Eras & Swords

明治廃刀令前後の刀剣保存運動の急進

Rapid Sword Preservation Movement Around the Meiji Sword Ban

In March 1876 (Meiji 9), the government promulgated the Sword Ban (廃刀令), prohibiting the wearing of blades. Facing this dramatic cultural rupture, advocates recognizing the historical and artistic significance of Japanese swords rapidly organized themselves. The Great Japan Sword Preservation Society was established in 1882 (Meiji 15), and systematic preservation of sword-smithing techniques and collection of sword research began in earnest. Through these efforts, Japanese swords were reborn as objects of scholarship and art, saved from the crisis precipitated by the sword ban.

天正・桃山の刀剣文化

Tenshō–Momoyama Sword Culture

The Tenshō and Momoyama periods, when Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi dominated the realm, marked a revolutionary era for Japanese sword culture. The establishment of the meibututsu-chō (famous sword catalogues), the flourishing of ornate tsuba and sword-mounting decoration, and the political upheaval of national unification fundamentally transformed how swords were produced, distributed, and appreciated. During this transition from koto to shinto, Japanese swords established their value as works of art.

寛正（かんしょう）

Kanshō Era

Kanshō (1461-1466) was a mid-Muromachi era name between Chōroku and Bunshō. The famine that had begun in the Chōroku years intensified in Kyoto during Kanshō 2 (1461), causing mass starvation remembered as the Kanshō famine. Bizen Osafune smiths Sukemitsu and Norimitsu ("Kanshō Norimitsu") left multiple dated blades through these years, showing that sword production continued even as the countdown to the Ōnin War began.

天和（てんな）

Tenna Era

Tenna (1681–1684) was a short era of the early Edo period, falling between Enpō and Jōkyō. In Tenna 1 (1681), Tatara Nagayuki — a student of Kawachi-no-Kami Yasunaga of Kii Province — relocated to Osaka and founded the Osaka Ishidō school. Nagayuki was ranked saijō ōwazamono, the highest grade, in the Edo-period cutting-test record Kaihō Kenjaku, and was noted for large dankō-midare hamon reminiscent of Bizen Ichimonji work.

延文（えんぶん）

Enbun Era — The Apex of Nanbokuchō Great-Sword Culture

The peak of the Japanese sword's Nanbokuchō-era flourishing during the Enbun years (1356–1361). Spectacular great-swords (ō-tachi and nodachi) exceeding 84–91 centimeters dominated production, while Soshu-den techniques diffused throughout regional smithing traditions nationwide. The Enbun through Jōji period (c. 1356–1370) represents one of the most pivotal intervals in Japanese sword history.

天文時代

Tenbun Era

明治〜大正

Meiji-Taishō

An era when smiths preserved the Japanese sword tradition through adversity after the Sword Abolishment Edict. The sword's status as fine art was established and traditional skills were sustained.

剣術流派と日本刀の発展

Kenjutsu Schools and Sword Evolution

An exploration of how Japan's major kenjutsu schools — Ittō-ryū, Shinkage-ryū, Jigen-ryū and others — influenced the design of blades in terms of shape, length, and thickness. A history of dialogue between technique and art, created by the demands of swordsmanship and the response of the smith.

平家水軍と海戦の刀剣

Taira Naval Forces and Sea-Battle Swords

The naval campaigns of the Taira clan, culminating in the Battle of Dan-no-ura (1185), shaped how swords were used in close-quarters sea combat and left a legacy of celebrated Taira-associated blades that resonated through later Japanese culture.

廃刀令 ― 武士の魂が奪われた日

The Sword Abolition Edict — The Day the Samurai's Soul Was Taken

On March 28, 1876, the Daijō-kan proclamation known as the Haitōrei (Sword Abolition Edict) was issued. The right to wear a sword — the core of samurai identity for over a millennium — was abolished overnight. Swordsmiths lost their livelihoods, and Japanese swords faced near-extinction. Yet this very crisis planted the seeds of the sword preservation movement.

延宝遺風と宝暦新刀の過渡期

The Enpō Legacy and the Transition to Hōreki Shintō

Spanning the Enpō era (1673–1681) through the Hōreki era (1751–1764), this was a technical transition period in which the balanced beauty of Kanbun shintō evolved into the refined, ornamental beauty of Kyōhō and Hōreki shintō. Building on the technical peak reached during the Enpō era by Osaka masters Tsuda Echizen-no-Kami Sukehiro and Inoue Shinkai, and passing through the shogunate-led swordsmith promotion policies of the Kyōhō era, the shintō style as a whole moved toward its completion.

上古刀（古墳〜奈良時代）

Jōkotō (Kofun–Nara Period)

The era of straight swords that preceded the Japanese sword. Continental ironworking technology took root in the Japanese archipelago, producing straight blades and ring-pommel swords buried in kofun. The treasures preserved in Shōsōin represent the pinnacle of this formative age.