Nouveautés — Découvrez les dernières arrivées dans notre catalogue. Voir →
Batailles, incidents et événements historiques liés aux sabres japonais
138 événements
February 15 – September 24, 1877 (Meiji 10)
From February to September 1877, Saigō Takamori led Satsuma samurai in the final samurai rebellion against the Meiji government. Symbolizing the clash of sword and rifle, the siege of Shiroyama and Saigō's death became the iconic end of the samurai era, occurring just one year after the Haitōrei edict banning sword-wearing.
Lire la suite →
October 24, 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876, a group of reactionary samurai called the Shinpūren (League of the Divine Wind) raided Kumamoto Garrison using only swords and spears, rejecting firearms as spiritually impure. The uprising was crushed within hours, but its ideological intensity — anti-modernization, Shinto fundamentalism, sword-as-sacred-object — made it one of the strangest episodes in Meiji Japan.
August–September 1868 (Keiō 4)
The climactic siege of Aizu domain in August–September 1868, part of the Boshin War. The defense of Tsuruga Castle (Aizu-Wakamatsu) and the tragedy of the Byakkotai youth corps became enduring symbols of samurai loyalty at the end of the feudal era.
July 4, 1868 (Keiō 4, 5th month, 15th day)
On May 15, 1868, the Shōgitai — former Tokugawa loyalists entrenched at Kan'eiji temple on Ueno hill — were crushed by imperial forces in a single day. The battle was the first urban combat of the Boshin War in Edo and ended organized Tokugawa resistance in the city.
May–September 1868 (Keiō 4)
From May to September 1868 (Keiō 4), Nagaoka Domain of Echigo participated in the Boshin War as a member of the Ōuetsu Alliance, fighting against Imperial government forces. Domain elder Kawai Tsugusuke deployed Gatling cannons to devastate the government forces, conducting fierce operations that earned him the title 'the last samurai.'
July 8, 1864 (5th day, 6th month, Genji 1)
In June 1864, the Shinsengumi burst into the Ikedaya inn in Kyoto, attacking a secret gathering of loyalist activists. The raid by Kondō Isami, Okita Sōji, and Hijikata Toshizō became the most famous sword-fighting event of the Bakumatsu era.
September 5–8, 1864 (Genji 1, 8th month, 5th–8th day); prior Chōshū attacks: June–July 1863
Between 1863 and 1864, a war in which the Allied naval fleets of Britain, America, France, and the Netherlands launched a retaliatory attack on Shimonoseki in response to the Chōshū domain's cannon attacks on foreign ships. On September 5, 1864 (the 8th day of the 8th lunar month), 17 Allied warships concentrated their cannon fire on the Chōshū artillery batteries in the Kanmon Strait, overwhelming them, and the Chōshū forces suffered a catastrophic defeat. This war made the Chōshū domain realize the impossibility of jōi and became a turning point toward the overthrow of the shogunate and the Meiji Restoration.
March 27, 1864 (Genji 1, 2nd month, 20th day) — insurrection at Mount Tsukuba; concluded at Tsuruga, January 1865
On March 27, 1864, the radical loyalist faction of Mito domain known as the Tengu-tō raised an insurrection at Mount Tsukuba under Fujita Kojirō and Takeda Kōunsai, clashing with shogunate forces and pro-shogunate domains. After a desperate march toward Kyoto, the group surrendered at Tsuruga in Echizen Province; 353 members including Takeda Kōunsai were executed. The rebellion was the tragic denouement of the Mitō school's expulsionist ideology played out in civil war within the domain that had originated it.
August 15–16, 1863 (Bunkyū 3, 7th month, 2nd–3rd day)
A war fought between the Satsuma domain and the British fleet in Kinko Bay on July 2-3, 1863 (lunar calendar). In response to seven British warships that arrived demanding reparations for the Namamugi Incident, the Satsuma artillery batteries opened fire. The British vessels burned Satsuma's steamships and bombarded the city, but Satsuma fiercely resisted and severely damaged the British warships. Through this conflict, Satsuma came to understand the futility of the expel-the-barbarians movement, improved relations with Britain, and shifted toward overthrowing the shogunate and pursuing modernization.
October 25, 1637 – April 12, 1638 (Kan'ei 14, 10th month, 25th day – Kan'ei 15, 2nd month, 28th day)
In 1637–38, Christian peasants in Hizen Province led by Amakusa Shirō Tokisada rose against oppressive rule. Around 37,000 rebels held Hara Castle against a 120,000-strong shogunate army before being annihilated. Japan's largest Edo-period uprising, it sealed the policy of national seclusion.
May 1615 (4th–5th month, Keichō 20)
In May 1615, Tokugawa Ieyasu crushed the Toyotomi clan in the final campaign of Japan's unification. Sanada Yukimura's suicidal charge against Ieyasu's headquarters became legendary, earning him the title 'Japan's greatest warrior.'
October–December 1614 (9th–12th month, Keichō 19)
From October to December 1614, Tokugawa Ieyasu besieged Osaka Castle, held by Toyotomi Hideyori. Sanada Yukimura's celebrated fortification, the Sanada-maru, repulsed repeated Tokugawa assaults. Ultimately ending in a negotiated peace that stripped the castle's outer defenses, the campaign set the stage for the decisive Summer Campaign of 1615.
October 21, 1600 (Keichō 5, 9th month, 15th day)
On October 21, 1600, the decisive battle of Japan's unification was fought at Sekigahara in Mino Province. The Eastern Army under Tokugawa Ieyasu clashed with the Western Army under Ishida Mitsunari, determining Japan's hegemon in a single day.
January 1597 – December 1598
In Keichō 2 (1597), after four years of cease-fire following the Bunroku Campaign, Toyotomi Hideyoshi dispatched a massive army to Korea once more. Notable for the siege of Ulsan Castle (under Katō Kiyomasa) and Shimazu Yoshihiro's desperate breakthrough at the Battle of Noryang, this campaign documents the reality of early-modern warfare where Japanese swords and firearms coexisted. Following Hideyoshi's death from illness, the war lost its objective and the entire army withdrew, inflicting catastrophic human and cultural damage on the Korean Peninsula.
April–August 1590 (3rd–7th month, Tenshō 18)
In Tenshō 18 (1590), Toyotomi Hideyoshi led a large army to besiege the Go-Hojo clan's headquarters at Odawara Castle. After a prolonged siege lasting over three months, Ujimasa and Ujinao (father and son) of the Go-Hojo clan surrendered. Ujimasa committed suicide, and the Go-Hojo clan that had endured for 100 years perished. This was the historical event that completed Hideyoshi's unification of Japan.
January 20, 1587 (12th day, 12th month, Tenshō 14)
In the 12th month of Tenshō 14 (December 1586), Sengyoku Hidehisa and Chōsokabe Nobuchika, serving as the vanguard of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Conquest of Kyushu, engaged the Shimazu forces at the Totsugigawa River in Bungo Province (present-day Oita City) and suffered a great defeat. Nobuchika, the eldest son of Chōsokabe Motochika and Shikoku's fiercest general, fell in battle—his death dealt a serious blow to Motochika and the Chōsokabe clan.
November 17, 1585 (8th day, 10th month, Tenshō 13)
In November of Tenshō 13 (1585), Date Masamune, the great daimyo of Ōshū, clashed with the allied forces of Satake, Ashina, Nikaidō, and Shirakawa at Hitotorihashi in Mutsu Province (present-day Motomiya City, Fukushima Prefecture). Surrounded by enemies vastly outnumbering him, the 17-year-old Masamune fought fiercely and narrowly avoided defeat. This battle became a major turning point in Northeastern Sengoku history.
March 24, 1584 (24th day, 3rd month, Tenshō 12)
In March 1584, Ryūzōji Takanobu — the 'Bear of Hizen' who dominated northern Kyushu — marched against the Shimazu-Arima coalition at Okitanawate in Hizen Province. Shimazu Iehisa's brilliant tactical trap ended Ryūzōji supremacy and reshaped the balance of power across Kyushu.
March–November 1584 (Tenshō 12)
In 1584, Toyotomi Hideyoshi clashed with the combined forces of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Oda Nobukatsu in a campaign spanning several months. Though Ieyasu won the tactical engagement at Nagakute — killing senior Toyotomi commanders — the strategic stalemate ultimately resolved through diplomacy, with Hideyoshi emerging politically dominant.
April 21, 1583 (20th day, 4th month, Tenshō 11)
In April of Tensho 11 (1583), a struggle for hegemony between Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Shibata Katsuie unfolded around Shizugatake in Omi Province (present-day Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture). This was a power struggle among military commanders following the Honnō-ji Incident over who would be the successor to Oda Nobunaga, and it is remembered for the exploits of the seven formidable generals known as the 'Seven Spears of Shizugatake.'
June–October 1581 (Tenshō 9)
In 1581, Hashiba Hideyoshi (later Toyotomi Hideyoshi) starved Tottori Castle into surrender through a methodical blockade that reduced its garrison and refugees to extreme famine conditions, reportedly including cannibalism. The castle's commander, Kikkawa Tsuneie, negotiated the lives of his surviving men in exchange for his own suicide. The siege stands as the most devastating application of Hideyoshi's logistical genius and one of the most harrowing episodes in Sengoku castle warfare.
September 1581 (Tenshō 9)
In September of Tenshō 9 (1581), Oda Nobunaga appointed his second son, Nobukatsu, as supreme commander and invaded Iga Province with an overwhelming force of over 40,000 troops. Seeking to avenge the failure of the first invasion two years prior (Tenshō 7), this was the 'Second Tenshō Iga Disturbance,' with Nobunaga himself directing the military campaign. Iga, known as a ninja village, attempted organized resistance but was annihilated within days before the overwhelming military superiority. This conflict represents a rare historical instance where the sword culture of samurai directly collided with the dark weapons and short blade culture of ninja.
November 12, 1578 (11th day, 11th month, Tenshō 6)
In November 1578, the Shimazu clan of Satsuma decisively defeated the Otomo clan's large army at the Mimikawa River in Hyuga Province. This battle shattered Otomo's dominance in Kyushu and set Shimazu on the path to near-total control of the island, until halted by Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1587 Kyushu campaign.
Autumn 1576 – September 1577 (Tenshō 4–5)
A siege of Nanao Castle, the stronghold of Noto Province, conducted by Uesugi Kenshin from autumn of Tenshō 4 (1576) to September of Tenshō 5 (1577). After nearly a year of siege, Kenshin brought down Nanao Castle through epidemic outbreaks within the castle and the betrayal of an insider, thereby pacifying Noto Province. The news of Nanao Castle's fall came just before Kenshin defeated the forces of Oda Nobunaga at the Battle of Tetori River, marking the apex of Kenshin's domination of the Hokuriku region.