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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
296 events
27th–28th day of the 8th month, 2nd year of Emperor Tenji (663)
In the 2nd year of Emperor Tenji (663), Wa supported the restoration of Baekje, clashed with the combined forces of Tang and Silla on the Korean Peninsula, and suffered a catastrophic defeat. This battle, the largest overseas military expedition in Wa history, ended in failure, and it marked the turning point at which Japan abandoned continental expansion and shifted to building its own state.
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8th month, Tenbun 1 (1532)
In the 8th month of Tenbun 1 (1532), the combined forces of Hosokawa Harumoto, Rokkaku Sadayori, and the Hokke Ikki stormed and burned Yamashina Hongan-ji, the base of the Ikkō Ikki, destroying it. This was a decisive event of the Kyōroku–Tenbun Disturbance. It laid the groundwork for the Hongan-ji's move of its main base to Ōsaka and for the Ishiyama War.
9th month of Tenbun 9 (1540) – 1st month of Tenbun 10 (1541)
In autumn 1540, at Kōriyama Castle in Aki Province (present-day Akitakata City, Hiroshima Prefecture), Mōri Motonari repulsed a massive invasion by Amako Haruhisa of Izumo Province. Vastly outnumbered, Mōri's defense and counterattacks forced the Amako withdrawal, marking the turning point in Mōri's rise to dominate the Chūgoku region.
the 7th day of the 10th month of Tenbun 7 (October 29, 1538)
A 1538 battle at Kōnodai in Shimōsa Province between the allied forces of Ashikaga Yoshiaki, head of the Koyumi Kubō, and Satomi Yoshitaka against Hōjō Ujitsuna and his son Ujiyasu of the Later Hōjō. Yoshiaki's death in battle ended the Koyumi Kubō line and opened the way for Hōjō expansion into Shimōsa.
7th month, Tenbun 5 (1536)
In the 7th month of Tenbun 5 (1536), warrior-monks of Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei, backed by Rokkaku Sadayori's forces, burned all twenty-one Hokke (Nichiren) temple compounds in Kyoto. The resulting destruction surpassed even the Ōnin War, and the Hokke faithful were expelled from the capital for six years — a vivid example of the interplay between religion, armed force, and daimyo power in the Sengoku age.
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.
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.
October 16, 1555 (Tenbun 24/10/1)
In the 10th month of Tenbun 24 (1555), Mōri Motonari of Aki defeated the great army of Sue Harukata, which had landed on the sacred island of Itsukushima in the Seto Inland Sea. He did so with a small force, using unorthodox tactics and naval power. This strategic victory set Motonari, known for the “Lesson of the Three Arrows,” on the path to hegemony over the Chūgoku region.
9th month, 1st day, Tenbun 20 (September 30, 1551)
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.
From the 9th day of the 9th month through the 1st day of the 10th month of Tenbun 19 (1550)
A battle fought from the 9th to the 10th month of Tenbun 19 (1550) between Takeda Harunobu (Shingen) and Murakami Yoshikiyo over Toishi Castle in the Chiisagata district of Shinano Province. The failed Takeda assault turned into a disastrous retreat that cost roughly 1,000 casualties and the life of the senior retainer Yokota Takamatsu, in what is known as Shingen's second major defeat, after the Battle of Uedahara. The following year, Sanada Yukitaka took the castle for the Takeda without a fight through stratagem.
Tenbun 18 (1549)
Miyoshi Nagayoshi defeated Hosokawa Harumoto at the Battle of Eguchi and gained mastery of the Kinai. Establishing a power that surpassed the Muromachi shogun, he became the first Sengoku hegemon to realize the status of tenkabito (ruler of the realm), before Nobunaga.
19th day of the 3rd month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
On the 19th day of the 3rd month of Tenbun 17 (1548), a battle was fought at Azukizaka in Nukata District, Mikawa Province (present-day Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture). Oda Nobuhide of Owari clashed with Imagawa Yoshimoto, who governed Suruga and Tōtōmi, and whose army was led by Taigen Sessai. It took place amid a contest between the Oda clan of Owari and the Imagawa clan of Suruga over Mikawa, with Matsudaira Hirotada, lord of Okazaki Castle, caught in between. The Imagawa victory strengthened Imagawa dominance in Mikawa. The two sides are said to have fought at the same location twice, and the 1548 battle is also called the “Second Battle of Azukizaka.”
2nd month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
The Battle of Uedahara was fought in the 2nd month of Tenbun 17 (1548) at Uedahara in Chiisagata District, Shinano Province (present-day Ueda, Nagano Prefecture), where Takeda Shingen and Murakami Yoshikiyo clashed. The Takeda army suffered a severe defeat, and Shingen himself was wounded in two places, an unusually hard-fought ordeal. For the Takeda army, which lost two senior retainers, Itagaki Nobukata and Amari Torayasu, it is remembered as one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of the Sengoku period.
22nd day of the 9th month, Tenbun 16 (1547; the year is disputed)
On the 22nd day of the 9th month of Tenbun 16 (November 4, 1547), Oda Nobuhide of Owari invaded Mino and burned the castle town below Inabayama, only to be routed by a counterattack led by Saito Dosan at Kanoguchi, according to the common account. The two houses are said to have made peace afterward, leading to the marriage of Nobuhide's heir Nobunaga and Dosan's daughter Kicho (Nohime). The year is disputed: a 1544 (Tenbun 13) theory and a multiple-clashes theory also exist, and the 1547 dating is used here as the standard account.
May 19, 1546 (20th day, 4th month, Tenbun 15)
In Tenbun 15 (1546), Hōjō Ujiyasu reportedly carried out a night surprise attack with only 8,000 troops against a besieging force that war chronicles put at 80,000. It was the largest surprise battle in Kantō. Amid a three-way struggle among the Hōjō, Uesugi and Ashikaga, Ujiyasu's bold strategy destroyed the combined army of Uesugi Tomosada and Ashikaga Haruuji and established Hōjō supremacy in Kantō.
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.
6th month, Tenbun 11 (1542) – 9th month, Tenbun 17 (1548)
From 1542 to 1548, Date clan head Date Tanemune and his son and heir Harumune clashed over succession and foreign alliance policy, escalating into a six-year war that split the daimyo of the Ōu region into two camps. Mediation by shogun Ashikaga Yoshiteru brought peace; Harumune relocated the clan's base to Yonezawa Castle and reorganized its rule, laying the groundwork for Date Masamune's later unification of Ōshū.
Tenbun 10 – Kōji 2 (1541–1556)
The rise of Saitō Dōsan (Toshimasa), a retainer of the Toki family, the shugo (military governor) of Mino Province, who took control of Mino by driving out the shugo Toki Yorinori, until he was killed by his son Yoshitatsu in 1556. The story of an oil merchant who seized a province in a single lifetime comes from Edo-period war chronicles and similar works; today the takeover is generally seen as the work of two generations, Dōsan and his father Nagai Shinzaemon-no-jō.
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.
19th day of the 2nd month, Tenpō 8 (1837)
On March 25, 1837 (19th day of the 2nd month, Tenpō 8), Ōshio Heihachirō, a former aide of the Osaka East Magistrate's office, led an uprising in Osaka under the banner of saving the people. As the largest city revolt of the Edo period, it profoundly influenced the late-shogunate loyalists.
1833-1838 (Tenpō 4 to Tenpō 9)
The Tenpō Famine, a large-scale famine that struck all of Japan from Tenpō 4 (1833) to Tenpō 9 (1838). Continued crop failures caused by cooling weather led to serious damage, especially in the Ōu region. Across Japan the population fell by about 1.25 million, and in Ōsaka it is said that from 150 to more than 200 people starved to death each day. Amid the social unrest caused by hunger, large-scale uprisings and rebellions such as the Ōshio Heihachirō Rebellion and the Tenpō Disturbance followed one after another, accelerating social turmoil toward the late Edo period. It was a grave incident that exposed the declining governing capacity of the Tokugawa shogunate and a fundamental crisis of the Edo-period system.
5th month, Tenpō 10 (1839) — the exact day of the arrests is not firmly established
In the 5th month of Tenpo 10 (1839) the shogunate arrested and punished the Western-learning scholars Watanabe Kazan, Takano Choei and others in an act of suppression of speech. Behind it lay criticism of the shogunate's policy of repelling foreign ships after the Morrison Incident of 1837, in Kazan's Shinkiron and Choei's Boshin Yume Monogatari, and the inspector Torii Yozo is said to have led the crackdown on the circle of Western-learning scholars, the Shoshikai. Kazan was placed under house confinement and Choei was sentenced to life imprisonment. The affair reveals a clash among warrior society, Western learning and shogunal politics.