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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
8 events
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.
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Date unknown (early Sengoku period)
Tsukahara Bokuden, a swordsman from Hitachi, systematized local martial arts and established Kashima Shinto-ryu.
1st month, Tenshō 4 (1576): construction begins – 5th month, Tenshō 7 (1579): main keep completed
In the 1st month of Tenshō 4 (1576), Oda Nobunaga appointed Niwa Nagahide as general construction magistrate and began building a new stronghold on Mt. Azuchi beside Lake Biwa. In the 5th month of Tenshō 7 (1579), a magnificent seven-story tenshu was completed and Nobunaga himself moved in. Combining an all-stone rampart, painted interiors by Kanō Eitoku, and a free-market castle town, Azuchi Castle concentrated a series of innovations that overturned the conventions of Japanese castle architecture. Though it burned soon after the Honnō-ji Incident in 1582, its design left a decisive imprint on all castle-building that followed.
28th day of 2nd month, Tenshō 19 (1591)
The master of wabi-cha, Sen no Rikyū, was forced to commit seppuku by order of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. This incident illuminates the dark underbelly of Azuchi-Momoyama culture, where the Way of Tea intersected with the way of the sword.
August 29, 1588 (8th day, 7th month, Tenshō 16)
The purpose of the Katanagari (Sword Hunt) Edict was to confiscate weapons from farmers and temples to prevent uprisings, and to institutionally establish heinō bunri (separation of warriors and farmers), that is, the status distinction between warriors and farmers. Issued by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 7th month of Tenshō 16 (1588), it was the greatest social transformation in the history of Japanese swords. It was carried out under the pretext that the collected swords would be turned into nails and kasugai (clamps) for the Great Buddha of Hōkōji, and it became the foundation of early modern status-based society.
29th day of the 11th month, Tenshō 13 (January 18, 1586)
The Tenshō earthquake, which struck on the 29th day of the 11th month of Tenshō 13 (January 18, 1586), was a huge earthquake with an estimated magnitude of around 7.8 to 8.2, causing severe damage across a wide area from Hokuriku through Tōkai to Kinki. Kaerikumo Castle in Hida was buried by a landslide, and Kifune Castle in Etchū and Nagahama Castle and others in Ōmi also collapsed, causing many deaths. Occurring in the period just before Toyotomi Hideyoshi's unification of the realm, this earthquake also deeply affected the fate of famous castles and warriors.
A series of incidents from 1535 (Tenbun 4) to c. 1579 (Tenshō 7)
Blades by the Muramasa school of Ise-Kuwana became associated with a chain of wounds and deaths said to have befallen four generations of the Tokugawa house—Kiyoyasu, Hirotada, Ieyasu, and Nobuyasu—giving rise during the Edo period to the legend of the "sword that curses the Tokugawa." The blades’ genuine reputation for sharpness and their wide circulation in the Tōkai region likely underlie the legend’s formation.
September 23, 1543 (Tenbun 12, 8th month, 25th day)
In 1543, Portuguese traders aboard a Chinese junk were shipwrecked on Tanegashima island (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture), bringing the first matchlock firearms to Japan. Lord Tanegashima Tokitaka purchased two guns, and the local swordsmith Yaita Kinbei and others succeeded in making domestic copies in a short time. The rapid spread of firearms fundamentally transformed Sengoku-era warfare, culminating in Oda Nobunaga's organized deployment of arquebusiers at the Battle of Nagashino (1575). The arrival of firearms marked a turning point from the age of individual sword-wielding valor to massed infantry and ranged weaponry.