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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
36 events
Late Kamakura to early Nanboku-chō period (first half of the 14th century)
From the late Kamakura period into the early Nanboku-chō period, Shizu Saburō Kaneuji—a Yamato-born disciple of Masamune counted among his "Ten Disciples"—relocated to Shizu in Mino Province, followed by Kanshige, who moved from Tsuruga in Echizen to Seki. Their fusion of Yamato-den and Sōshū-den techniques, oriented toward practical utility, took root in Mino, establishing the last of the Five Traditions (Gokaden): the Mino tradition.
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c. Eiroku period (1558–1570)
During the mid-Sengoku period, in the Eiroku era (1558–1570), Kamiizumi Ise-no-kami Nobutsuna (born around 1508) developed Kage-ryū and founded Shinkage-ryū. He devised the fukuro shinai (split bamboo sheathed in a leather bag), bringing a revolution to training, and systematized the philosophy of katsujinken (the life-giving sword), which subdues an opponent, rather than setsunintō (the death-dealing sword). Around Eiroku 7 (1564), he performed a demonstration before Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru. He then passed on the inner teachings to Yagyū Muneyoshi, laying the foundations of Yagyū Shinkage-ryū.
1 April 1933 (Shōwa 8)
In 1933 (Shōwa 8) the Law concerning the Preservation of Important Art Objects took effect to stop the outflow of art overseas. It certified items of national-treasure quality not yet designated, and swords became one of the most heavily certified categories. It ran until 1949.
1929 (Shōwa 4)
In 1929 (Shōwa 4) the National Treasures Preservation Law replaced the Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law. Designation was no longer limited to temple and shrine owners, opening the way for privately held swords. It lasted until the 1950 Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties.
1955 – present
In 1954, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was revised to establish a system for certifying Holders of Important Intangible Cultural Property (commonly known as Living National Treasures), and the first certifications were made in 1955. Sword-forging techniques were eligible for certification from the outset. The first certified individual was Takahashi Sadatsugu (1955), followed by Miyairi Akihira (1963) and others. After surviving the threat of seizure by GHQ following the war and being officially defined as “cultural property,” the craft of the Japanese swordsmith was given the state's highest form of recognition through this system. It was carried on by successive Living National Treasures, including Sumitani Masamine and Amata Akitsugu, and laid the foundation for modern sword culture.
Promulgated 30 May 1950; in force 29 August 1950
Prompted by the 1949 fire in the Kondo of Horyu-ji, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was enacted as a member-initiated bill and took effect on 29 August 1950. The earlier National Treasures Preservation Law and the law on important art objects were repealed, moving the protection of art and craft works including Japanese swords into a new framework.
February 1948 (Showa 23)
In February 1948 (Shōwa 23), under the GHQ Occupation of Japan, the Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai (Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords, a public interest incorporated foundation; NBTHK, abbreviated Nittōho in Japanese) was established as a specialist organization. It was founded to counter the crisis of mass destruction and seizure of swords in postwar Japan by positioning swords not as 'weapons' but as 'art and craft objects.' It has functioned as a check on the loss of cultural properties caused by the postwar sword destruction orders, and to this day it remains the central institution for the preservation, appraisal, and honoring of Japanese swords.
Shōwa 20s to Shōwa 30 (early 1950s)
After the war, individual swordsmiths approved by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties were permitted to forge swords, and a practice that had nearly been severed under the Occupation was publicly sanctioned once more. This approval system, together with the first Living National Treasure designation and the start of the Shinsaku Meitō Ten in 1955, formed the framework of the postwar revival of the Japanese sword.
August 1945 – 1948
In August 1945, GHQ ordered the confiscation of all weapons across Japan, threatening hundreds of thousands of Japanese swords with destruction. The campaign by sword scholars and cultural figures to argue that swords were art objects — not weapons — resulted in the founding of the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (NBTHK) in 1948, establishing the legal and cultural framework that protects Japanese swords to this day.
1945–1946 (Showa 20–21)
From late 1945 into 1946 (Shōwa 20–21), the Honjō Masamune, a sword treasured by the Tokugawa family and one of the finest blades in the history of the Japanese sword, went missing after being seized by the GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers). A national-treasure-class blade said to have been forged by Masamune, the Kamakura-period swordsmith who perfected the Sōshū tradition, was permanently lost in the postwar confusion, and its whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
March 28, 1876 (Meiji 9)
On March 28, 1876 (Meiji 9), Grand Council of State Proclamation No. 38, the Haitōrei (Sword Abolition Edict), was issued. This single proclamation banned everyone except military personnel and police officers from wearing swords. It removed the Japanese sword, long the symbol of the samurai's soul, from the streets, provoked the anger of the shizoku, and became the fuse for the Satsuma Rebellion the following year. It was also a landmark proclamation, marking the starting point of the modern sword culture that transformed the Japanese sword from a weapon into art and cultural property.
1897 (Meiji 30)
In 1897 (Meiji 30), Japan promulgated the Ancient Temples and Shrines Preservation Law, which protected the buildings and treasures of old temples and shrines. It was the starting point of the national-treasure system under which swords were later designated.
1896 (Meiji 29), first advanced by Imamura Chōga in the pages of the Yomiuri Shimbun
In 1896, the sword connoisseur Imamura Chōga argued in the pages of the Yomiuri Shimbun that the swordsmith Masamune either never existed or was not the master craftsman he was reputed to be, touching off a controversy that drew in the entire Japanese sword world. Later discoveries of genuinely signed blades and historical documents overturned Imamura's evidentiary basis, and the thesis is rejected by scholarship today.
System established 1890 (Meiji 23); swordsmiths appointed April 4, 1906 (Meiji 39)
In Meiji 23 (1890), the Imperial Household Ministry established the Teishitsu Gigei-in (Imperial Household Artist system), creating a framework to protect and encourage Japan's outstanding fine arts and crafts artisans under the honor of the Imperial Household. Thirty years after the Sword Abolition Edict (Haitōrei) of Meiji 9 (1876) caused demand for Japanese swords to plummet, and 16 years after the system's establishment, on 4 April 1906, two swordsmiths, Gassan Sadakazu (first generation) and Miyamoto Kanenori, were appointed as Imperial Household Artists, officially protecting and recognizing the traditional techniques of Japanese sword-making, which had been on the verge of decline.
August 21, 1877 (Meiji 10)
The First National Industrial Exhibition ran in Ueno Park, Tokyo, from August to November 1877 (Meiji 10). Coming a year after the Haitōrei had removed the market for blades and sword fittings, it was the first national stage of the shokusan kōgyō policy on which smiths and fittings makers had to find where their skills now belonged.
c. 1656 (Meireki 2)
In Meireki 2 (1656), Nagasone Kotetsu, a 50-year-old armorer, moved to Edo and shifted from armor-making to sword-smithing. It was a historic turning point that would later earn him recognition as the foremost swordsmith of the shintō period.
April 1, 1772 (Meiwa 9, 2nd month, 29th day)
On April 1, 1772 (Meiwa 9/2/29), a fire broke out at Daien-ji temple on the Gyōninzaka slope in Meguro, Edo. Dying down and flaring up again, it spread until the 1st day of the 3rd month and burned a wide area of Edo. The Great Meiwa Fire (also called the Meguro Gyōninzaka Fire), one of the largest fires in Edo's history with 14,700 dead, is thought to have dealt a blow to the swordsmiths working in Edo as well, and it occurred as the shintō period was giving way to the shinshintō period.
Bunkyū 3 (1863) to Genji 1 (1864) (the period when Kondō's letters record his possession of a Kotetsu)
Kondō Isami, chief of the Shinsengumi, is said to have favored a sword by Nagasone Kotetsu, a master rated as saijō ō-wazamono. However, authentic Kotetsu works were already rare at the time and false signatures were rampant. The current accepted view is that the sword Kondō possessed was also a fake rather than an authentic work by Nagasone Okisato.
1208 (Jōgen 2)
In 1208 (Jōgen 2), Retired Emperor Gotoba summoned outstanding swordsmiths from across Japan to his detached palace at Minase and established the Gobankaji system, under which they took turns forging blades on a monthly rotation. Twelve master smiths from Bizen, Bitchū, and Yamashiro were chosen, and the Retired Emperor himself also hardened the edges of blades (the Kiku Gosaku). The system raised the Japanese sword beyond a weapon into a work of art and gave rise to the golden age of swords in the mid-Kamakura period. As a court-led policy to promote sword culture that set the precedent for later rulers' patronage of swordsmiths, it is counted among the most important cultural policies in the history of the Japanese sword.
12th day of the 2nd month, Keichō 8 (1603)
On the 12th day of the 2nd month of Keichō 8 (March 24, 1603), Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed Sei-i Taishōgun and established the shogunate in Edo. The consolidation of power, achieved about two years after the Battle of Sekigahara, laid the foundation for the Edo period, which lasted more than 260 years. Through the organization of the bakuhan system, the enactment of the Buke Shohatto, and the legalization of the sankin-kōtai system, the warrior status and sword-fitting culture became highly institutionalized, and the Japanese sword evolved from a weapon into a symbol of samurai authority and beauty.
c. 1606 (Keichō 11)
First-generation Yasutsugu receives the name "Yasutsugu" and permission to use the triple hollyhock crest from Tokugawa Ieyasu, establishing the symbolic status of Edo sword craftsmanship.
c. 1368 (Ōan 1)
Nen-ryū, founded by Nen-ami Jion (secular name Sōma Shirō Yoshimoto, born 1350) from the late Nanboku-chō period into the early Muromachi period, is regarded as one of the three great source schools of heihō and the oldest of them. Around 1368, Jion attained the secret essence of the sword while training at Anraku-ji in Tsukushi, Kyushu, and he perfected his swordsmanship through travels across the provinces. Chūjō-ryū, founded by his disciple Chūjō Nagahide, formed a core lineage of Japanese swordsmanship that led on to Ittō-ryū. The orthodox line of Nen-ryū survives today as Maniwa Nen-ryū, which was inherited by Higuchi Sadatsugu in the late Sengoku period.
From Onin 1–Bunmei 9 (1467–1477) onward
Through the devastation of the Ōnin War (1467–1477) and the collapse of the Muromachi shogunate's authority that followed, the Higashiyama Gomotsu, a collection centered on karamono (Chinese art objects), mostly Chinese (Song and Yuan) paintings but also including tea utensils, flower vases, and writing implements, which the Ashikaga shogunal family had collected and kept over generations, flowed out of the Kyoto gosho and storehouses and scattered into the hands of daimyō, merchants, and temples and shrines. Among the dispersed objects, the tea utensils were prized by tea masters of the Azuchi-Momoyama period and also influenced the later view of meibutsu.
Kenchō era (1249–1256)
In the Kenchō era (1249–1256), at the invitation of Hōjō Tokiyori, regent of the Kamakura shogunate, Awataguchi Kunitsuna moved from Yamashiro to Kamakura. Shintōgo Kunimitsu, said to be his son or adopted son, established the foundation of the Sōshū-den in the late Kamakura period, based on techniques that took root in Sōshū (Sagami Province, present-day Kanagawa Prefecture). Kunimitsu drew on the techniques of the Yamashiro-den (Awataguchi) and Bizen-den, creating a new style built on suguha with strong nie and visible kinsuji and inazuma activity. This technique was passed on to his disciples Yukimitsu and Masamune and completed as the Sōshū-den, characterized by ara-nie-deki hamon.