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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
169 events
1350–1352 (Kannō 1–3)
Kannō 1–3 (1350–1352): the internal conflict within the Muromachi shogunate between Ashikaga Takauji and his younger brother Ashikaga Tadayoshi. Takauji's shitsuji, Kō no Moronao, came into violent conflict with Tadayoshi. After Moronao was executed, Takauji and Tadayoshi reconciled but fought again. Tadayoshi, defeated, died suddenly (there is also a theory that he was poisoned), and the conflict ended. It was the greatest internal conflict of the shogunate and further complicated the turmoil of the Nanboku-chō period.
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November 9, 1180 (20th day, 10th month, Jishō 4)
In the 10th month of Jishō 4 (1180), at the Fuji River in Suruga Province, the eastern warrior coalition under Minamoto no Yoritomo routed the pursuing Taira force led by Taira no Koremori. The Taira army's legendary flight at the sound of startled waterbirds masked the real significance: the rapid consolidation of Kantō warriors behind Yoritomo, establishing the foundation of what would become the Kamakura shogunate.
23rd day of the 8th month, Jishō 4 (1180)
On the 23rd day of the 8th month of Jishō 4 (1180), Minamoto no Yoritomo, having just raised his banner in Izu, suffered a crushing defeat at Ishibashiyama in Sagami Province against the far larger Taira-aligned army of Ōba Kagechika. Yoritomo narrowly escaped with his life to Awa Province, rallied the warriors of the eastern provinces, and entered Kamakura in the 10th month of that year. This defeat — said to be the only one of his career — proved the turning point toward the founding of the Kamakura shogunate.
5th month, Jishō 4 (1180) – 3rd month, Juei 4 (1185)
A civil war fought by the Minamoto and Taira across Japan from Jishō 4 (1180) to Juei 4 (1185). This five-year war marked a fundamental turning point in the history of the Japanese sword. The tachi style, completed in the late Heian period, was put into actual combat. It is a campaign deeply engraved in later literature and performing arts, including Yoshitsune's stratagems, Taira no Tomomori's loyalty, and the fate of the Three Sacred Treasures.
Eiroku 8–9 (1565–1566)
From Eiroku 8 (1565) through the following year, Mōri Motonari besieged and conquered Gassan-Toda Castle, the seat of the Amago clan in Izumo Province. Through a starvation siege lasting over a year, Motonari reduced the famously impregnable Gassan-Toda Castle and established hegemony over the Chūgoku region. The Amago clan was annihilated and Izumo became Mōri territory.
The 7th to 8th days of the 1st month of Eiroku 7 (1564)
In the 1st month of Eiroku 7 (1564), the Later Hōjō forces led by the father and son Hōjō Ujiyasu and Hōjō Ujimasa inflicted a crushing defeat on the forces of Satomi Yoshihiro at Kōnodai (present-day Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture). The victorious Hōjō then extended their power into Kazusa, making this battle an important turning point in the history of the eastern provinces during the Sengoku period.
3rd month, Eiroku 4 (1561) — start of the siege; dates approximate
In the 3rd month of Eiroku 4 (1561), Nagao Kagetora of Echigo, later Uesugi Kenshin, led a coalition of Kanto warlords to besiege Hojo Ujiyasu's seat at Odawara Castle, but Ujiyasu held out and the castle did not fall. On the way home Kagetora is said to have received the post of Kanto Kanrei and the Uesugi name from Uesugi Norimasa at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura, taking the name Uesugi Masatora. The ceremony of succession, more than the outcome of the siege, gave the episode lasting significance.
Eiroku 3 to Genki 1 (1560–1570), a series of repeated confrontations
From 1560 to 1570, Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo repeatedly attacked Karasawayama Castle in Shimotsuke Province (present-day Sano City, Tochigi Prefecture), held by Sano Masatsuna. Despite years of campaigns against this formidable fortress — one of the "Seven Great Castles of Kanto" — Kenshin never fully subdued it, as Masatsuna repeatedly surrendered and defected between the Uesugi and Hōjō camps to preserve his clan.
10th month, Eiroku 12 (1569)
In the 10th month of Eiroku 12 (1569), during Takeda Shingen's invasion of Sagami after he broke the Kōsōsun Triple Alliance, a clash took place with Hōjō forces that pursued the Takeda army as it withdrew from the siege of Odawara. At Mimasetōge Pass (present-day Aikawa Town, Aiko District, Kanagawa Prefecture), the Takeda army defeated the Hōjō pursuit force and succeeded in returning to Kai. It is said that a detached unit led by Yamagata Masakage struck the Hōjō forces by surprise from Shida Pass, tipping the battle in the Takeda's favor.
5th–6th day of the 1st month, Eiroku 12 (1569)
In the 1st month of Eiroku 12 (1569), the Miyoshi Triumvirate attacked shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki at Honkokuji temple in Kyoto. Defenders including Akechi Mitsuhide held out until allied forces relieved the siege, prompting Oda Nobunaga to issue restrictive edicts on the shogun's court and to build the fortified Nijō New Palace.
12th day of the 9th month, Eiroku 11 (1568)
In the 9th month of Eiroku 11 (1568), Oda Nobunaga's massive army, marching toward Kyoto, attacked the Rokkaku clan of southern Ōmi. When the satellite fortress of Mitsukuri Castle fell in a single night, Rokkaku Yoshikata and his son Yoshiharu abandoned their main stronghold of Kannonji Castle and fled. The bloodless surrender of one of Japan's largest medieval mountain castles stands as a symbolic event.
27th day of the 12th month of Eiroku 11 – 17th day of the 5th month of Eiroku 12 (1569)
The Battle of Kakegawa Castle, fought from the 12th month of Eiroku 11 to the 5th month of Eiroku 12 (1569), in which Tokugawa Ieyasu besieged Imagawa Ujizane, who was holed up in Kakegawa Castle in Tōtōmi Province. After Ujizane's father, Yoshimoto, was lost at the Battle of Okehazama (1560), and as the Imagawa domains collapsed amid Takeda Shingen's invasion (1568), Ujizane took refuge in Kakegawa Castle, his last stronghold. Ultimately, Ujizane surrendered the castle and capitulated, and the prestigious Imagawa clan's lifeline as a Sengoku daimyō house was severed. The fate of Ujizane, known for “waka and kemari over martial arts,” reflects the brutal reality of sword culture in the struggle for warrior hegemony.
4th month, 18th day – 10th month, 11th day, Eiroku 10 (1567)
From April to October of Eiroku 10 (1567), the allied forces of Matsunaga Hisahide and Miyoshi Yoshitsugu clashed in Nara with the Miyoshi Triumvirate and Tsutsui Junkei. A night attack by Matsunaga's forces on the night of October 10 sparked a fire that destroyed the Great Buddha Hall of Tōdai-ji and the head of the Great Buddha itself, an unprecedented catastrophe.
8th month, Eiroku 10 (1567)
In the 8th month of Eiroku 10 (1567), Oda Nobunaga captured Inabayama Castle (present-day Gifu Castle) from Saitō Tatsuoki in Mino Province through a siege. The defection of the Three Western Mino Commanders, senior retainers of the Saitō clan, proved effective, enabling Nobunaga to finally achieve his long-coveted conquest of Mino. Nobunaga renamed the castle "Gifu Castle" and established it as the base for unifying the realm under the banner of Tenka Fubu.
the 23rd–24th days of the 8th month of Eishō 8 (September 15–16, 1511)
In 1511, forces backing shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane — led by Hosokawa Takakuni and Ōuchi Yoshioki — clashed at Mount Funaoka in Yamashiro Province with the army of Hosokawa Sumimoto, who backed the former shogun Ashikaga Yoshizumi. Takakuni and Yoshioki won a decisive victory; Sumimoto's commanding general Hosokawa Masakata was killed in battle, and Sumimoto fled to Awa.
Tenth month (22nd), Eishō 14 (1517)
The Battle of Arita-Nakaide in Aki Province in Eishō 14 (1517) is famed as the first battle of the young Mōri Motonari. When Takeda Motoshige—former shugo of Aki, backed by the Amago—attacked the Kikkawa-held Arita Castle, the allied Mōri-Kikkawa forces met him in the field. The outnumbered allies slew the Takeda's valiant general Kumagai Motonao and then felled the commander Takeda Motoshige himself with a stray arrow, winning a great victory. It is called "the Okehazama of the West."
1083–1087 (Eihō 3 – Kanji 1)
The contest for hegemony in Mutsu and Dewa, which broke out from Eihō 3 to Kanji 1 (1083–1087). Minamoto no Yoshiie intervened in the internal strife of the Kiyohara clan, brought down the Kanazawa Stockade, and established hegemony. Alongside the Earlier Nine Years' War as one of the two great Tōhoku wars, it raised the martial prestige of the Minamoto clan.
1438–1439 (Eikyō 10–11)
Eikyō 10–11 (1438–1439): a campaign in which Ashikaga Yoshinori, the sixth shōgun of the Muromachi bakufu, subdued Ashikaga Mochiuji, the Kamakura kubō. Yoshinori reacted against Mochiuji, who was increasing his independence, and Kantō kanrei Uesugi Norizane came into conflict with Mochiuji. The Uesugi side, which received support from the bakufu army, won, and Mochiuji took his own life. The post of Kamakura kubō was temporarily vacant.
February 4, 1348 (Shōhei 3 / Jōwa 4, 1st month, 5th day)
In Shōhei 3/Jōwa 4 (1348), at Shijōnawate in Kawachi Province, the Southern Court forces of the Kusunoki brothers Masatsura and Masatoki clashed with the Muromachi shogunate army led by Kō no Moronao. Outnumbered, Masatsura was killed in action after fierce fighting, and the Southern Court suffered a crushing blow, losing its base at Yoshino.
August 29, 1359 (Shōhei 14 / Enbun 4, 8th month, 6th day)
A 1359 battle at Ōbaru in Chikugo Province between the Southern Court army of Prince Kanenaga and Kikuchi Takemitsu and the Northern Court army of Shōni Yorihisa and his son Naosuke — the largest engagement of the Nanboku-chō era in Kyushu, often ranked among Japan's three greatest battles.
December 1868 – June 1869 (Meiji 1, 10th month – Meiji 2, 5th month)
In 1869, the last battle of the Boshin War was fought at Goryōkaku fortress in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Enomoto Takeaki and Hijikata Toshizō led the remnant shogunate forces against the new Meiji government army. Hijikata died from a bullet wound in the final days. As one of the last large-scale organized battles involving Japanese swords, Hakodate stands at the threshold of tradition and modernity.
February 8, 1904 – September 5, 1905
In Meiji 37–38 (1904–1905), the Japanese Empire fought a large-scale land and naval war against the Russian Empire. This war fundamentally changed the positioning of the Japanese sword. The sword, which after the Haitōrei (sword abolition edict) had often been regarded as "unnecessary for practical combat," was reappraised as a "spiritual symbol of bushidō" against the backdrop of the exploits of Nogi Maresuke and Tōgō Heihachirō and the Japanese military's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, and for officers' military swords, the practice of fitting a Japanese blade into a Western-style mounting became established.
March 4–20, 1877 (Meiji 10)
Fought over seventeen days from March 4 to 20, 1877 (Meiji 10), at Tabaruzaka in Higo Province (present-day Ueki-machi, Kita Ward, Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture), this was the largest and most costly engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion. Imperial government forces and the Satsuma army under Saigō Takamori fought a desperate struggle for control of Tabaruzaka, the strategic route by which reinforcements could reach besieged Kumamoto Castle. The government deployed the 'Battōtai' (drawn-sword corps)—swordsmen selected from the police force—to counter Satsuma close-combat tactics, an episode credited with reviving recognition of the Japanese sword's practical value after its decline under the Sword-Abolition Edict.
1493–1498 (Meiō 2 to Meiō 7)
From Meiō 2 (1493) to Meiō 7 (1498), Later Hōjō clan founder Hōjō Sōun (Ise Sōzui) unified Izu Province. He attacked Horikoshi Gosho, drove out Ashikaga Chachamaru, and over five years pacified all of Izu. Traditionally this was regarded as a forerunner of gekokujō, but recent research indicates that it was linked to the Meiō Coup and gained the justification of a revenge killing of Chachamaru ordered by Shogun Ashikaga Yoshizumi. Holding all of Izu is also an event that symbolizes the emergence of the Sengoku daimyō. Sōun's pacification of Izu was the first step toward the Later Hōjō clan's domination of Kantō, and it promoted the establishment of the Sengoku daimyō system that would come to sweep through Kantō.