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 Kiyomaro (1813–1855) stands as the foremost smith of the Kaei era. Kiyomaro was among the supreme masters of the shinshintō period who worked in Edo, and his blades were characterized by intense gunome and chōji hamon in strong reference to the Kamakura Sōshū tradition, together with refined jihada. Kiyomaro's blades received the highest appraisal among the shogunate's retainers and elite warriors of the era, gathering enthusiastic praise that became known as "Kiyomaro-mania." Kiyomaro died in Kaei 7 (1854) — precisely the year of Perry's second visit — making his lifetime align directly with the apex and turning-point 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.

Commodore Perry's arrival at Uraga in the seventh month of Kaei 6 (July 1853) explosively released the transitional tensions of this era. The shock of the arrival brought the cry of jōi (expulsion of foreigners) across all Japan and fundamentally transformed the social demand for swords. Swords were repositioned as both "instruments of actual combat" and "symbols of the jōi will." The Kaei era thus occupies a special position in Bakumatsu sword history as the completion period of the "last peaceful sword culture" — the final moment directly before this explosive transformation.