An incident in which, on the 19th day of the 5th month of Eiroku 8 (1565), forces of the Miyoshi Sanningumi and Matsunaga Hisamichi raided the palace of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru and killed him. Records state that Yoshiteru fought bravely to the end, wielding a naginata and swords himself, and in later ages an anecdote arose that he had stuck several famous swords into the tatami and fought while switching from one to the next. Yoshiteru's mother, Keijuin, also killed herself on the same day. Known as the death most closely tied to swords in Japanese history, this historical event symbolizes the life of Yoshiteru, who was called the “Swordmaster Shogun.”

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6th day of the 2nd month, Eiroku 7 (1564)

Takenaka Hanbei's Seizure of Inabayama Castle — A Coup of Sixteen Men and the Pride of the Sword

In the 2nd month of Eiroku 7 (1564), Takenaka Shigeharu (Hanbei) seized the seemingly impregnable Inabayama Castle with just sixteen men. Born of indignation at his lord Saitō Tatsuoki's incompetence, this audacious coup became the founding legend of Hanbei's reputation as one of the Sengoku era's supreme strategists.

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6th month, Tenshō 10 (1582)

Ieyasu's Iga Flight

In the 6th month of 1582, immediately after the Honnōji Incident, Tokugawa Ieyasu made a desperate escape from Sakai to Okazaki Castle in Mikawa via Iga and Kōka, guarded by Hattori Hanzō. This perilous journey became a founding legend of the Tokugawa house and a decisive step toward Ieyasu's eventual unification of Japan.

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9th month, 1st day, Tenbun 20 (September 30, 1551)

Daineiji Incident — The Fall of Ouchi Yoshitaka

In Tenbun 20 (1551), Sue Harukata, a senior retainer of the Ouchi clan, rebelled and drove Ouchi Yoshitaka, the great cultural patron of western Japan, to take his own life at Daineiji temple in Nagato. With the fall of the Ouchi, who had carried on the Japan–Ming trade, the official kangō (tally) trade also came to an end.