Jōji Era

Jōji (1362-1368) was an era name used by the Northern Court (Jimyōin lineage) during the Nanboku-cho period, proclaimed on the 11th day of the 10th month of Jōji 1 (1362), succeeding Kōan, and lasting until it was replaced by Ōan on the 18th day of the 2nd month of Jōji 7 (1368). The reigning Northern-Court emperor was Go-Kōgon. The era falls within the ongoing turmoil between the Northern and Southern Courts, as the Muromachi shogunate's political foundations gradually solidified. In sword history, the roughly twenty years spanning the Enbun era (1356-1360) through the Jōji era are known as the period of the most dramatic change in Japanese sword shape, when oversized odachi far longer than an ordinary tachi came into vogue. The most celebrated surviving example is the great tachi preserved at Oyamazumi Shrine on Omishima Island in Iyo province, dated Jōji 5 (1366), with a blade length of 135.7 centimeters. It was forged by the Yamato-province smith Senjuin Nagayoshi and is traditionally said to have been dedicated by the Southern-Court emperor Go-Murakami. Odachi are thought to have developed as practical battlefield weapons wielded by mounted warriors to cut down foot soldiers, and their sheer scale still conveys the character of Nanboku-cho-era warfare. Meanwhile, the Aoe school, based in Aoe in Bitchu province (present-day Kurashiki, Okayama), had been a distinguished lineage of swordsmiths since the late Heian period, but its fortunes waned through the Nanboku-cho era as its patron warrior clans, including the Ueno (Kamitsuge/Kojin) family, became entangled in factional conflict. Blades from this late phase are classified as Sue-Aoe, associated with smiths such as Tsuginao, Tsugiyoshi, Moritsugu, and Sadatsugu, who produced a distinctive style featuring itame grain patterns with suguha or reversed choji-style temper lines flecked with fine ko-nie. The Jōji era's distinctiveness in sword history lies in this coexistence of two extremes: the odachi's push toward maximal scale, and the venerable Aoe school's decline.