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Battles, incidents, and historical events related to Japanese swords
296 events
July 4, 1336 (25th day, 5th month, Kemmu 3 / Engen 1)
In the 5th month of Kemmu 3 / Engen 1 (1336), Kusunoki Masashige and Nitta Yoshisada faced Ashikaga Takauji's overwhelming forces in the first decisive battle of the Nanbokuchō period. Masashige, knowing victory was impossible, fought with desperate courage before taking his own life. His loyalty unto death became the defining image of Japanese martial virtue.
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August–September 1335 (Kenmu 2, 7th–8th month)
A rebellion in which, in the 7th month of Kenmu 2 (1335), Hōjō Tokiyuki, a son of Hōjō Takatoki, raised troops in Shinano Province and briefly occupied Kamakura. Ashikaga Takauji's unauthorized march to Kamakura, undertaken without Emperor Go-Daigo's permission to defeat Tokiyuki, triggered the break between Takauji and the Kenmu government, a historic event that heralded the opening of the Nanboku-chō period.
May 23, 1213 (2nd day, 5th month, Kenryaku 3)
In the 5th month of Kenryaku 3 (1213), an internal conflict of the Kamakura shogunate broke out in Kamakura. Wada Yoshimori, head of the Samurai-dokoro, rose in armed rebellion against Hōjō Yoshitoki, but he was defeated and his clan was destroyed. This battle further strengthened the Hōjō clan's control within the shogunate and played a decisive role in establishing shikken politics.
February 13, 1219 (Kenpō 7, 1st month, 27th day)
On February 13, 1219 (Kenpō 7/1/27), Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of the Kamakura shogunate, was assassinated on the stone steps of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine by his nephew Kugyo immediately following Sanetomo's investiture as Right Minister. The killing ended the direct Minamoto shogunal line in its third generation, cementing the dominance of the Hojo regents. Sanetomo's beheading stands as one of the most consequential political murders in Japanese history.
The 2nd day of the 9th month of Kennin 3 (October 8, 1203): Hiki Yoshikazu killed; the Hiki clan destroyed the same day in the battle at Kogosho
In the 9th month of Kennin 3 (1203), Hiki Yoshikazu — who wielded great influence as the maternal in-law of the second Kamakura shogun, Minamoto no Yoriie — was murdered at Hojo Tokimasa's Nagoe residence in a plot masterminded by Tokimasa, and the Hiki clan was destroyed after being besieged at the Koshogo. Yoriie was removed from the shogunate and confined at Shuzen-ji in Izu, where he died the following year. The incident marked the Hojo clan's seizure of control over the shogunate's government.
797 (Enryaku 16): appointment as Sei'i Taishogun; 801–802 (Enryaku 20–21): decisive campaign
In 797 (Enryaku 16), Sakanoue no Tamuramaro was appointed Sei'i Taishogun (Shogun). Leading the third Emishi campaign in 801–802, he forced the submission of the Emishi chieftain Aterui and established Isawa Castle, relocating the military headquarters northward. Tamuramaro's combination of military force and conciliation consolidated central government control over northeastern Japan and established the historical precedent for the title of "Sei'i Taishogun"—a designation later inherited by Minamoto no Yoritomo, Ashikaga Takauji, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, becoming the defining title of samurai governance in Japan.
The 2nd day of the intercalary 7th month of Engen 3 / Ryakuo 1 (August 17, 1338)
On the 2nd day of the intercalary 7th month of Engen 3 / Ryakuo 1 (August 17, 1338), Nitta Yoshisada of the Southern Court was killed in a chance battle against forces of Shiba Takatsune of the Ashikaga side at Tomyoji Nawate in Fujishima, Echizen Province. With their supreme commander dead, the Nitta forces collapsed, and soon afterward Ashikaga Takauji was appointed Sei-i Taishogun, marking a turning point toward the establishment of the Muromachi shogunate.
Date unknown (early Sengoku period)
Tsukahara Bokuden, a swordsman from Hitachi, systematized local martial arts and established Kashima Shinto-ryu.
19 January–5 February 1160 (Heiji 1/12/9–12/26)
The 12th month of Heiji 1 (1159; January–February 1160 in the Western calendar): the second armed coup after the Hōgen Rebellion. Fujiwara no Nobuyori and Minamoto no Yoshitomo confined Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, but Taira no Kiyomori rapidly returned to the capital and suppressed them. Yoshitomo was killed in defeat, and the young Yoritomo was exiled to Izu. This civil war sealed Kiyomori's ascendancy and the fall of the Minamoto.
March 4, 1184 (Juei 3/1/20)
A civil war in the 1st month of Juei 3 (1184), in which Minamoto no Yoshinaka (Kiso Yoshinaka) clashed with Minamoto no Yoritomo's generals Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Minamoto no Noriyori. Yoshinaka deployed his forces along the Uji River as a natural line of defense, but after the famous "senjin arasoi" (the race to be first across) between Kajiwara Kagesue and Sasaki Takatsuna, Yoritomo's army broke through. Yoshinaka was killed at Awazu in Ōmi, and a decisive step toward the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate was marked.
4 March 1184 (Juei 3/1/20)
In the 1st month of Juei 3 (1184), Minamoto no Yoshinaka (Kiso Yoshinaka) was defeated by the forces of Minamoto no Yoshitsune and Minamoto no Noriyori, who acted on Minamoto no Yoritomo's orders, and was killed in the pine grove of Awazu in Ōmi Province (present-day Ōtsu City, Shiga Prefecture). His parting from Tomoe Gozen and his final moments, when his horse became trapped in a deep paddy field on the way to the pine grove and he was felled by an arrow, are told as a highlight of the war tale The Tale of the Heike. Together with Yoshinaka and Tomoe Gozen as symbols of "loyalty and love," they remain deeply engraved in the Japanese memory.
November 17, 1183 (Juei 2, intercalary 10th month, 1st day)
A naval battle fought at Mizushima in Bitchū Province in the intercalary 10th month of Juei 2 (1183), in which the punitive force of Minamoto no Yoshinaka clashed with the Taira navy. An annular solar eclipse occurred during the battle, and the Taira side, said to have been versed in calendrical science, overwhelmed the unsettled Genji forces to win a decisive victory.
June 2, 1183 (11th day, 5th month, Juei 2)
In the 5th month of Juei 2 (1183), Minamoto no Yoshinaka (Kiso Yoshinaka) annihilated the Taira army under Taira no Koremori at Kurikara Pass on the border of Etchū and Kaga provinces. Famous for the legendary 'fire-ox stratagem,' the victory opened Yoshinaka's path to Kyoto and marked a turning point in the Genpei War.
28th day of the 7th month, Juei 2 (1183, old calendar)
On the 28th day of the 7th month of Juei 2 (1183), three days after the Taira left the capital, Kiso Yoshinaka entered Kyoto together with Minamoto no Yukiie. The article follows his road from the uprising to the victory at Kurikara Pass, the order to destroy the Taira given at Renge-ō-in, the ranking of merit, and the breakdown of order and of relations with Go-Shirakawa that followed.
25th day of the 7th month, Juei 2 (1183, old calendar)
On the 25th day of the 7th month of Juei 2 (1183), with the forces of Kiso Yoshinaka and Minamoto no Yukiie closing in, Taira no Munemori set fire to Rokuhara and left Kyoto with Emperor Antoku and the Three Sacred Treasures. The article follows the flight, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa's refusal to join it, the accession of Emperor Go-Toba, and the loss of the sacred sword at Dan-no-ura.
December 26, 1634 (Kan'ei 11, 11th month, 7th day)
On the 7th day of the 11th month of Kan'ei 11 (1634), at Kagiya no Tsuji in Ueno in Iga Province (present-day Iga City, Mie Prefecture), the swordsman Araki Mataemon assisted his brother-in-law Watanabe Kazuma against the party of Kawai Matagorō, the enemy of Kazuma, and Kazuma cut down Matagorō. Counted among the Three Great Vendettas of Japan, it was the largest duel of the Edo period, and Araki Mataemon's outstanding swordsmanship and courage became legend.
May 1019 (Kannin 3/3/28 to the 4th month)
In Kannin 3 (1019), pirate bands of Jurchen (Nüzhen) people known as the "Toi" suddenly raided Tsushima, Iki, and northern Kyushu. While the imperial court was slow to respond, Fujiwara no Takaie, the acting governor-general of Dazaifu (Dazai no Gon no Sotsu), and others succeeded in driving them off. A recorded foreign invasion 250 years before the Mongol invasions, it is an important event that became an impetus for the rise of the warrior class.
5th day of the 6th month, Hōji 1 (1247)
In the 6th month of Hōji 1 (1247), Hōjō Tokiyori destroyed the clan of Miura Yasumura in Kamakura in a power struggle within the Kamakura shogunate. The mass suicide of the Miura warriors vividly displayed a form of honorable death for samurai, and the coup decisively cemented the Hōjō clan's monopoly of power.
c. Hōji–Kenchō eras (1247–1256)
In the mid-Kamakura period (according to ancient records, around the Hōji and Kenchō eras, 1247–1256), Mitsutada forged swords in Osafune, Bizen Province (present-day Osafune-chō, Setouchi City, Okayama Prefecture), establishing the foundation of the Bizen Osafune school. Inheriting the technical legacy of the Fukuoka Ichimonji school, which had flourished under the Goban-kaji system of Retired Emperor Go-Toba (1208), the school developed its own style by drawing on the geographic advantages of the Yoshii River basin and abundant iron sand (satetsu). Passed down through three generations, from Mitsutada to his son Nagamitsu and grandson Kagemitsu, the Osafune school became Japan's largest sword-producing center from the Kamakura through the Muromachi period, and many prominent warlords favored Osafune blades.
An'ei 3 (1774) – Bunsei 8 (1825)
Suishinshi Masahide (1750–1825), who was taken into service by the Akimoto family, lords of Yamagata domain, in An'ei 3 (1774) and forged swords in Edo, criticized the ostentation and formalism of the sword world of his time. He proposed the fukkotō-ron (the doctrine of reviving the swords of old), which held that Japanese swords should return to the ways of the kotō era. Through works such as Tōken Jitsuyōron and Kenkō Hidenshi, he called for a return to the Kamakura and Nanboku-chō styles of kotō, and more than 100 disciples from across the country gathered at his workshop. His theories were carried on by his disciple Taikei Naotane and others, and Masahide, Naotane and Minamoto Kiyomaro are together called the 'Edo Sansaku' (Three Masters of Edo). The movement dramatically revived the declining culture of Japanese swords. Positioned as the watershed between shintō (new swords) and shinshintō (new-new swords) in sword history, it combined with the sharp rise in sword demand of the bakumatsu period to produce a golden age of swords that lasted until the eve of the Haitōrei (Sword Abolishment Edict).
1858–1859 (Ansei 5–6)
In 1858–1859, Tairō Ii Naosuke launched a sweeping purge of opponents who contested the shogunate's succession dispute and the Harris Treaty with the United States. Over 100 activists, scholars and daimyo were punished; Yoshida Shōin and Hashimoto Sanai were executed. The crackdown directly provoked the Sakuradamon assassination of Ii in 1860.
Discovered on the 1st day of the 6th month of Angen 3 (1177); those implicated were punished from the 6th through the 7th month of the same year
In 1177, close attendants of the retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa gathered at a mountain villa in Shishigatani, Higashiyama, Kyoto, to plot the overthrow of the Taira clan. The plot was betrayed by Tada Yukitsuna and collapsed before it could be carried out; its leaders were executed or exiled, and the rift between Taira no Kiyomori and Go-Shirakawa became irreparable.
6th–7th months of the 1st year of Emperor Tenmu (672)
The Jinshin War of the 6th–7th months of the 1st year of Emperor Tenmu (672) was the largest civil war of ancient Japan, in which Prince Ōama (later Emperor Tenmu) and Prince Ōtomo (Emperor Kōbun) fought over the imperial throne. Prince Ōama rallied the powerful clans of Mino and Owari, overwhelmed Ōtomo's forces, and after his victory ascended the throne as Emperor Tenmu. The war became the impetus for pushing forward the building of the ritsuryō state.
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.