Osaka Summer Campaign

In the summer of Keichō 20 (1615), the final battle between the Toyotomi and Tokugawa houses was fought on the soil of Osaka. After the Winter Campaign of the previous year (Keichō 19) ended in a truce, Tokugawa Ieyasu made the truce's conditions include filling in the moats of Osaka Castle, which stripped away its defensive strength, and then launched a renewed offensive the following year. This is the Osaka Summer Campaign.

The Background of the War and Sword Culture

Among the rōnin whom Toyotomi Hideyori had taken into his service were leading commanders such as Sanada Yukimura (Nobushige), Chōsokabe Morichika, Mōri Katsunaga, and Akashi Teruzumi. Each of these outstanding Toyotomi commanders wore fine swords as they entered this final battle.

It is not known what sword Sanada Yukimura (Nobushige) favored. The best-known account holds that he wore a daishō of Muramasa blades. The origin of this claim can be traced to the "Tōgen Iji," written in Genroku 14 (1701) by a retainer of Tokugawa Mitsukuni. The book states that Yukimura regarded Ieyasu as a mortal enemy and never let go of his Muramasa blades, which the Tokugawa house considered ominous. However, the legend that Muramasa blades brought a curse upon the Tokugawa house arose only after Ieyasu's death. Rather than whether he actually possessed a Muramasa, it was this combination of "a legendary sword and a last warrior" that carried the tragic memory of the Osaka Summer Campaign down to later generations.

Gotō Matabei (Mototsugu), who fought valiantly in the Summer Campaign, is also renowned as a fierce commander who met a heroic death in the battle of Dōmyōji.

The Battles of Dōmyōji and Konda and Sanada's Valiant Fight

On the 6th day of the 5th month, the Toyotomi commanders who had taken the lead clashed with the Tokugawa forces in the area around Dōmyōji and Konda. Gotō Matabei fell in this battle. Sanada Yukimura, fighting as a separate detachment, also struggled valiantly, but he was gradually pushed into a difficult position by the Tokugawa army, which outnumbered his own.

On the 7th day of the 5th month, in the decisive battle at Tennōji and Okayama, Sanada Yukimura led the elite "Sanada unit" in a charge toward the main encampment of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Three successive fierce charges drove the Tokugawa formation to the brink of collapse, and it is also said that Ieyasu resolved to take his own life. However, the difference in strength could not be overcome, and Yukimura fell in battle after summoning his last strength. He died at the age of 49 by traditional reckoning. The records of the Shimazu clan, who had sided with the Tokugawa, also recorded him as "Sanada, the finest warrior in Japan" (Hinomoto ichi no tsuwamono). His final stand came to shape the samurai ideal of later generations, as a model of the warrior of the Sengoku period.

The Fall of the Toyotomi House and the Fate of Swords

On the same day, Osaka Castle went up in flames. On the following 8th day of the 5th month, Toyotomi Hideyori and his mother, Yodo-dono, took their own lives, and the Toyotomi house was utterly destroyed. Many of the famous swords Hideyori had kept were consumed by the castle's flames, and some were seized by the Tokugawa side. The fate of the famous swords scattered across the country as "treasures of the Toyotomi house" became a subject of talk among sword enthusiasts throughout the Edo period.

Ichigo Hitofuri (made by Yoshimitsu) is known as a sword connected to Hideyoshi. It was originally a tachi known as Hideyoshi's favorite blade. It was burned (fire-damaged) when Osaka Castle fell and was later re-tempered by Echizen Yasutsugu. It is now held as Gyobutsu (Imperial collection), managed by the Board of Chamberlains, Imperial Household Agency, and its turbulent history is told alongside the memory of the Osaka Summer Campaign.

The Establishment of the Edo Shogunate and the Shift in Sword Policy

After the Osaka Summer Campaign, the Edo shogunate drew up the Buke Shohatto (Laws for the Military Houses), restricting the military autonomy of the daimyō. The Buke Shohatto enacted in Genna 1 (1615) prohibited daimyō from repairing castles or forming marriage alliances without permission. This political control also affected sword culture.

Swords of the Sengoku period were valued as practical weapons, but in the Edo period the sword came to be prized as a symbol of rank and beauty. Smiths of the shintō (new swords) period, from Keichō onward, lost the stage on which to test their skill in battle and instead turned toward the pursuit of artistic perfection. As sword-wearing became bound up with the etiquette of the samurai order and the maintenance of order in warrior society, the sword deepened its spiritual meaning as the "soul of the samurai."

The Osaka Summer Campaign was a dazzling curtain falling on the age of the Sengoku period. Through the twin events of the birth of the hero Sanada Yukimura and the fall of the Toyotomi house, this battle symbolizes a turning point in sword culture. From swords of the battlefield to symbols of martial arts and objects of art, that transition began at the moment the flames of Osaka Castle went out.