New Arrivals — Browse our catalog for the latest authentic Japanese sword arrivals. Browse →
Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
214 events
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.
Read more →
October–December 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876 (Meiji 9), shizoku of the old Chōshū domain rose against the Meiji government at Hagi in Nagato Province (present-day Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), led by Maebara Issei, one of the great statesmen of the Restoration. Triggered directly by that month's Sword Abolition Edict (Haitōrei), they rose in concert with the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto and the Akizuki Rebellion of the former Akizuki domain. Organizing a force of about two hundred called the "Junkoku-gun" (Army of Martyrs), they failed to obtain the hoped-for cooperation of Saigō Takamori and were suppressed by government forces within little more than a week; Maebara and other leaders were executed. The affair was a forerunner of the following year's Satsuma Rebellion.
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 with a force of over ten thousand 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.
February 8, 1904 – September 5, 1905
In Meiji 37–38 (1904–1905), the Japanese Empire fought the largest land and naval war of the modern age against the Russian Empire. This war fundamentally changed the positioning of the Japanese sword. Following the Satsuma Rebellion, the sword that had been perceived as "unnecessary for practical combat" was reappraised as a "spiritual symbol of bushido" against the backdrop of the exploits of Nogi Maresuke and Togo Heihachiro and the triumph of the Japanese military in the Russo-Japanese War. The Type 32 Military Sword, established in Meiji 32, subsequently became widespread among officers.
January 26, 1869 (Meiji 2, 1st month, 5th day)
On January 5, 1869 (Meiji 2), Confucian scholar Yokoi Shonan was assassinated when his palanquin was attacked along Teramachi-dōri in Kyoto by six anti-foreign faction samurai from Tottokawa. He was 61 years old. Shonan, who had been recruited as a sanyo in the Meiji government, was killed by gunfire and sword blows. The assassination of this enlightened advocate of open trade by anti-foreign blades was the first high-ranking official assassination in the Meiji government, exemplifying the practical combat use of the Japanese sword on the eve of the Edict on the Abolition of the Wearing of Swords.
System established October 1890 (Meiji 23); swordsmiths appointed April 4, 1906 (Meiji 39)
In 1890 (Meiji 23), the Imperial Household Ministry established the Teishitsu Gigei-in (Imperial Artisan) system to recognize and protect Japan's finest craftspeople and artists under Imperial patronage. On April 4, 1906 (Meiji 39)—sixteen years after the system's establishment and three decades after the Sword-Abolition Edict (Haitōrei) of 1876 had devastated demand for Japanese swords—two swordsmiths were appointed: Gassan Sadakazu (first generation) and Miyamoto Kanenori. Their appointment represented the state's official recognition and protection of Japanese sword-making craft at a time when the tradition faced serious decline.
May 14, 1878 (Meiji 11)
On May 14, Meiji 11 (1878), Okubo Toshimichi, Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated at Kioizaka in Kojimachi Ward, Tokyo, slashed 16 times with a katana by six samurai from Ishikawa and Shimane prefectures (ringleader: Shimada Ichirō). He died at age 49. Occurring two years after the Sword Abolition Edict (1876), the katana used in the attack is preserved today in the Special Archives Room of the Metropolitan Police Department. As the last major incident in which a post-abolition katana was wielded in political assassination, it is etched into both Meiji history and sword history.
March 4–20, 1877 (Meiji 10)
Fought over seventeen days from March 4 to 20, 1877 (Meiji 10), at Tabaruzaka in Higo Province (present-day Ueki-machi, Kita Ward, Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture), this was the largest and most costly engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion. Imperial government forces and the Satsuma army under Saigō Takamori fought a desperate struggle for control of Tabaruzaka, the strategic route by which reinforcements could reach besieged Kumamoto Castle. The government deployed the 'Battōtai' (drawn-sword corps)—swordsmen selected from the police force—to counter Satsuma close-combat tactics, an episode credited with reviving recognition of the Japanese sword's practical value after decades of decline under the Sword-Abolition Edict.
Meiō 2 (1493)
In 1493, the kanrei Hosokawa Masamoto deposed Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki and installed a puppet in his place. This coup effectively ended the authority of the Muromachi shogunate and is considered the moment the Sengoku period truly began.
Intercalary 10th month, day 5, Meitoku 3 (October 1392)
On the 5th day of the 10th lunar month of 1392 (Meioku 3), through the mediation of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Emperor Gokameyama ceded the Three Imperial Regalia to Emperor Gokomatsu, ending the 56-year division of the Northern and Southern Courts. In the history of the Japanese sword, this marked the end of the era of ōdachi mass production during the Northern and Southern Courts period and heralded a new age in which blades, under Yoshimitsu's patronage of the arts, would transform from weapons into artworks and gifts of diplomacy.
December 1391 (January 1392 in Western calendar)
In Meitoku 2 (1391), members of the Yamana clan, including Yamana Ujikiyo and Mitsuyuki, who had grown powerful enough to threaten the Ashikaga shogunate, raised a rebellion against the third-generation Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu swiftly suppressed the regions around Kyoto and thoroughly reduced the power of the Yamana clan. This victory decisively established Yoshimitsu's supreme authority over the Muromachi shogunate and marked the peak of his patronage of sword culture.
February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 Gregorian)
On February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 in the Gregorian calendar), a massive fire broke out at Daien-ji temple on Meguro Gyōninzaka slope in Edo, burning until the following noon and incinerating approximately one-third of the city. The Meiwa Great Fire—also known as the Gyōninzaka Fire—killed around 14,700 people and destroyed over 100,000 structures. Countless sword-smith workshops concentrated in Edo were lost, forcing a major reorganization of the Edo sword-smithing community in the decades that followed.
May 1592 – June 1593 (4th month, Bunroku 1 – 5th month, Bunroku 2)
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent 150,000 troops to Korea in his bid for continental conquest. Katō Kiyomasa and Konishi Yukinaga rapidly captured Seoul and Pyongyang, but Admiral Yi Sun-sin's navy and Ming reinforcements forced a reversal, leading to a ceasefire in 1593. This was the first large-scale clash between Japanese swords and Korean-Chinese arms, transforming international sword culture.
15th day of 7th month, Bunroku 4 (August 20, 1595)
Toyotomi Hidetsugu, Hideyoshi's nephew and Kampaku, was accused of treachery and forced to commit seppuku, followed by the execution of approximately 30 family members at Sanjō Riverbank. A symbolic incident of the power struggle that became a prelude to Sekigahara.
October 17, 1185 (Bunji 1)
In October 1185 (Bunji 1), Tosabō Shōshun, acting on Minamoto no Yoritomo's orders, launched a night raid on Minamoto no Yoshitsune's residence at Horikawa in Kyoto, but Yoshitsune personally fought back and repelled the attack. The incident made the rift between the half-brothers irrevocable; Yoshitsune obtained an imperial edict to subjugate Yoritomo but failed to raise an army, fled to Ōshū, and met his tragic end at Koromogawa in 1189.
July–September 1189 (Bunji 5)
In 1189, Minamoto no Yoritomo launched a military campaign against Fujiwara no Yasuhira, the lord of Ōshū (Mutsu and Dewa provinces), crushing the last major independent power in Japan. The campaign ended the brilliant Hiraizumi culture of the Fujiwara northern lords and was nominally triggered by Yasuhira's killing of the fugitive Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
October 1274 (11th year of Bun'ei)
In October 1274, a Yuan-Goryeo combined force of approximately 30,000 troops sent by Kublai Khan landed at Hakata Bay in the first Mongol invasion of Japan. Although unsettled by unfamiliar tactics — massed formations and gunpowder weapons — Japanese warriors met the assault with swords refined to the peak of personal martial arts. The campaign simultaneously revealed both the superiority and the limitations of Japanese swords in battle, spurring innovations in late Kamakura blade technology.
1274 (Bun'ei Invasion) and 1281 (Kōan Invasion)
The Mongol Empire, allied with Goryeo Korea, twice invaded northern Kyushu — in 1274 (Bun'ei Invasion) and 1281 (Kōan Invasion). Both invasions were repelled, the second by a devastating typhoon the Japanese called kamikaze (divine wind). The wars forced a rapid evolution in Japanese swordsmanship and blade design.
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.
26th day of the 7th month, Bunmei 18 (August 25, 1486)
In 1486, Ota Dokan — builder of Edo Castle and master of both arms and culture — was treacherously killed by his own lord Uesugi Sadamasa. His death destabilized Kanto politics and triggered the era of Hojo dominance, making it a pivotal turning point in the region's Sengoku history.
18th day, 8th month, Bunkyū 3 (October 1, 1863)
On August 18, 1863, an alliance of Satsuma and Aizu forces seized the gates of the Imperial Palace in Kyoto, expelling the Chōshū domain's radical sonnō-jōi faction from court influence. Seven nobles who had allied with Chōshū fled to that domain — the 'Seven Nobles' Exodus' — in a pivotal realignment that set the stage for the Kinmon Incident and the subsequent Chōshū expeditions.
May 30, 1863 (Bunkyū 3, 4th month, 13th day)
On May 30, 1863, the sonnō jōi activist Kiyokawa Hachiro was ambushed and killed near Azabu Ichinohashi in Edo by shogunate agents led by swordsman Sasaki Tadasaburō. His death came weeks after he had led some 240 rōnin to Kyoto and declared their loyalty to the emperor rather than the shogunate — an act that indirectly precipitated the founding of the Shinsengumi. He was 34.
August 21, Bunkyū 2 (September 14, 1862)
On August 21, 1862, British merchant Charles Lennox Richardson was cut down by Satsuma retainers while riding his horse through the procession of Shimazu Hisamitsu near Namamugi village on the Tōkaidō. Three other British nationals were wounded. The incident became the defining example of sonnō-jōi violence against foreigners and led directly to the Anglo-Satsuma War of 1863.
15th day, 1st month, Bunkyū 2 (February 13, 1862)
On January 15, 1862 (Bunkyū 2), six Mito rōnin attacked Andō Nobumasa, a senior councilor (rōjū), outside the Sakashitamon Gate of Edo Castle. Though Nobumasa survived with minor wounds, the incident demonstrated the rising power of the sonnō-jōi faction and the weakening of bakufu authority, becoming a major political upheaval. The direct motivation is attributed to opposition to the kōbu gattai policy brought about by the imperial princess Kazunomiya's marriage to Shogun Tokugawa Iemochi.