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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
13 events
October 6, 1868 (21st day, 8th month, Keiō 4)
On the 21st day of the 8th month of Keiō 4 (October 6, 1868), at Bonari Pass on the border between Aizu and Nihonmatsu domains, roughly 800 former shogunate and Aizu defenders under Ōtori Keisuke clashed with a New Government force of about 7,000 led by Itagaki Taisuke and Ijichi Masaji. The defenders were routed within half a day, opening the road for the New Government army to press directly on Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle — a battle regarded as having sealed the fate of the Aizu War.
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September 15, 1868 (Keiō 4, 7th month, 29th day)
In the 7th month of Keiō 4 (1868), during the Boshin War, Meiji government forces attacked the Nihonmatsu domain, a member of the Ōuetsu Reppan Alliance. Facing a severe manpower shortage, the domain deployed boys aged roughly 12 to 17 as the "Nihonmatsu Boys' Corps," many of whom died in the fighting.
5th–8th months of Keiō 4 (1868)
From the 5th to the 8th month of Keiō 4 (1868), the Nagaoka domain of Echigo Province fought the new government forces as a member of the Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei during the Boshin War. Chief retainer Kawai Tsugunosuke used Gatling guns to trouble the new government forces, waging a fierce battle that earned him the title “the last samurai.”
6th day, 3rd month, Keiō 4 (March 29, 1868)
On March 29, 1868 (Keiō 4/3/6), at Katsunuma in Kai Province (present-day Katsunuma, Kōshū, Yamanashi), the new government forces (Tosa domain troops and others) clashed with the former shogunate forces: the Shinsengumi, renamed the Kōyō Chintai-tai and led by Kondō Isami and Hijikata Toshizō. This battle of the Boshin War ended in a crushing defeat for the Kōyō Chintai-tai, owing to the disparity in troop numbers and the overwhelming superiority in firearms, and the Shinsengumi lost much of its strength.
January 27–30, 1868 (3rd–6th day, 1st month, Keiō 4)
In January 1868, the opening battle of the Boshin War pitted Satsuma-Chōshū forces against the Tokugawa shogunate army. The imperial coalition's modern weaponry overwhelmed the shogunate troops; Tokugawa Yoshinobu fled to Edo. The battle marked the final twilight of the samurai age and signaled the transition from blade to rifle in Japanese warfare.
January 1868 – June 1869 (Keiō 4, 1st month – Meiji 2, 5th month)
From Keiō 4 (1868) to Meiji 2 (1869), a civil war fought between the new government forces, centered on the Satsuma–Chōshū Alliance of the anti-Shogunate, pro-Restoration faction, and the former shogunate forces together with the Northern Alliance (Ōuetsu Reppan Dōmei). It began with the Battle of Toba–Fushimi and ended with the Aizu War and the Hakodate War. Although firearms and cannon had become the main weapons, swords were still used in hand-to-hand combat in this civil war, which came before the Sword Abolition Edict.
18 July 1866 (Keiō 2/6/7) to 10 October 1866 (Keiō 2/9/2); the Kokura front continued until the peace agreement in the 1st month of Keiō 3 (1867)
In the summer of 1866 (Keiō 2), the shogunate ordered domains to send troops for a military campaign to subjugate the Chōshū domain. However, after the Satchō Alliance (mediated by Sakamoto Ryōma), the Chōshū domain's shotai (irregular units), such as the Kiheitai led by Takasugi Shinsaku and others, repelled the shogunal forces on every front. This showed the nation the limits of shogunal power and became the decisive turning point toward the following year's Taisei Hōkan (return of governing authority to the emperor) and the Meiji Restoration.
August 20, 1864 (19th day, 7th month, Genji 1)
In the 7th month of Genji 1 (1864), Chōshū domain samurai clashed with the combined forces of Satsuma and Aizu at the Hamaguri-gomon, one of the kinmon gates of the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It was the greatest street battle of the Bakumatsu period. The "Genji Fire (Dondon-yake)" burned some 30,000 houses in the city of Kyoto, and the Chōshū domain was designated an "imperial enemy." The Shinsengumi joined the suppression. This was the turning point at which the political conflict of the Bakumatsu period led to armed clash.
October 24, 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876, a group of reactionary samurai called the Shinpūren (League of the Divine Wind) raided Kumamoto Garrison using only swords and spears, rejecting firearms as spiritually impure. The uprising was crushed within hours, but its ideological intensity — anti-modernization, Shinto fundamentalism, sword-as-sacred-object — made it one of the strangest episodes in Meiji Japan.
July 4, 1868 (Keiō 4, 5th month, 15th day)
On July 4, 1868 (Keiō 4/5/15), the Shōgitai — former Tokugawa loyalists entrenched at Kan'eiji temple on Ueno hill — were crushed by imperial forces in a single day. The battle was the first urban combat of the Boshin War in Edo and ended organized Tokugawa resistance in the city.
May 3, 1868 (11th day of the 4th month of Keiō 4)
On the 11th day of the 4th month of Keiō 4 (May 3, 1868), negotiations between Saigō Takamori and Katsu Kaishū resulted in the bloodless surrender of Edo Castle, averting a general assault on the million-strong city. This decision stands as one of history's most remarkable bloodless transfers of power, sparing Japan's largest city from devastating urban warfare.
October–November 1868 (8th–9th months of Keiō 4)
The decisive battle between Aizu domain and the new government army in the 8th–9th months of Keiō 4 (October–November 1868), part of the Boshin War. The fierce fighting around Tsuruga Castle (Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle), together with the tragedy of the Byakkotai, has been handed down as a battle symbolizing "the last stand of the samurai."
July 8, 1864 (5th day, 6th month, Genji 1)
On the night of July 8, 1864 (Genji 1/6/5), the Shinsengumi burst into the Ikedaya inn in Kyoto, attacking a secret gathering of loyalist activists. The raid by Kondō Isami, Okita Sōji, and Hijikata Toshizō became the most famous sword-fighting event of the Bakumatsu era.