Establishment of the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (NBTHK)

In February 1948 (Showa 23), amid Japan reduced to scorched earth in the postwar period, a single organization was quietly born. The "Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords" (Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai)—today known among sword enthusiasts and researchers by the abbreviation NBTHK—was the product of the greatest cultural conflict of the occupation era, one fought over the very survival of the Japanese sword. Its founding was not merely the birth of a preservation society; it was also a historical declaration in which Japan answered the question "What is a Japanese sword?" to the occupying power.

**Confiscation and Destruction of Swords Under Occupation—Japan's Lost Blades**

Immediately after Japan's defeat in August 1945 (Showa 20), GHQ (the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) promoted the confiscation and destruction of swords as part of Japan's demilitarization. Although these orders were initially directed primarily at military weapons, implementation in the field extended very broadly. At police stations and military government offices across the country, ordinary citizens, former samurai families, and sword collectors brought ancestral swords, and most were destroyed and melted down.

According to researchers' estimates, this confiscation during the occupation period resulted in the permanent loss of at least tens of thousands (according to some accounts, several hundred thousand) of Japanese swords. Family heirloom blades, fine works by regional smiths, and anonymous yet technically accomplished swords—all were indiscriminately disposed of as "weapons." It is believed that among them were masterpieces that might have been designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties had their makers been identified.

The disappearance of swords was more than a loss of cultural artifacts because of the history in which the Japanese sword, as "the soul of the warrior," had occupied the spiritual center of Japanese culture. The works of master smiths like Masamune, Muramasa, and Kotetsu represent metalworking at the highest standards in the world both in artistic value and metallurgical technique, and a situation in which this lineage risked being severed in the chaos of the postwar period constituted a crisis transcending the preservation of cultural properties. Moreover, the incident in late 1945 through early 1946 involving the GHQ confiscation and disappearance of the Honjo Masamune—a Masamune blade and the supreme treasure of the Tokugawa house—brought an acute sense of crisis to the sword world: "If things continue this way, the lifeblood of the Japanese sword will be cut off."

**"Weapons" to "Works of Art"—The Logic Behind the Society's Founding**

Faced with the crisis of sword confiscation, sword specialists and cultural figures adopted a countermeasure that was a kind of intellectual strategy—a "redefinition" of the Japanese sword.

What they argued was the logic that "the Japanese sword is not a weapon but a uniquely Japanese work of fine art and craft." The hamon (temper pattern), jigane (steel grain), and sugata (form) of a blade embody a sophisticated metalworking art with no parallel in the world and possess aesthetic and cultural value that transcends functionality—to institutionally and organizationally guarantee this argument, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords was established.

Within GHQ there were those who understood Japanese fine arts and crafts, and in particular the Civil Information and Education Section (CIE) held a stance of evaluating the cultural value of swords from the perspective of cultural property protection. As a result of negotiations, GHQ adopted a policy that swords certified as works of art would be exempted from confiscation and destruction. Through this, the "fine art sword certificate" issued by the NBTHK became, literally, a "certificate that determined the life or death" of a Japanese sword. Swords with certificates were saved; swords without them continued to face the risk of destruction.

**The Hon'ami Family and the Tradition of Sword Authentication—From the Muromachi Period to the Showa Era**

Those who played an important role in the founding of the NBTHK were sword specialists drawing on the lineage of the "Hon'ami family" (Honami-ke), which had continued as a house of Japanese sword authentication since the Muromachi period.

The Hon'ami family had served successive powers including the Ashikaga shogunate, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa shogunate, and had made their livelihood polishing swords, authenticating them, and issuing certification documents. While Honami Koetsu rose to fame as an artist during the Edo period, the main line of the Hon'ami family continued to serve the Tokugawa shogunate as specialists in sword authentication. Their accumulated knowledge and technique, together with their connections to swords throughout the country, became the nucleus of "an organization to save the Japanese sword" in the unprecedented crisis of occupation.

The NBTHK, established through the gathering of researchers, collectors, and smiths centered around Honma Junji (Kunzan) and Sato Kanichi (Kanzan), became not merely a preservation society but the center of reconstruction of Japanese sword culture in the postwar period. The tradition of discernment and connoisseurship that the Hon'ami family had accumulated since the Muromachi period bore fruit as the institution called the NBTHK.

**Establishment of the Certification System—How NBTHK Authentication Works**

The greatest contribution the NBTHK made to postwar sword culture was the establishment of an objective and systematic "certification system."

Current NBTHK authentication divides into the following tiers. "Hozon token" (preserved sword) is the entry level for swords certified as worthy of preservation, "tokubetsu hozon token" (specially preserved sword) is for particularly fine examples receiving higher evaluation, "juyo token" (important sword) is the formal designation for especially excellent swords, and "tokubetsu juyo token" (especially important sword) is the highest rank. These certification standards are evaluated from multiple perspectives including the workmanship, form, hamon, jigane, and nakago of the blade.

This certification system functions not merely as a framework for cultural property protection but also as a "value indicator" in the sword trading market. That the most-referenced value standard in current sword distribution is the NBTHK's certification tier is evidence of institutional authority established over more than 70 years of history. The NBTHK's certificate is so authoritative that some collectors call it a "passport for swords"—it has become an indispensable foundation in contemporary sword culture.

**Transmission of Sword-Making Technique—Recognition of Fine Art Sword Production and Revival of Traditional Craft**

Another important development that unfolded parallel to the NBTHK's founding was the legal recognition of sword-making by smiths.

Although sword-making had been effectively prohibited and restricted under occupation, once the logic of protecting fine art swords as cultural properties was established, the way was opened for the continuation of traditional Japanese sword manufacture. In 1954 (Showa 29), fine art sword production was formally permitted under the Cultural Properties Protection Law, and sword manufacture by contemporary smiths legally resumed.

This resumption of sword-making was not merely a permission to make swords but also an institutionalization of the grounds for the continuation into the present of the lineage of smithing technique from the Kamakura, Muromachi, and Edo periods—tatara (bloom) iron smelting, tamahagane (jewel steel), folding and differential hardening, clay application, and quenching. The NBTHK continues to assess and commend works by contemporary smiths and actively supports the transmission of traditional technique through the "New Sword Competition" (Shinsaku Meitou-ten).

**The NBTHK Today—As the Central Institution for Cultural Property Protection**

The Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords, more than 70 years since its founding, continues to function as the most authoritative institution concerning Japanese swords. Its activities are diverse: the operation of the "Sword Museum" in Yoyogi, Tokyo; the holding of sword exhibitions throughout the country; the publication of the journal "Token Bijutsu"; and certification systems for sword-related craftspeople including smiths, polishers, habaki-makers, lacquerers, and grip-wrappers.

Now that the cultural value of the Japanese sword is recognized both domestically and internationally, the NBTHK's existence forms an indispensable part of Japanese sword history. From its founding in 1948 (Showa 23), which saved swords on the brink of destruction, until the present, the NBTHK has continued to support Japanese sword culture as "the guardian of the Japanese sword."

After the storm of destruction in the early postwar period subsided, hundreds of thousands of Japanese swords still exist in Japan today. The fact that most of these have been transmitted to posterity through the NBTHK's certification system tells, quietly but surely, of the magnitude of the role played by the organization that was born in 1948. Bearing witness to the worst outcome—the loss of the Honjo Masamune—the NBTHK carries on the mission today of "never repeating the same mistake again."