Satsuma Rebellion Period

The Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 was the final war in Japanese history in which traditional swords were used in actual battlefield combat. When Saigō Takamori led approximately 40,000 Satsuma warriors in revolt against Meiji government policies — particularly the Haitōrei (sword-prohibition edict of March 1876), the conscription system, and the abolition of samurai stipends — the result was an extraordinary collision between two military eras. At the Battle of Tabaruzaka and other engagements, sword-wielding Satsuma warriors charged modern rifle-equipped conscript troops in close combat that briefly demonstrated the terrifying effectiveness of skilled swordsmen in melee — but also the ultimate futility of cold steel against firearms at the scale of modern warfare. The government's formation of the Keishi Battōtai (police unsheathed-sword unit) from skilled swordsmen to counter Satsuma's blade charges was itself significant, providing practical justification for retaining the sword in modern military context and directly influencing the establishment of the Army sword-wearing regulations (1885). Saigō's death at Shiroyama on September 24, 1877, surrounded by sword-bearing retainers, became the defining mythological image of the end of samurai civilization — and paradoxically, the founding moment of the Japanese sword's cultural sacralization. The years immediately following were the most devastating in sword-world history: 廃刀令 enforcement collapsed daily maintenance demand, forcing most remaining smiths out of business. Surviving smiths pivoted to shrine votive swords, imperial presentations, military sword commissions, and the nascent 'art sword' market emerging through the Naikoku Kangyō Hakurankai exhibitions. The Satsuma Rebellion thus simultaneously killed the sword as a weapon and began its rebirth as a national cultural treasure.