* Image is for illustrative purposes only.Hizamaru
膝丸
Also known as: Usumidori • Kumokiri • Hoemaru • Genji Guardian Sword • Tachi with Four Names • Yoshitsune's Blade
Description
Overview
Hizamaru is a tachi handed down as a "treasure of the Genji," said to have passed through the generations of the Seiwa Genji, and forms a pair with its "brother blade," Higekiri. Today the sword identified with it is the "Tachi, signed □tada (the celebrated Usumidori 'Hizamaru')," held by the former imperial villa Daikaku-ji in Saga, Kyoto, and designated an Important Cultural Property. The accompanying record "Usumidori Tachi Denrai" relates that Minamoto no Mitsunaka — eldest son of Minamoto no Tsunemoto, founder of the Seiwa Genji — sought a sword to guard the realm by imperial command, and that a smith who had come from abroad forged it under the protection of the god Hachiman; it records that Mitsunaka possessed the two blades Higekiri and Hizamaru. (The account of Mitsunaka's forging is a story-like tradition, and the date and maker of the Daikaku-ji blade are not academically established.)
Style and Characteristics
The Usumidori (Hizamaru) held by Daikaku-ji is a shinogi-zukuri tachi whose tang retains a signature including the character "tada" (□tada). Whereas its brother blade Higekiri is transmitted as the "Tachi, signed Yasutsuna (the celebrated Onikirimaru 'Higekiri')" held by Kitano Tenmangu and attributed to the Hoki smith Yasutsuna, Hizamaru likewise has an antique tachi form with the dignity of the old blades of the Heian-to-Kamakura age. (Detailed appraisal notes on the ji-hada and hamon vary among sources and require verification.) It is a blade bearing a grace befitting the tradition of a hereditary Genji treasure.
Designation and Holdings
The "Tachi, signed □tada (Usumidori 'Hizamaru')" is held by Daikaku-ji as an Important Cultural Property. Long guarded as a temple treasure, it has in recent years also been shown in special exhibitions: at the special exhibition "The Former Imperial Villa Daikaku-ji" held at the Tokyo National Museum from January to March 2025, it was displayed side by side in a single case with its brother blade Higekiri (held by Kitano Tenmangu) for the first time outside Kyoto, drawing great attention.
Anecdotes and Provenance
As a spirit-sword bearing the martial fortune of the Genji, Hizamaru is said to have changed its name with each change of owner — to "Kumokiri" (spider-cutter), "Hoemaru" (howling-round), and "Usumidori" (pale green) — each of its four names carrying a tale of demon-quelling or valor. Its brother blade Higekiri, in turn, earned the name "Onikiri" (demon-cutter) from the legend in which Watanabe no Tsuna, one of Yorimitsu's Four Guardian Kings, struck off a demon's arm at the Ichijo Modoribashi bridge (or the Rashomon gate), and the two have long been ranked together as hereditary treasures of the Genji. These are traditions colored by war tales and shrine-temple legends and are not established as historical fact. After leaving the hands of the Minamoto house, Hizamaru (Usumidori) passed in time to Daikaku-ji in Saga, where it has been guarded as a temple treasure to this day. (Much about the specific route by which it left the Genji and came to rest at Daikaku-ji remains unclear.) In recent years interest in the brother blades has grown through works that take swords as their subject, and when it was displayed together with Higekiri at the Tokyo National Museum in 2025, many sword enthusiasts came to see it.
Legends & Stories
## Legends and Tales The four names of Hizamaru are mirrors reflecting the very history of the Genji. The first name, Hizamaru, derives from an incident when Minamoto no Mitsunaka tested the sharpness of a newly forged tachi on a condemned criminal, cleanly severing the knee joint. This cruel origin exemplifies the essential nature of the Japanese sword as a tool of the warrior. The second name, Kumokiri (Spider-Cutter), is tied to Minamoto no Raiko's slaying of a demon spider. One night, while Raiko lay ill, a massive spider demon appeared at his bedside. Raiko seized Hizamaru, which lay nearby, and struck at the creature. Wounded, the spider fled, and Raiko ordered his retainer Watanabe no Tsuna to pursue it. Tracing blood, Tsuna found a gigantic spider lurking in a mound near Kitano. Upon slaying it, Raiko's illness miraculously vanished. Due to this supernatural victory, Hizamaru became known as Kumokiri. The third name, Hoemaru (Roaring Circle), originates from a mysterious phenomenon. One night, the tachi, resting alone in an empty room, suddenly rang out with a sound like an animal's roar. A blade that gave voice of its own—this uncanny occurrence was interpreted as the spiritual power dwelling within Hizamaru crying out in search of its master, and thus the blade received the name Hoemaru. And the fourth name, Usumidori (Pale Green). In 1180, as the Genpei Wars began, Minamoto no Yoshitsune acquired this tachi en route to join his brother Yoritomo. Yoshitsune bestowed upon it the elegant name Usumidori, and it became his blade in the ensuing Genpei campaigns. From the Battle of Ichinotani in 1184, with its famous sneak descent at Hiyodorigoe, through the night raid at the Battle of Yashima in 1185, to the final destruction of the Taira clan at Dannoura in 1185, Usumidori coursed through the battlefields alongside Yoshitsune. Minamoto no Yoshitsune stands as one of Japan's most beloved tragic heroes, and the name Usumidori, borne by Yoshitsune's blade, is the most romantic and widely known of Hizamaru's four names. From Hizamaru to Kumokiri to Hoemaru to Usumidori—with each change of name acquiring a new legend, this tachi lived on through the history of the Genji, standing as the most beautiful testament to the truth that the Japanese sword is not merely matter, but a being that tells stories.