Swords of the Sengoku and Toyotomi Era

Sword Demand and Mass Production in the Sengoku Period

As nationwide warfare expanded following the Ōnin War (1467–1477), demand for swords reached unprecedented levels. Sengoku warlords needed to arm their subordinate ashigaru and rank-and-file soldiers with swords and spears, and sword-production centers throughout the country—in Bizen, Mino, Yamato, and elsewhere—were overwhelmed with orders. The sword-making communities of Bizen Osafune in particular developed organized divisions of labor to meet mass orders and supplied large quantities of swords in short periods.

The product of this mass production was the group of Sengoku-era Bizen swords known as "Sue-Bizen" (Late Bizen). While Sue-Bizen swords are considered inferior to celebrated works from the mid-Muromachi period and earlier in the refinement of their hamon and jihada, they fully satisfied the practical durability demands of the battlefield. Similarly, the concept of "sue-kotō" (late old swords) emerged, and mass-produced blades from various production centers became widely distributed among Sengoku warriors.

Changes in Sword Style: From Tachi to Uchigatana

Changes in Sengoku-era combat directly influenced sword styles. The "tachi" (long sword suspended from the waist) that had been dominant in the Heian and Kamakura periods was replaced by the "uchigatana" (sword thrust through the belt) as the mainstay of actual combat.

The shift to uchigatana reflected adaptation to the complex combined-arms warfare of the Sengoku period—involving massed infantry, spears, and firearms. The tachi was suited to cutting downward from horseback but lacked mobility in ground-level melees. The uchigatana surpassed the tachi in the speed of drawing and resheathing and in ease of handling on the ground, becoming the standard equipment of the Sengoku warrior. Blade lengths gradually trended shorter; from the mid-Sengoku period onward, two shaku three sun to two shaku five sun (approximately 70–76 cm) became standard.

Oda Nobunaga's Sword Policy

Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582) stood out even among Sengoku warlords in his political and symbolic use of swords. Nobunaga devoted considerable effort to the identification and management of celebrated swords contained in the Higashiyama Gomotsu—the former collection of the Ashikaga shogunate—and systematically leveraged the bestowal of famous swords as a tool for controlling his retainers.

The ceremonial settings Nobunaga particularly emphasized for sword ritual were "onari" (formal visits by shoguns or daimyo) and "chanoyu" (the tea ceremony). In the tea gathering, famous swords were placed alongside celebrated tea utensils as objects of display and appreciation, and the tea utensils and swords Nobunaga bestowed functioned as the highest form of political reward.

The Honnoji Incident (1582) caused the loss of much of the enormous collection of celebrated swords Nobunaga had assembled, and this loss sent shockwaves not merely as a cultural disaster but as the annihilation of the material symbols of his authority.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's "Meibutsu-gari" and the Unification of the Realm

During his process of unifying the realm, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537–1598) conducted what became known as the "meibutsu-gari" (celebrated-object hunt)—a large-scale collection of famous objects. By compelling surrendered daimyo and temples to "present" celebrated swords, tea utensils, and other meibutsu, he formed an enormous collection that materially embodied his authority as the ruler of all Japan.

Among the swords Hideyoshi particularly prized were Hone-bami Tōshirō (attributed to Awataguchi Yoshimitsu) and Heshikiri Hasebe (attributed to Hasebe Kunishige). Hideyoshi also used these swords as gifts to daimyo, and the exchange of swords functioned as an apparatus for maintaining the lord-vassal relationships of the Toyotomi regime.

The Korean Campaigns and Swords

The Bunroku-Keichō campaigns (1592–1598) also left their mark on sword culture. Hideyoshi bestowed swords on departing commanders as a ritual act of encouragement and loyalty affirmation, and swords brought back from the Korean peninsula were collected as a form of "karamono" (continental objects). Just as Korean potters were forcibly taken and resettled throughout Japan, Korean smithing techniques and metalwork are said to have also exerted considerable influence.

The Bipolarity of Sword Culture in the Oda-Toyotomi Era

Sword culture in the Sengoku and Toyotomi era had two poles. On one side, a "quantitative sword culture" of mass production and practical utility unfolded; on the other, a "qualitative sword culture" of celebrated-object collecting and ritual gift-giving developed to high sophistication among the unifiers of Japan. This bipolarity prepared the ground for the overall shift in the center of gravity of sword culture—from practical weapon to art object—that would unfold in the Edo period.