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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
14 events
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.
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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 The earlier National Treasures Preservation Law and the law on important art objects were repealed, moving the protection of art and craft works including Japanese swords into a new framework.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.
From 14 January 2015
A phenomenon in which interest in real swords spread, especially among young women, after the game Touken Ranbu launched in January 2015. The term token joshi ('sword girls') was nominated for that year's Japan buzzword awards.