Nagasone Kotetsu

## Legend and Anecdotes The legend of Nagasone Kotetsu cannot be told apart from its connection to Kondō Isami, commander of the Shinsengumi. Kondō Isami (1834–1868) was born to a farming family in Kamiimarashina-mura, Tama District, Musashi Province (present-day Chofu, Tokyo). He entered the Tennen Rishin-ryū dojo at Shieikan and later became the fourth-generation family head. In Bunkyū 3 (1863), he traveled to Kyoto to guard the shogun on his official visit, becoming commander of the Mibu Rōnishi (later the Shinsengumi). Kondō was known as an ardent devotee of Kotetsu, and it is said his joy upon obtaining a Kotetsu blade knew no bounds. On June 5, Genjī 1 (1864), the storied Ikedaya Incident—a landmark event in Shinsengumi history—unfolded. Having learned that samurai of the sonnō-jōi faction, centered on the Chōshū domain, had gathered at the Ikedaya inn on Sanjō in Kyoto to plot the burning of the imperial palace, Kondō rushed into the inn with merely four squad members. It is said that the blade Kondō wielded at this moment was Kotetsu. In the fierce close-quarters sword fight within the narrow interior, Kondō's Kotetsu neither snapped nor bent, and is said to have laid down the samurai one after another. Later, three days after the Ikedaya Incident (June 8, Genjī 1), in a letter to a patron in Musashi Province, Kondō wrote: "My blade being Kotetsu, I came through unscathed." This passage is frequently cited among sword scholars as corroboration of Kotetsu's remarkable durability. Nevertheless, scholarly debate continues to this day as to whether the Kotetsu that Kondō possessed was a genuine work. One theory holds that Kondō's Kotetsu was in fact a work by Minamoto Kiyomaro, a celebrated smith of the late Edo period, and that Kondō purchased it—or believed it—to be Kotetsu. Minamoto Kiyomaro, also called "Yotsuya Masamune," was a master smith of the highest rank in the final years of the Edo period. Even if Kondō's blade were indeed a Kiyomaro work, it would nonetheless be a renowned sword. But the fact remains unshaken: Kondō himself believed it to be Kotetsu, fought wielding that name, and rode out the turbulence of the Bakumatsu period under the name of Kotetsu. Kotetsu's background as an armorer runs deep in the philosophy of his swordcraft. One who makes armor understands armor's weaknesses and can forge a sword to shatter armor—this paradoxical insight lies at the very heart of Kotetsu, and the conviction that "a sword unable to cut through armor is no sword at all" runs through all his works. Kotetsu's pursuit of "cutting ability" above beauty is regarded by modern sword enthusiasts as the purest embodiment of the true essence of Japanese swords, commanding the highest reverence.