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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
175 events
6th day of the 5th month, Keichō 20 (1615)
A battle on the 6th day of the 5th month of Keichō 20 (1615) in the Summer Campaign of Ōsaka, fought near Dōmyōji and Konda in Kawachi Province between the Toyotomi army and the Tokugawa Yamato column. Gotō Mototsugu and Susukida Kanesuke, who had gone ahead, were killed, and Sanada Nobushige covered the retreat.
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4th–5th month of Keichō 20 (1615)
In the 5th month of Keichō 20 (1615), Tokugawa Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi house in the final battle. Sanada Yukimura charged in a desperate assault toward Ieyasu's main encampment, and his fierce last stand was praised as "the finest warrior in Japan."
January 3, 1615 (Keichō 19, 12th month, 4th day)
A battle fought around Sanada-maru, the outwork Sanada Nobushige (Yukimura) built south of Osaka Castle during the Winter Siege of 1614. Toyotomi defenders repelled the Tokugawa vanguard under Maeda Toshitsune, Ii Naotaka and Matsudaira Tadanao, and the campaign then moved toward a peace settlement and the filling of the moats.
10th–12th month of Keichō 19 (1614)
From the 10th to the 12th month of Keichō 19 (1614), Tokugawa Ieyasu laid siege to Toyotomi Hideyori's castle, Osaka Castle. Sanada Yukimura built the Sanada-maru and repelled the Tokugawa forces. The battle became a complex siege in which cannon bombardment and peace negotiations were intertwined. It was the direct prelude to the following year's Summer Campaign.
13th day of the 4th month, Keichō 17 (1612), according to the Niten Ki (disputed)
On the 13th day of the 4th month of Keichō 17 (May 13, 1612), Miyamoto Musashi and Sasaki Kojirō fought a one-on-one duel on Ganryūjima Island in Buzen Province. Musashi emerged victorious in the most celebrated single combat in Japanese history.
4th day of the 3rd month – 4th day of the 4th month, Keichō 14 (1609) — from the fleet's departure at Yamakawa to the surrender of Shuri Castle
In 1609, a force of roughly 3,000 troops led by Kabayama Hisataka, acting on the orders of Satsuma domain lord Shimazu Iehisa, invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom. Departing from Yamakawa Harbor, they sailed via Amami Ōshima, Tokunoshima, and Okinoerabujima to land at Unten Harbor, forcing the surrender of Shuri Castle and King Shō Nei. Ryukyu subsequently entered a dual subordination to both Japan and China that lasted until the end of the shogunate.
Keio 4 (1868), intercalary 4th month 20th day to 7th month 14th day (old calendar; 10 June to 31 August 1868)
A Boshin War battle fought around Shirakawa Castle (Komine Castle) between the new government army and the allied forces including Aizu from the 20th day of the intercalary 4th month to the 14th day of the 7th month of Keio 4 (old calendar). Centered on the new government army's recapture of the castle on the 1st day of the 5th month, it sets out the fighting before and after and the differing casualty figures.
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.
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.
10th–12th month of Ōei 6 (1399–1400)
In 1399, the powerful western daimyo Ōuchi Yoshihiro raised a rebellion against Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu at Sakai in Izumi Province. Yoshihiro's death in battle with sword in hand ended the revolt and cemented Yoshimitsu's supreme authority, shaping the cultural flourishing of the Muromachi sword tradition.
6th month, Ōei 26 (1419)
In the 6th month of Ōei 26 (1419), Joseon Korea invaded Tsushima with a large force of 227 warships and 17,285 men. The Tsushima forces under Sō Sadamori, shugo (military governor) of Tsushima, fought well with ambushes that made use of the local terrain and repelled the Korean army. In Kyoto, the invasion was initially feared as a revival of the Mongol invasions, and it brought a major turning point to the Muromachi shogunate and to Japan–Korea relations.
September 27, 1556 (24th day, 8th month, Kōji 2)
The fratricidal battle between Oda Nobunaga and his younger brother Oda Nobuyuki (Nobukatsu), which broke out at Inō in Owari Province (present-day Nishi Ward, Nagoya City) on September 27, 1556 (Kōji 2/8/24). With fewer than 700 troops, Nobunaga defeated the 1,700-strong force of Nobuyuki's side, led by Shibata Katsuie and Hayashi Mimasaka-no-kami (Michitomo), and gained the upper hand in the struggle over the family headship.
May 28, 1556 (Kōji 2, 4th month, 20th day)
The battle in which Saitō Dōsan was killed on the 20th day of the 4th month of Kōji 2 (1556) while fighting the army led by his biological son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, on the bank of the Nagara River in Mino Province (present-day Gifu City). Dōsan, known by the nickname "Viper of Mino" (mamushi), met his end after being betrayed by his son. The battle dealt a severe shock to Oda Nobunaga, who had relied on the support of his father-in-law, Dōsan.
1281 (Kōan 4)
The second Mongol invasion of Japan: in Kōan 4 (1281), a Yuan–Goryeo armada of about 140,000 troops on some 4,400 ships descended on Hakata Bay. The stone walls built under Hōjō Tokimune, the Japanese warriors' night raids and close-quarters fighting, and a storm on the 30th day of the 7th month (the "divine wind," kamikaze) destroyed the Yuan forces. It was the greatest event in which late-Kamakura Japanese swords were put to the test in real combat, and a historic campaign that coincided with the golden age of swordsmithing, when Nagamitsu of Bizen Osafune and Masamune of Sagami were active.
Third month (2nd), Kenmu 3 / Engen 1 (April 13, 1336)
In the third month of Kenmu 3 / Engen 1 (1336), Ashikaga Takauji—driven from Kyoto and forced to flee to Kyushu—defeated the large army of Kikuchi Taketoshi, loyal to Emperor Go-Daigo, at Tatarahama in Chikuzen. Barely 2,000 Ashikaga troops broke the Kikuchi army of over 20,000 by inducing mass defections. The victory brought most of Kyushu over to Takauji, allowing him to regroup and march east again toward his victory over Kusunoki Masashige at Minatogawa.
July 4, 1336 (25th day, 5th month, Kemmu 3 / Engen 1)
In the 5th month of Kemmu 3 / Engen 1 (1336), Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada faced Ashikaga Takauji's overwhelming forces in the first decisive battle of the Nanbokuchō period. Masashige, knowing victory was impossible, fought with desperate courage before taking his own life. His loyalty unto death became the defining image of Japanese martial virtue.
August–September 1335 (Kenmu 2, 7th–8th month)
A rebellion in which, in the 7th month of Kenmu 2 (1335), Hōjō Tokiyuki, a son of Hōjō Takatoki, raised troops in Shinano Province and briefly occupied Kamakura. Ashikaga Takauji's unauthorized march to Kamakura, undertaken without Emperor Go-Daigo's permission to defeat Tokiyuki, triggered the break between Takauji and the Kenmu government, a historic event that heralded the opening of the Nanboku-chō period.
May 23, 1213 (2nd day, 5th month, Kenryaku 3)
In the 5th month of Kenryaku 3 (1213), an internal conflict of the Kamakura shogunate broke out in Kamakura. Wada Yoshimori, head of the Samurai-dokoro, rose in armed rebellion against Hōjō Yoshitoki, but he was defeated and his clan was destroyed. This battle further strengthened the Hōjō clan's control within the shogunate and played a decisive role in establishing shikken politics.
797 (Enryaku 16): appointment as Sei'i Taishogun; 801–802 (Enryaku 20–21): decisive campaign
In 797 (Enryaku 16), Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was appointed Sei'i Taishogun (Shogun). Leading the third Emishi campaign in 801–802, he forced the submission of the Emishi chieftain Aterui and established Isawa Castle, relocating the military headquarters northward. Tamuramaro's combination of military force and conciliation consolidated central government control over northeastern Japan and established the historical precedent for the title of "Sei'i Taishogun"—a designation later inherited by Minamoto no Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, becoming the defining title of samurai governance in Japan.