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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
16 events
1028–1031 (Chōgen 1–4)
From 1028 to 1031 (Chōgen 1–4), Taira no Tadatsune, a powerful figure in the three Bōsō provinces (Kazusa, Shimōsa, and Awa), rose up against provincial governor rule. The first court commander, Taira no Naokata, failed to suppress him over three years; when Minamoto no Yorinobu, governor of Kai, took command, Tadatsune surrendered without a fight. The rebellion's resolution became the starting point for Kawachi Genji expansion into eastern Japan and the rise of the warrior class.
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527–528 (Keitai 21–22)
In 527–528 (Keitai 21–22), Tsukushi no Kimi Iwai, a powerful chieftain who independently controlled northern Kyushu, allied with Silla to block a Yamato court expedition bound for the Korean peninsula. After fierce fighting with a court army led by Mononobe no Arakahi, the uprising was crushed—one of the largest regional rebellions recorded in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.
4th month, 9th day – 5th month, 26th day, Jishō 4 (1180)
The 1180 attempt by Prince Mochihito, a son of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, and Minamoto no Yorimasa to overthrow the Taira. The plot was discovered, and after fleeing to Onjō-ji both leaders were killed following the bridge battle at Uji. The uprising failed, but his edict spurred Minamoto risings elsewhere.
Erupted in the 9th month of Eiroku 6 (1563); the Battle of Batōga-hara was fought on the 15th day of the 1st month of Eiroku 7 (1564), and a truce followed in spring of the same year
From the 9th month of Eiroku 6 (1563) to the spring of Eiroku 7 (1564), Jōdo Shinshū (Hongan-ji) followers in Mikawa Province and the "Three Temples of Mikawa" (Honshōji, Jōgūji, Shōmanji) rose up against the rule of Matsudaira Ieyasu. Part of Ieyasu's own retainer band defected to the rebel side, splitting his forces, but Ieyasu's side prevailed at the Battle of Batōga-hara and a truce followed.
Eishō 3 (1506) – Eishō 17 (1520)
From Eishō 3 (1506) to Eishō 17 (1520), a large-scale civil war spanning Kantō, Echigo, and Hokuriku grew out of the rebellion of Nagao Tamekage in Echigo. After Tamekage defeated the Echigo shugo, Uesugi Fusayoshi, the Kantō kanrei Uesugi Akisada took up arms in revenge, and the conflict spread to an internal dispute within the Yamanouchi Uesugi clan and to the Koga kubō household. At the Battle of Nagamorihara, Uesugi Akisada was killed in action, and the authority of the Kantō kanrei steadily weakened. The Later Hōjō clan then seized the opportunity to advance into Kantō, opening the path to becoming sengoku daimyo. The incident symbolizes both the decline of the Muromachi shogunate and the dramatic rise of daimyo power.
October 27–31, 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876, roughly 400 shizoku (former samurai) of the old Akizuki domain (present-day Akizuki, Asakura City, Fukuoka) rose up in protest of the sword abolition edict and the abolition of hereditary stipends, in response to the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto. Led by Miyazaki Shanosuke and Imamura Hyakuhachirō, the rebels tried and failed to coordinate with the Toyotsu shizoku, and were suppressed within days by government troops from the Kokura garrison. Alongside the Shinpūren, Hagi, and Saga rebellions, it is counted among the shizoku uprisings that erupted around Meiji 9.
October–December 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October of Meiji 9 (1876), a shizoku rebellion broke out in Hagi in Nagato Province (present-day Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture) against the Meiji government. It was led by Maebara Issei, one of the leading figures of the Restoration, and its members were shizoku of the former Chōshū Domain. Against a background of shizoku discontent over the Sword Abolition Edict (Haitōrei) of March that year and the abolition of samurai stipends (chitsuroku shobun), among other measures, the rebels rose in response to the Shinpūren (Keishintō) Rebellion in Kumamoto and the Akizuki Rebellion in the former Akizuki Domain. They organized an approximately 200-strong Junkoku-gun ('Army of Martyrs for the Nation'), but within a little over a week they were suppressed by government forces, and Maebara and the other leaders were executed. The incident was a precursor to the Satsuma Rebellion (Seinan War) of the following year.
February 1874 (Meiji 7)
In February 1874 (Meiji 7), former state councilor Etō Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake led shizoku (former samurai) of the old Saga domain in a rebellion against the Meiji government. Etō's Seikan-tō (Invade-Korea Party), which had left the government after the seikanron political crisis, joined with Shima's Yūkoku-tō (Patriotic Party), which sought a feudal restoration, and they seized Saga Castle. Yet in the face of the government's swift response—leveraging the telegraph and steamships—the revolt was crushed within weeks, and Etō and Shima were beheaded and their heads displayed. It was the forerunner of the large-scale shizoku revolts of the early Meiji era.
6th month, Bunmei 8 (1476) to 24th day of the 6th month, Bunmei 12 (1480)
In 1476 Nagao Kageharu, passed over for the post of chief retainer of the Yamanouchi Uesugi, rebelled and in the first month of 1477 overran the Igako camp. Ōta Dōkan's campaigns destroyed the Toshima and other allies, and in the sixth month of 1480 Kageharu was driven out of Musashi.
the 12th day of the 10th month of Bunkyū 3 (November 22, 1863)
An uprising in the 10th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863) at Ikuno in Tajima Province in which sonnō jōi activists led by Hirano Kuniomi, backing the court noble Sawa Nobuyoshi, rose in arms in response to the Tenchūgumi rebellion in Yamato. The revolt collapsed within two days under attack from allied domain forces and internal division, marking it as one of the earliest grassroots uprisings of the bakumatsu era.
17th day of the 8th month, Bunkyū 3 (1863)
In the 8th month of Bunkyū 3 (1863), the noble Nakayama Tadamitsu and rōnin Yoshimura Toratarō led an armed uprising in Gojō, Yamato Province, attacking the shogunate's magistrate office. Branded rebels after the August 18 coup in Kyoto canceled the planned imperial procession, the group was destroyed within about forty days.
2nd day of the 10th month, Ōei 23 (1416) to 10th day of the 1st month, Ōei 24 (1417)
A civil war in the Kamakura Government: in the tenth month of 1416, former Kantō Deputy Shogun Uesugi Ujinori (Zenshū) rose with Ashikaga Mitsutaka against the Kamakura kubō Ashikaga Mochiuji. Mochiuji fled to Suruga, recovered with shogunate backing, and Zenshū and his allies killed themselves at Yukinoshita, Kamakura, in the first month of 1417.
Imagawa Ujiteru and Hikogorō died suddenly on the 17th day of the 3rd month of Tenbun 5 (April 7, 1536); the conflict ended with Etan's suicide on the 10th day of the 6th month (June 28, 1536)
In 1536, the sudden deaths of Imagawa Ujiteru and his brother Hikogorō triggered a succession struggle within the Imagawa clan. Forces backing Senkaku Shōhō (the future Imagawa Yoshimoto) fought those backing Genkō Etan across Suruga Province; the fall of Hanakura Castle and Etan's suicide left Yoshimoto as head of the clan.
Tengyō 2–4 (939–941)
Tengyō 2–4 (939–941): a rebellion launched by Fujiwara no Sumitomo, a former kokushi (provincial official) of Iyo Province, who led pirate groups of the Seto Inland Sea. Together with the contemporaneous Taira no Masakado Rebellion (the eastern component of the Jōhei-Tengyō Disturbances), it symbolizes the weakening of the ritsuryō state and is emblematic of a transitional period in which provincial warrior bands and swords burst onto the main stage of history.
9th month, Tenpyō-hōji 8 (764)
In 764, Fujiwara no Nakamaro (Emi no Oshikatsu), who held supreme power as Grand Minister (Taishi), rose in rebellion in an attempt to remove the monk Dōkyō, who had risen to prominence through the favor of Retired Empress Kōken. Nakamaro failed to seize the imperial seal and bell that symbolized sovereign authority, fled to Ōmi Province, and was hunted down and killed at Katsuno-onie in Takashima District. In the aftermath, Emperor Junnin was exiled to Awaji, Retired Empress Kōken resumed the throne as Empress Shōtoku, and Dōkyō's power grew further as Chancellor-Preceptor.
8th–11th month, Tenpyō 12 (740)
In Tenpyō 12 (740), Fujiwara no Hirotsugu, who had been demoted to Dazai no Shōni (junior assistant governor-general of Dazaifu), raised an army at Dazaifu. He demanded the expulsion of the monk Genbō and the scholar Kibi no Makibi, who held real power at court. This was a civil war of the Nara period. He led forces levied from the provinces of Kyushu, but he was defeated by court forces at the Battle of the Itabitsu River. Hirotsugu was captured in Matsura District, Hizen Province, and executed. Emperor Shōmu left Heijō-kyō before news of the suppression of the rebellion reached the capital. He then entered the "five years of wandering," during which he repeatedly moved the capital to Kuni-kyō, Naniwa-no-miya, and Shigaraki-no-miya.