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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
36 events
Date unknown (early Sengoku period)
Tsukahara Bokuden, a swordsman from Hitachi, systematized local martial arts and established Kashima Shinto-ryu.
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December 26, 1634 (Kan'ei 11, 11th month, 7th day)
On the 7th day of the 11th month of Kan'ei 11 (1634), at Kagiya no Tsuji in Ueno in Iga Province (present-day Iga City, Mie Prefecture), the swordsman Araki Mataemon assisted his brother-in-law Watanabe Kazuma against the party of Kawai Matagorō, the enemy of Kazuma, and Kazuma cut down Matagorō. Counted among the Three Great Vendettas of Japan, it was the largest duel of the Edo period, and Araki Mataemon's outstanding swordsmanship and courage became legend.
c. Hōji–Kenchō eras (1247–1256)
In the mid-Kamakura period (according to ancient records, around the Hōji and Kenchō eras, 1247–1256), Mitsutada forged swords in Osafune, Bizen Province (present-day Osafune-chō, Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture), establishing the foundation of the Bizen Osafune school. Inheriting the technical legacy of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, which had flourished under the Goban-kaji system of Retired Emperor Go-Toba (1208), the school developed its own style by drawing on the geographic advantages of the Yoshii River basin and abundant iron sand (satetsu). Passed down through three generations, from Mitsutada to his son Nagamitsu and grandson Kagemitsu, the Osafune school became Japan's largest sword-producing center from the Kamakura through the Muromachi period, and many prominent warlords favored Osafune blades.
An'ei 3 (1774) – Bunsei 8 (1825)
Suishinshi Masahide (1750–1825), who was taken into service by the Akimoto family, lords of Yamagata domain, in An'ei 3 (1774) and forged swords in Edo, criticized the ostentation and formalism of the sword world of his time. He proposed the fukkotō-ron (the doctrine of reviving the swords of old), which held that Japanese swords should return to the ways of the kotō era. Through works such as Tōken Jitsuyōron and Kenkō Hidenshi, he called for a return to the Kamakura and Nanboku-chō styles of kotō, and more than 100 disciples from across the country gathered at his workshop. His theories were carried on by his disciple Taikei Naotane and others, and Masahide, Naotane and Minamoto Kiyomaro are together called the 'Edo Sansaku' (Three Masters of Edo). The movement dramatically revived the declining culture of Japanese swords. Positioned as the watershed between shintō (new swords) and shinshintō (new-new swords) in sword history, it combined with the sharp rise in sword demand of the bakumatsu period to produce a golden age of swords that lasted until the eve of the Haitōrei (Sword Abolishment Edict).
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.
11th month, Kyōhō 4 (1719)
In the 11th month of Kyōhō 4 (1719), Honami Kōchū (?–1725), acting on the orders of Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684–1751), the eighth shogun of the Edo shogunate, compiled and presented the Kyōhō Meibutsuchō. This catalogue of famous blades systematically recorded 274 blades from the Heian period onward (168 extant blades, 80 lost blades, and 26 supplementary entries), together with their inscriptions, provenance, dimensions, and valuations. It was compiled during the Kyōhō Reforms of the Edo shogunate. It is still consulted today as an essential reference for sword research and remains a landmark project in the systematization of Japanese sword culture.
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.