Manji Era
万治（まんじ）
The Manji era (1658–1661) fell between Meireki and Kanbun, an era change attributed to the calamities including the previous year's Great Fire of Meireki. Emperor Go-Sai reigned while Tokugawa Ietsuna held the Edo shogunate. A wakizashi by the celebrated Edo shinto smith Nagasone Okisato (Kotetsu), dated "Manji 3rd year, 12th month" and bearing his own self-carved Urashima engraving, survives as the so-called "Urashima Kotetsu." In the same period, Mutsu-no-kami Tadayoshi (3rd-generation Hizen Tadayoshi) was active and ranked at the shinto saijo-saku / saijo-owazamono grade.
Description
Manji as an Era Name
The Manji era fell between Meireki and Kanbun, running from August 21, 1658 to May 23, 1661. The era change is attributed to calamities including the Great Fire of Meireki, which had burned much of Edo the previous year. During this span, Emperor Go-Sai reigned while Tokugawa Ietsuna held the Edo shogunate.
Kotetsu's Dated Signature and Urashima Engraving
A wakizashi survives by Nagasone Okisato — known by his art-name Kotetsu, the celebrated master of Edo shinto — bearing the dated inscription "Manji 3rd year, 12th month" together with the notation "carved by the same hand" (dosaku horu no), indicating Urashima-bori engraving (a carving motif drawn from the Urashima Taro folktale) executed by Kotetsu himself. This blade is known by the epithet "Urashima Kotetsu" and stands as a dated work documenting both Kotetsu's production chronology and his engraving craftsmanship. Kotetsu had relocated from Echizen to Edo to establish his reputation, and the Manji era falls within his active period there.
The Activity of Mutsu-no-kami Tadayoshi
During the same Manji era, the smith Mutsu-no-kami Tadayoshi — third-generation head of the Hizen Tadayoshi lineage in Saga, Hizen Province — was active. Sword-ranking sources place the Tadayoshi lineage at the shinto saijo-saku / saijo-owazamono grade, the highest classification, marking it as the pinnacle of shinto smithing in Kyushu.
Parallel Shinto Activity, East and West
The dated inscriptions and ranking sources together confirm that leading shinto smiths were active in parallel during the Manji era — Kotetsu in Edo and the Tadayoshi lineage in Hizen. Falling immediately after the calamity of the Great Fire of Meireki, the Manji era was a period in which Kotetsu was consolidating his standing in a rebuilding Edo, while in western Japan the Hizen Tadayoshi lineage continued its stable, high-quality production — an era name that captures the contemporaneity of shinto sword production across distinct regions.
The Great Fire of Meireki and the Background of the Era Change
The Great Fire of Meireki (Meireki 3, 1657), cited as the reason for the change to Manji, was a catastrophic conflagration that destroyed most of central Edo, consuming the castle's main keep along with a great many samurai residences and townsman districts. The era change followed the period's customary practice of renaming an era in response to calamity, but it also fell during a time when the city of Edo itself was in the midst of reconstruction. It was precisely amid this rebuilding period that Kotetsu inscribed his Urashima-carved wakizashi with the date "Manji 3rd year, 12th month" — suggesting that the activity of swordsmiths continued in parallel with the city's own reconstruction.
Characteristics of This Era
- Manji (1658–1661), between Meireki and Kanbun in the early Edo period, is traditionally attributed to a calamity-driven era change following the Great Fire of Meireki
- Falls under the reign of Emperor Go-Sai and shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna, during Edo's rebuilding period after the prior year's great fire
- A wakizashi by Nagasone Okisato (Kotetsu) bears the dated inscription "Manji 3, 12th month" with his own Urashima engraving, known as "Urashima Kotetsu"
- In the same period, Mutsu-no-kami Tadayoshi (3rd-gen Hizen Tadayoshi) was active and ranked at the shinto saijo-saku / saijo-owazamono grade
- Dated works and ranking sources confirm parallel high-level shinto production in Edo (Kotetsu) and Hizen (Tadayoshi lineage) during the Manji era