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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
128 events
1474 (Bunmei 6) – 1580 (Tenshō 8)
The Ikko Uprising that erupted in Kaga Province (present-day Ishikawa) in 1474 (Bunmei 6) continued for approximately 100 years until it was suppressed by Oda Nobunaga in 1580 (Tenshō 8), establishing a unique autonomous self-governance known as 'a nation held by commoners.' This uprising, in which armed Ikko adherents overthrew provincial governors and their deputies, is deeply inscribed in sword history as an emblematic event symbolizing the practical aspects of Japanese swords and the intersection of religion and peasantry.
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c. 1596 (Keichō 1)
Around Keichō 1 (1596), Toyotomi Hideyoshi appointed Honami Kōtoku as “touken kiwamedokoro” (sword authentication office) and officially sanctioned a system of sword appraisal and valuation by origami (folded appraisal certificates). Origami issued by the Honami family served as official appraisal documents recording the smith’s inscription, dimensions and appraised value (daitsuke). They laid the foundation for the later compilation of the Kyōhō Meibutsu Chō and for modern sword authentication systems.
October 13–21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 9th month, 7th–15th day)
From the 7th to the 15th day of the 9th month of Keichō 5 (October 13–21, 1600), Kyōgoku Takatsugu held Ōtsu Castle in Ōmi Province against a Western Army force led by Tachibana Muneshige for nine days. His determined resistance pinned down fifteen thousand Western troops — including the formidable Tachibana forces — until the day Sekigahara was decided, thereby making a significant indirect contribution to the Eastern Army's victory. The siege transformed the man derided as a 'firefly lord' into an unlikely hero.
17th–18th day of the 9th month, Keichō 5 (1600)
On the 17th and 18th days of the 9th month of Keichō 5 (1600), just two days after the main battle of Sekigahara, Sawayama Castle in Ōmi Province (present-day Hikone, Shiga Prefecture) was besieged. Ishida Mitsunari's father, Ishida Masatsugu, and his elder brother, Ishida Masazumi, held the castle against an Eastern Army of 15,000. The garrison numbered only 2,800 and the castle fell, and many members of the Ishida clan, including Masatsugu and Masazumi, took their own lives. The castle that had symbolized Mitsunari's power was destroyed. It is an emblematic episode of the mop-up operations following Sekigahara.
13th–14th day of the 9th month, Keichō 5 (1600)
On the 13th to 14th day of the 9th month of Keichō 5 (1600), at Ishigakibaru in Hayami District, Bungo Province (present-day Beppu City, Ōita Prefecture), the forces of Kuroda Josui (Yoshitaka, Kuroda Kanbei), who sided with the Eastern Army (Tokugawa side), clashed with those of Ōtomo Yoshimune (Yoshitō), who sought to recover his former domain in concert with the Western Army. Because it was fought at about the same time as the main battle of Sekigahara, it is also called 'Kyūshū's Sekigahara.' The Kuroda side won, and Ōtomo Yoshimune surrendered, ending any hope of the Ōtomo clan's revival as a daimyo house.
9th–10th months of Keichō 5 (1600)
In the 9th month of Keichō 5 (1600), at the same time as the Battle of Sekigahara, a battle broke out in the Ōu region between the forces of Uesugi Kagekatsu and the combined army of Mogami Yoshiaki and Date Masamune. The Uesugi army under Naoe Kanetsugu attacked Hasedo Castle, but withdrew in the face of the stubborn resistance of the Mogami side and the news of the defeat at Sekigahara.
September 29–30, 1600 (Keichō 5/8/22–23)
From the 22nd to the 23rd days of the 8th month of Keichō 5 (1600), the Battle of Gifu Castle took place at Gifu Castle in Mino Province (present-day Gifu City, Gifu Prefecture). In this battle, the Eastern Army, led by Fukushima Masanori, Ikeda Terumasa and others, captured Gifu Castle, which was held by Oda Hidenobu (Sanbōshi) of the Western Army, in two days. It held an important position as a prelude to the Battle of Sekigahara, and the Eastern Army's decisive victory, which came before the battle that would decide the realm, greatly disrupted the Western Army's strategic deployment.
24th–25th day of the 7th month, Keichō 5 (1600)
On the 24th–25th day of the 7th month of Keichō 5 (1600), Date Masamune, acting in support of Tokugawa Ieyasu's campaign against Uesugi Kagekatsu, attacked Shiroishi Castle in Mutsu Province, then held by the Uesugi. The titular castellan, Amakasu Kagetsugu, was absent on duty at Aizu; the actual defense fell to his nephew Tosaka Katsuno, who surrendered within roughly a day. The battle served as the opening engagement of the Keichō Dewa Campaign.
August 27 – October 19, 1600 (Keichō 5/7/19 – 9/13)
A siege fought from the 7th to the 9th month of Keichō 5 (1600) at Tanabe Castle in Tango Province (present-day Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture), in which Hosokawa Yūsai (Fujitaka), renowned both as a man of culture and as a warrior, held out for about two months against a large Western Army force. Peace was concluded by imperial command of Emperor Go-Yōzei, and Yūsai's life was specially spared as the sole heir of the Kokin Denju. It is famous as the last siege of a commander accomplished in both letters and arms, who loved waka poetry and swords.
August 27 – September 8, 1600 (Keichō 5, 7th month, 19th day – 8th month, 1st day)
The Battle of Fushimi Castle (1600) was the opening engagement of the Sekigahara campaign. Torii Mototada, Tokugawa Ieyasu's veteran retainer, held the castle with roughly 1,800 men against a Western Army of some 40,000 for more than ten days before the castle fell. Mototada's death and the blood-stained floorboards — preserved in temples as 'blood ceilings' — became powerful symbols of samurai loyalty on the eve of the battle that unified Japan.
25th day of the 7th month, Keichō 5 (1600)
In the 7th month of 1600, on the eve of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu convened a war council at Oyama in Shimotsuke Province. Securing the loyalty of eastern lords including Fukushima Masanori, he pivoted from the Aizu campaign to confronting the Western Army — a turning point that determined the fate of Japan.
Keichō 2 (1597) – Keichō 3 (1598)
In Keichō 2 (1597), after a four-year truce that followed the Bunroku Campaign, Toyotomi Hideyoshi again sent a large army to Korea. The war records the realities of early modern warfare, in which Japanese swords and matchlocks were used together. It includes the siege of Ulsan Castle led by Katō Kiyomasa and the Battle of Noryang Strait, where Shimazu Yoshihiro and others struggled. With Hideyoshi's death, the war lost its purpose and all Japanese forces withdrew. It inflicted immense human and cultural losses on the Korean Peninsula.
4th–5th month of Keichō 20 (1615)
In the 5th month of Keichō 20 (1615), Tokugawa Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi house in the final battle. Sanada Yukimura charged in a desperate assault toward Ieyasu's main encampment, and his fierce last stand was praised as "the finest warrior in Japan."
January 3, 1615 (Keichō 19, 12th month, 4th day)
A battle fought around Sanada-maru, the outwork Sanada Nobushige (Yukimura) built south of Osaka Castle during the Winter Siege of 1614. Toyotomi defenders repelled the Tokugawa vanguard under Maeda Toshitsune, Ii Naotaka and Matsudaira Tadanao, and the campaign then moved toward a peace settlement and the filling of the moats.
10th–12th month of Keichō 19 (1614)
From the 10th to the 12th month of Keichō 19 (1614), Tokugawa Ieyasu laid siege to Toyotomi Hideyori's castle, Osaka Castle. Sanada Yukimura built the Sanada-maru and repelled the Tokugawa forces. The battle became a complex siege in which cannon bombardment and peace negotiations were intertwined. It was the direct prelude to the following year's Summer Campaign.
September 27, 1556 (24th day, 8th month, Kōji 2)
The fratricidal battle between Oda Nobunaga and his younger brother Oda Nobuyuki (Nobukatsu), which broke out at Inō in Owari Province (present-day Nishi Ward, Nagoya City) on September 27, 1556 (Kōji 2/8/24). With fewer than 700 troops, Nobunaga defeated the 1,700-strong force of Nobuyuki's side, led by Shibata Katsuie and Hayashi Mimasaka-no-kami (Michitomo), and gained the upper hand in the struggle over the family headship.
May 28, 1556 (Kōji 2, 4th month, 20th day)
The battle in which Saitō Dōsan was killed on the 20th day of the 4th month of Kōji 2 (1556) while fighting the army led by his biological son, Saitō Yoshitatsu, on the bank of the Nagara River in Mino Province (present-day Gifu City). Dōsan, known by the nickname "Viper of Mino" (mamushi), met his end after being betrayed by his son. The battle dealt a severe shock to Oda Nobunaga, who had relied on the support of his father-in-law, Dōsan.
Date unknown (early Sengoku period)
Tsukahara Bokuden, a swordsman from Hitachi, systematized local martial arts and established Kashima Shinto-ryu.
September 4–26, 1573 (8th day of the 8th month – 1st day of the 9th month, Tenshō 1)
A battle in which, in Tenshō 1 (1573), Oda Nobunaga launched an all-out assault on Odani Castle (Ōmi Province, present-day Shiga Prefecture), the stronghold of Azai Nagamasa. Odani Castle was a mountain fortress renowned throughout the realm, but it fell before Nobunaga's large army and the coordinated attacks of his generals. Azai Nagamasa took his own life, and the Azai clan was destroyed. This siege greatly opened the way for Nobunaga's unification of the realm.
8th month, Tenshō 1 (1573)
In the 8th month of Tenshō 1 (1573), Asakura Yoshikage abandoned his main castle, Ichijodani Castle, and fled after Oda Nobunaga's fierce pursuit. The Asakura clan, which had enjoyed a century of prosperity, was destroyed within just a few days.
April 25, 1581 (22nd day, 3rd month, Tenshō 9)
On the 22nd day of the 3rd month of Tenshō 9 (April 25, 1581), Takatenjin Castle in Tōtōmi Province (present-day Kakegawa, Shizuoka Prefecture) fell to Tokugawa forces. Takeda Katsuyori was unable to send relief to the besieged garrison, and the castle commander Okabe Motonobu and many of his men were killed. The Takeda retainers' disillusionment with Katsuyori, who had failed to hold Takatenjin, became decisive, making this tragic siege the turning point toward the fall of the Takeda clan the following year.
9th month, Tenshō 9 (1581)
In the 9th month of Tenshō 9 (1581), Oda Nobunaga appointed his second son, Nobukatsu, as commander-in-chief and invaded Iga Province with an army of more than 40,000 men. It was the "Second Tenshō Iga War," ordered by Nobunaga to avenge the failure of the first invasion two years earlier (Tenshō 7). Iga, known as the home of the shinobi, attempted organized resistance, but in the face of overwhelming numerical superiority it was destroyed within a few days. This battle is a rare historical case in which the sword culture of the samurai directly collided with the culture of ninja concealed weapons and daggers.
Tenshō 9 – Tenshō 13 (1581–1585)
Sassa Narimasa, a commander of the Oda house, entered Toyama Castle in 1581 and the following year was given charge of all of Etchū Province, fighting the Uesugi at Uozu and elsewhere. After the Honnō-ji Incident he sided with Shibata Katsuie and later with Tokugawa Ieyasu against Hashiba Hideyoshi, and in the 8th month of Tenshō 13 (1585) he surrendered when Hideyoshi's great army surrounded Toyama Castle (the Toyama Campaign).
6th month, Tenshō 7 (1579)
In the 6th month of Tenshō 7 (1579), Akechi Mitsuhide brought down the impregnable Yagami Castle (present-day Tanba-Sasayama City, Hyōgo Prefecture) during his campaign to subdue Tanba, which had lasted several years. Castellan Hatano Hideharu and his brothers were executed on Nobunaga's orders. After the capture of Kuroi Castle in the 8th month of the same year, all of Tanba Province came under Mitsuhide's control. Mitsuhide's governance of Tanba is also closely tied to legends surrounding the later Honnō-ji Incident.