Kaei Era — Sword Culture on the Eve of Perry's Arrival

The Kaei era (1848–1855) was the "eve of the Black Ships" — a period when an unprecedented foreign crisis was pressing unmistakably closer to Japan. Through Dutch trading posts, information made clear that American, Russian, and other Western powers were demanding Japan open its ports, and both the shogunate and the han were urgently addressing maritime defense issues. The sword culture of this era is positioned as a transitional period in which a conscious shift from the long Edo peace toward "re-preparation for actual combat" had begun.

The mainstream of the Kaei-era sword world was the continued development of the shinshintō (new-new sword) tradition. The classical-revival theory proposed by Suishinshi Masahide (1750–1825) in the late eighteenth century — which criticized the softened iron and overly-bright hamon of shintō blades and advocated learning from Kamakura-period Bizen and Sōshū techniques — was inherited and developed by its third and fourth generations of practitioners in the Kaei era, becoming a major current pursuing the dual ideal of "practical cutting performance" and "classical beauty."

Minamoto no Kiyomaro (1813–1855) is cited as a representative smith of the Kaei era. He was one of the foremost smiths of the shinshintō period, working in Edo. His blades are known for vigorous gunome and chōji hamon and for finely forged jigane, strongly influenced by the Sōshū-den of the Kamakura period. Kiyomaro made swords under the patronage of the hatamoto Kubota Sugane. Because he lived in Yotsuya, he earned the nickname “Yotsuya Masamune.” Kiyomaro died on 2 January 1855 (Kaei 7/11/14), still within Kaei 7, the same Japanese calendar year in which Perry made his return visit. His life coincides with the peak of sword culture on the eve of the Black Ships.

A notable shift in sword demand during the Kaei era was the renewed interest in "practical blades." During the Bunsei and Tenpō eras (1820s–1840s), swords were primarily objects of appreciation, gift exchange, and collection. But from the Kaei era onward, as external tensions spurred the intensification of kenjutsu school practice, demand for swords that could withstand dojo use rose sharply. Particularly among the loyalist activists centered on Mito Domain, a tendency to seek swords from the perspective of "practical combat swords for the critical moment" began to emerge.

The arrival of Commodore Perry at Uraga on 8 July 1853 (Kaei 6/6/3) released the tensions of this transitional age in an explosive burst. The shock of his arrival brought cries of “expel the barbarians” across the whole country and fundamentally changed social demand for swords. Swords once again became both “tools of actual battle” and “symbols of the will to expel the barbarians,” and were placed at the center of social attention. The Kaei era, on the eve of this explosive change, holds a special place in late-Edo sword history as the period in which the “last peaceful era of sword culture” was completed.