Kamakura-dono no 13-nin (The 13 Lords of the Shogun)

Kamakura-dono no 13-nin — The Dawn of the Samurai and the Cinematic Reconstruction of Ko-Tō Sword Culture

Kamakura-dono no 13-nin (2022, NHK Taiga Drama No. 61, screenplay: Mitani Koki, lead: Oguri Shun) is a political drama spanning from Minamoto no Yoritomo's uprising in Izu to the consolidation of shogunal power by Hojo Yoshitoki. From a sword culture perspective, the work is particularly noteworthy for "being set during the early Kamakura period (12th–13th century) — the peak of the ko-tō (old sword) era in Japanese sword history — and being the Taiga Drama that most concretely depicts the practical use of swords of that period (tachi, naginata, straight blades)."

### Kamakura-Period Sword Culture — The Tachi and Naginata of the Ko-Tō Era

Japanese sword history is broadly divided into the ko-tō (old sword) period (up to approximately 1596) and the shin-tō (new sword) period (from 1596), and the Kamakura period was one of the most flourishing eras of sword production within the ko-tō period.

The primary sword of the Kamakura era was the tachi, and many of the blades known today as great swords were made during this period. The "Five Great Swords of Japan" (Tenkago-ken) — Dojigiri Yasutsuna, Mikazuki Munechika, Odenta Mitsuyoshi, Juzumaru Tsunetsugu, and Onimaru Kunitsuna — were almost all made around the Kamakura period. The time setting of Kamakura-dono no 13-nin (the 1180s–1220s) directly overlaps with the era in which many of these five great swords were made, lending historical weight to the reality that the warriors depicted in the series actually carried tachi comparable to these famous blades.

### Sword Use in Battle Scenes — Tachitori and Kumiuchi

The use of swords in Kamakura-period battles differed substantially from the later Sengoku era. The primary fighting style of the Kamakura warrior was "mounted archery" (kiba yumiya — shooting a bow from horseback), with swords used as supplementary weapons in close-quarters combat (kumiuchi).

Kumiuchi involved "armored warriors dismounting and grappling to take the opponent's head," and the blades used in this context were tantō (daggers) or koshigatana (short swords) — short blades aimed at the gaps in armor (eye-slit, throat, underarm). Kamakura-dono no 13-nin depicts, in actual battle scenes, "the transition from mounted archery to kumiuchi" and "the coup de grâce with koshigatana or tantō," concretely reconstructing the practical sword use of the Kamakura warrior as a Taiga Drama.

### Mitani Koki's Political Drama and the "Weight of the Sword"

The hallmark of Mitani's screenwriting is "depicting politics, human relationships, and cunning through a mixture of comedy and tragedy." In this work, swords function not merely as combat tools but as symbols of power.

In the process by which Hojo Yoshitoki establishes "military supremacy," swords repeatedly appear as symbols of the delegation of power. The "tachi haijo" (the bestowal of a tachi) — the ritual of presenting a famous sword to confirm the lord-retainer relationship — was a significant political act in Kamakura samurai society, and the series carefully depicts this "political and symbolic dimension of swords" as a Taiga Drama.

### The Geographic Background of Kamakura Sword Culture

Sagami Province (present-day Kanagawa Prefecture) and Izu Province (present-day eastern Shizuoka Prefecture) — the setting of Kamakura-dono no 13-nin — are important regions for the sword culture of the Kamakura period. Sagami is the birthplace of the Soshu-den (Sagami tradition), a major school of sword-making technique that developed from the mid-to-late Kamakura period, and produced renowned Soshu-den smiths such as Masamune, Sadamune, and Hiromitsu.

The era of the series falls just before the blossoming of the Soshu-den, the period in which the warrior culture of Kamakura was forming the soil that would give rise to "the distinctive sword-making culture of the Soshu-den."

### A Collector's Perspective

By understanding the contexts of "the warrior culture of the era in which the Five Great Swords were made," "the practical use of ko-tō tachi and naginata," and "Kamakura as the birthplace of the Soshu-den" through Kamakura-dono no 13-nin, Japanese sword collectors can deepen their understanding of the historical background and cultural context of "famous swords of the Kamakura period" — Dojigiri Yasutsuna, Odenta Mitsuyoshi, Juzumaru Tsunetsugu, and others. This work is one of the finest windows through which to "experience the sword culture of the ko-tō era on screen."