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Batailles, incidents et événements historiques liés aux sabres japonais
242 événements
昭和29年（1954年）
In 1954 (Shōwa 29) the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Properties began granting individual swordsmiths approval to forge, and a practice that had nearly been severed under the Occupation was publicly sanctioned once more. The approval system created by the Weapons Manufacturing Act of 1953, together with the first Living National Treasure designation and the start of the Shinsaku Meitō Ten in 1955, formed the framework of the postwar revival of the Japanese sword.
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June 1951
Around the time of the signing of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in June 1951, private activities surrounding Japanese swords rapidly intensified. As restrictions imposed during the GHQ occupation began to ease, sword preservation societies and museum exhibitions proliferated across Japan, laying the foundation for postwar sword collecting culture. Organizations including the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (NBTHK) were established and strengthened, advancing the transmission of sword-making techniques and systematizing aesthetic authentication.
February 1948 (Showa 23)
In February 1948, during the Allied occupation of Japan, the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai, NBTHK) was established to counter the mass destruction of swords under GHQ's weapons confiscation orders. By repositioning Japanese swords as art objects rather than weapons, the organization created a legal and cultural framework that saved tens of thousands of blades from destruction. It remains the central institution for Japanese sword authentication, preservation, and promotion.
August 1945 – 1948
In August 1945, GHQ ordered the confiscation of all weapons across Japan, threatening hundreds of thousands of Japanese swords with destruction. The campaign by sword scholars and cultural figures to argue that swords were art objects — not weapons — resulted in the founding of the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (NBTHK) in 1948, establishing the legal and cultural framework that protects Japanese swords to this day.
1945–1946 (Showa 20–21)
Between late 1945 and 1946 (Showa 20-21), the Honjo Masamune—a sword treasured by the Tokugawa clan and among the finest blades in Japanese sword history—disappeared after being seized by the GHQ (General Headquarters of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers). A national-treasure-class sword said to have been forged by the legendary swordsmith Masamune of the Kamakura period (founder of the Soshu tradition) was permanently lost amid the postwar confusion, and its whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
December 1938
In December 1938, a sword smith certification system was established through coordination between the military and cultural administration, formally positioning Japanese sword production as a state-recognized craft. The system was designed to protect and transmit the skills of sword smiths that had declined under Westernization policies since the Meiji Restoration. Though it emerged in a wartime context, this institutional framework also laid the groundwork for the postwar system of certified sword smiths.
December 1868 – May 1869 (Meiji 1–2)
In 1869, the last battle of the Boshin War was fought at Goryōkaku fortress in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Enomoto Takeaki and Hijikata Toshizō led the remnant shogunate forces against the new Meiji government army. Hijikata died from a bullet wound in the final days. As one of the last large-scale organized battles involving Japanese swords, Hakodate stands at the threshold of tradition and modernity.
March 28, 1876 (Meiji 9)
On March 28, 1876 (Meiji 9), the Grand Council of State issued Proclamation No. 38 — the Haitōrei (Sword Abolition Edict) — banning all persons except military and police from wearing swords in public. This single decree removed from the streets the blade that had symbolized samurai identity for over a millennium, triggered the fury of the shizoku warrior class, and directly ignited the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877. It also marked the beginning of modern Japanese sword culture, transforming the katana from weapon to art object and cultural heritage.
October 27–31, 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876, roughly 400 shizoku (former samurai) of the old Akizuki domain (present-day Akizuki, Asakura City, Fukuoka) rose up in protest of the sword abolition edict and the abolition of hereditary stipends, in response to the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto. Led by Miyazaki Shanosuke and Imamura Hyakuhachirō, the rebels tried and failed to coordinate with the Toyotsu shizoku, and were suppressed within days by government troops from the Kokura garrison. Alongside the Shinpūren, Hagi, and Saga rebellions, it is counted among the shizoku uprisings that erupted around Meiji 9.
October–December 1876 (Meiji 9)
In October 1876 (Meiji 9), shizoku of the old Chōshū domain rose against the Meiji government at Hagi in Nagato Province (present-day Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), led by Maebara Issei, one of the great statesmen of the Restoration. Triggered directly by that month's Sword Abolition Edict (Haitōrei), they rose in concert with the Shinpūren Rebellion in Kumamoto and the Akizuki Rebellion of the former Akizuki domain. Organizing a force of about two hundred called the "Junkoku-gun" (Army of Martyrs), they failed to obtain the hoped-for cooperation of Saigō Takamori and were suppressed by government forces within little more than a week; Maebara and other leaders were executed. The affair was a forerunner of the following year's Satsuma Rebellion.
February 1874 (Meiji 7)
In February 1874 (Meiji 7), former state councilor Etō Shinpei and Shima Yoshitake led shizoku (former samurai) of the old Saga domain in a rebellion against the Meiji government. Etō's Seikan-tō (Invade-Korea Party), which had left the government after the seikanron political crisis, joined with Shima's Yūkoku-tō (Patriotic Party), which sought a feudal restoration, and with a force of over ten thousand they seized Saga Castle. Yet in the face of the government's swift response—leveraging the telegraph and steamships—the revolt was crushed within weeks, and Etō and Shima were beheaded and their heads displayed. It was the forerunner of the large-scale shizoku revolts of the early Meiji era.
February 8, 1904 – September 5, 1905
In Meiji 37–38 (1904–1905), the Japanese Empire fought the largest land and naval war of the modern age against the Russian Empire. This war fundamentally changed the positioning of the Japanese sword. Following the Satsuma Rebellion, the sword that had been perceived as "unnecessary for practical combat" was reappraised as a "spiritual symbol of bushido" against the backdrop of the exploits of Nogi Maresuke and Togo Heihachiro and the triumph of the Japanese military in the Russo-Japanese War. The Type 32 Military Sword, established in Meiji 32, subsequently became widespread among officers.
January 26, 1869 (Meiji 2, 1st month, 5th day)
On January 5, 1869 (Meiji 2), Confucian scholar Yokoi Shonan was assassinated when his palanquin was attacked along Teramachi-dōri in Kyoto by six anti-foreign faction samurai from Tottokawa. He was 61 years old. Shonan, who had been recruited as a sanyo in the Meiji government, was killed by gunfire and sword blows. The assassination of this enlightened advocate of open trade by anti-foreign blades was the first high-ranking official assassination in the Meiji government, exemplifying the practical combat use of the Japanese sword on the eve of the Edict on the Abolition of the Wearing of Swords.
System established October 1890 (Meiji 23); swordsmiths appointed April 4, 1906 (Meiji 39)
In 1890 (Meiji 23), the Imperial Household Ministry established the Teishitsu Gigei-in (Imperial Artisan) system to recognize and protect Japan's finest craftspeople and artists under Imperial patronage. On April 4, 1906 (Meiji 39)—sixteen years after the system's establishment and three decades after the Sword-Abolition Edict (Haitōrei) of 1876 had devastated demand for Japanese swords—two swordsmiths were appointed: Gassan Sadakazu (first generation) and Miyamoto Kanenori. Their appointment represented the state's official recognition and protection of Japanese sword-making craft at a time when the tradition faced serious decline.
May 14, 1878 (Meiji 11)
On May 14, Meiji 11 (1878), Okubo Toshimichi, Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated at Kioizaka in Kojimachi Ward, Tokyo, slashed 16 times with a katana by six samurai from Ishikawa and Shimane prefectures (ringleader: Shimada Ichirō). He died at age 49. Occurring two years after the Sword Abolition Edict (1876), the katana used in the attack is preserved today in the Special Archives Room of the Metropolitan Police Department. As the last major incident in which a post-abolition katana was wielded in political assassination, it is etched into both Meiji history and sword history.
March 4–20, 1877 (Meiji 10)
Fought over seventeen days from March 4 to 20, 1877 (Meiji 10), at Tabaruzaka in Higo Province (present-day Ueki-machi, Kita Ward, Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture), this was the largest and most costly engagement of the Satsuma Rebellion. Imperial government forces and the Satsuma army under Saigō Takamori fought a desperate struggle for control of Tabaruzaka, the strategic route by which reinforcements could reach besieged Kumamoto Castle. The government deployed the 'Battōtai' (drawn-sword corps)—swordsmen selected from the police force—to counter Satsuma close-combat tactics, an episode credited with reviving recognition of the Japanese sword's practical value after decades of decline under the Sword-Abolition Edict.
1493-1498 (Meiao 2 to Meiao 7)
From 1493 to 1498, Hōjō Sōun (Ise Soujun), the first daimyo of the later Hōjō clan, unified Izu Province. He attacked Horikoshi Gosho, expelled Ashikaga Chachamaru, spent five years capturing Fukune Castle, and pacified the whole of Izu Province. This was an independent territorial unification in a region beyond the reach of the Muromachi shogunate's authority, symbolizing the emergence of sengoku daimyo. Sōun's unification of Izu became the first step toward the Hōjō clan's domination of Kanto and prompted the establishment of the sengoku daimyo system that would eventually sweep the region.
Meiō 2 (1493)
In 1493, the kanrei Hosokawa Masamoto deposed Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiki and installed a puppet in his place. This coup effectively ended the authority of the Muromachi shogunate and is considered the moment the Sengoku period truly began.
Intercalary 10th month, day 5, Meitoku 3 (October 1392)
On the 5th day of the 10th lunar month of 1392 (Meioku 3), through the mediation of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, Emperor Gokameyama ceded the Three Imperial Regalia to Emperor Gokomatsu, ending the 56-year division of the Northern and Southern Courts. In the history of the Japanese sword, this marked the end of the era of ōdachi mass production during the Northern and Southern Courts period and heralded a new age in which blades, under Yoshimitsu's patronage of the arts, would transform from weapons into artworks and gifts of diplomacy.
December 1391 (January 1392 in Western calendar)
In Meitoku 2 (1391), members of the Yamana clan, including Yamana Ujikiyo and Mitsuyuki, who had grown powerful enough to threaten the Ashikaga shogunate, raised a rebellion against the third-generation Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu. Yoshimitsu swiftly suppressed the regions around Kyoto and thoroughly reduced the power of the Yamana clan. This victory decisively established Yoshimitsu's supreme authority over the Muromachi shogunate and marked the peak of his patronage of sword culture.
February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 Gregorian)
On February 29, 1772 (Meiwa 9; April 1 in the Gregorian calendar), a massive fire broke out at Daien-ji temple on Meguro Gyōninzaka slope in Edo, burning until the following noon and incinerating approximately one-third of the city. The Meiwa Great Fire—also known as the Gyōninzaka Fire—killed around 14,700 people and destroyed over 100,000 structures. Countless sword-smith workshops concentrated in Edo were lost, forcing a major reorganization of the Edo sword-smithing community in the decades that followed.
May 1592 – June 1593 (4th month, Bunroku 1 – 5th month, Bunroku 2)
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent 150,000 troops to Korea in his bid for continental conquest. Katō Kiyomasa and Konishi Yukinaga rapidly captured Seoul and Pyongyang, but Admiral Yi Sun-sin's navy and Ming reinforcements forced a reversal, leading to a ceasefire in 1593. This was the first large-scale clash between Japanese swords and Korean-Chinese arms, transforming international sword culture.
15th day of 7th month, Bunroku 4 (August 20, 1595)
Toyotomi Hidetsugu, Hideyoshi's nephew and Kampaku, was accused of treachery and forced to commit seppuku, followed by the execution of approximately 30 family members at Sanjō Riverbank. A symbolic incident of the power struggle that became a prelude to Sekigahara.
October 17, 1185 (Bunji 1)
In October 1185 (Bunji 1), Tosabō Shōshun, acting on Minamoto no Yoritomo's orders, launched a night raid on Minamoto no Yoshitsune's residence at Horikawa in Kyoto, but Yoshitsune personally fought back and repelled the attack. The incident made the rift between the half-brothers irrevocable; Yoshitsune obtained an imperial edict to subjugate Yoritomo but failed to raise an army, fled to Ōshū, and met his tragic end at Koromogawa in 1189.