Genki-Tenshō Transitional Era

Peak of Unification and Sword Demand

Oda Nobunaga, who defeated Imagawa Yoshimoto at the Battle of Okehazama in Eiroku 3 (1560), afterward carried out large-scale military campaigns aimed at unifying the realm. His hegemony expanded rapidly with the Battle of Anegawa in Genki 1 (1570), the expulsion of the Ashikaga shogun family in Tenshō 1 (1573), and the Battle of Nagashino in Tenshō 3 (1575). Sword demand during this period reached an unprecedented scale, and the production centers of Mino and Bizen literally kept forging swords day and night.

In particular, the Tenshō era (1573–92) is also an important period in sword history. Nobunaga fell in the Honnō-ji Incident in Tenshō 10 (1582), before the sword hunt, and Toyotomi Hideyoshi rose as his successor. In Tenshō 16 (1588), Hideyoshi issued the Sword Hunt Edict (katanagari-rei), prohibiting hyakushō (farmers) from possessing weapons such as swords, wakizashi, bows, spears, and matchlock guns (teppō). This policy institutionalized the clear status distinction between samurai and non-samurai, and became an important turning point in which swords established a privileged position as the 'soul of the samurai.'

The Heyday of Late Mino (Sue-Mino)

The smiths of Mino were the most active during the Genki and Tenshō periods. Mino smithing, centered on Seki (Gifu Prefecture), made maximum use of the mass-production techniques and organization accumulated throughout the Muromachi period, and supplied large numbers of swords to the armies of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi. In particular, the works of Magoroku Kanemoto, known as 'Seki no Magoroku,' earned the absolute trust of Sengoku warlords for their battle-proven cutting ability.

Kanemoto's hamon known as sanbonsugi, a pattern of three pointed gunome in continuous succession, embodies the characteristics of the Mino tradition. This clear hamon and sturdy construction possessed a practical aesthetic that functioned as proof of quality on battlefields where complex connoisseurship was difficult. Izumi-no-kami Kanesada's 'Nosada' is known as the work that left the most artistically accomplished pieces among the Seki smiths.

The Final Glory of Sue-Bizen

Meanwhile, in Bizen, the Sue-Bizen system established during the Bunmei and Meiō periods shone for the last time through the Tenshō era. The Sukesada family continued to supply large numbers of swords and met the demand of the Sengoku era. However, the smiths of Osafune were already facing the problem of declining quality under the pressure of mass production. The refined utsuri and rich jigane of Bizen swords from the Kamakura and Nanbokuchō periods became difficult to maintain under the mass-production system, and the later works of Sue-Bizen had, in terms of quality, moved far away from those Bizen swords.

The Yoshii River Flood and the Destruction of Bizen Swordsmiths

In Tenshō 18 (1590), a great flood of the Yoshii River struck Bizen. This flood devastated the Osafune sword production center, and nearly all the forges of Bizen Osafune, which had been Japan's largest sword-producing area for centuries, became unusable. The damage from the flood was severe in terms of lives, facilities, tools, and the transmission of skills, and sword production in Bizen effectively came to an end with this flood. Some smiths moved to other provinces and passed on their techniques, but the organized production of Osafune, a major production center, never revived.

The End of the Kotō Era

The Keichō Fushimi earthquake (1596) coincided with the start of the transitional period from kotō to shintō (the Keichō era, 1596–1615). The loss of Bizen smiths due to the flood accelerated the inevitability that a new sword culture would develop centered on the cities of Kyoto, Ōsaka, and Edo. The Genki and Tenshō periods were the last frenzy of the kotō era, and their end marks the moment one era in the history of the Japanese sword clearly closed. Collecting and studying swords of this era is an intellectual adventure that traces the marks the most intense period in Japanese history, the Sengoku, carved into swords.