholars of regional metallurgical history.
Bridge to the Keichō New Sword
After the Bunroku and Keichō campaigns, the Battle of Sekigahara in Keichō 5 (1600) marked the end of large-scale internal warfare, and the establishment of the Edo shogunate by Tokugawa Ieyasu (1603) ushered in an age of peace. Sword smiths exhausted by mass military production during the Korean invasions transitioned toward quality over quantity with the advent of peace, and this shift led to the flourishing of the Keichō New Sword. Masters such as Horikawa Kunihiro, Iga-no-kami Kaneji, and Raikunado flourished from the Keichō through Genna eras, producing superior works that fused the traditions of the Old Sword with the new spirit of the age. The Bunroku and Keichō campaigns coincided precisely with the historical turning point that transformed Japanese sword history from Old Sword to New Sword, and their contextual significance is substantial.
Demand for Military and Formal Swords
During the Korean expeditions, demand was high not only for military blades as pure weapons, but also for formal swords that regional daimyo presented to Hideyoshi and celebrated blades commemorating important historical moments. Powerful daimyo of Kyushu—such as the Nabeshima and Shimazu clans of Hizen Province—carried elaborately mounted katana when crossing to Korea. These formal swords were later treasured as "Keichō mountings" (Keichō koshirae), and many survive to the present day as important artifacts demonstrating the rank of military leaders through their magnificent construction of metalwork, lacquerware, and hilt wrapping.
Characteristics of This Era
- Wartime mass production pressures: average quality declined as volume demand overwhelmed smith capacity
- Keichō-koshirae style formalized: imposing gold-lacquer fittings displaying warlord authority
- Proto-shintō aesthetic emerging: Horikawa Kunihiro pioneering new blade morphology during the Bunroku years
- Combat feedback loop: actual Korea campaign experience informed next-generation blade design priorities
- Northern Kyushu smiths (Hizen, Buzen, Satsuma) stimulated by proximity to the invasion staging area; Hizen school's rise begins here