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Chapter 1

The History of the Samurai Sword

The samurai sword as we know it today evolved as a practical weapon used regularly in battle. As the needs of Japan’s warriors changed and evolved over more than a thousand years of history, so too did their armaments. This development of the samurai sword is often organized into four key periods: Chokuto, or Ancient Sword; Koto, or Old Sword; Shinto, or New Sword; and Shin-shinto, or Modern Sword.

Although today the samurai sword is used for different purposes—for exercise and relaxation, for meditation and important lessons of discipline—understanding its history is an important part of understanding the modern methodology of its use.

CHOKUTO OR ANCIENT SWORD PERIOD

The birth of Japan, like the birth of the samurai sword, is shrouded in myth and legend. We begin our journey through Japanese history with a warrior named Jinmu, who, perhaps during Christ’s lifetime, sailed from the Kyushu Islands to Honshu, the central and largest of the four main islands of Japan. Jinmu would become the first emperor of Japan, after defeating the hostile tribes inhabiting Honshu’s Yamato Province.

Legend tells us that this brave man was endowed with “spirit from the gods.” But even the gods couldn’t bring stability to Japan: constant struggles for power and control of land would bring down emperor after emperor.

During the period extending through the ninth century of the Common Era, weapon making in Japan was based mostly on designs created by swordsmiths of Chinese origin and, to a lesser degree, craftsmen from Korea and Japan. The swords they created would likely have been of the Chokuto, straight-edge type, modeled after the one-handed jien (“sword,” in Chinese) or ken (Japanese pronunciation), with straight, double-sided blades. In 645 CE, the Taika Reform established the supremacy of the imperial family, making the emperor the absolute ruler of all Japan. In 710, the capital of Japan was established in the Yamato Province at Nara, marking the beginning of the Nara period (710–784). Japanese nationalism slowly gathered momentum, setting the stage for a great leap in Japanese sword design.

According to legend, a swordsmith named Amakuni (circa 700 CE) observed scores of samurai he had outfitted returning from battle with broken blades. Saddened by the flaws in his work, he sought to produce a superior tool that would return unscathed from the heavy use typical during battle. Amakuni and his son prayed for spiritual guidance, disappeared into his shop, and emerged about a month later with superior ore and tempering methods that resulted in what would become known as the first “samurai swords.” But new materials and methods were not Amakuni’s only contribution to the development of the samurai sword: purportedly, he was the first to create the superior one-sided, curved tachi blade.

Parallel to the refinement of sword-making skills, a myriad of combat techniques proliferated from experience with the sword on the battlefield, as well as in individual duels between samurai who employed the grand weapon. Its arc shape not only gave it martial prowess in terms of sword strength, but also enabled its user to draw the weapon much more efficiently than the straight-edged type. With it, samurai could draw and fight at a moment’s notice, unlike those armed with the older, long and clumsy straight blades. Amakuni’s modification of the samurai sword was perfectly timed: With Japan’s growing nationalism came the need for augmentation of samurai sword production, in order to meet the needs of the national army which defended the emperor against potential usurpers.

But this new blade was more than just a weapon—it was the hallmark of a growing warrior culture that would influence every factor of life in Japan for hundreds of years. Who could have imagined that this single accomplishment by one Japanese swordsmith and his son would be instrumental in elevating the perception of Japan in neighboring communities such as China and Korea and, most importantly, in the minds of the Japanese people, who had formerly perceived themselves as inferior to the Chinese across the sea?

KOTO OR OLD SWORD PERIOD

The samurai sword would only become more important during what is known as its Koto period (900–1530). Civil unrest was fostered by the extravagant habits of the Fujiwara clan, whose daughters married their way onto the throne of the imperial family. A period of lawlessness marked the end of their avaricious one-hundred-year reign, as their greed (rather than devotion to duty, the hallmark of more successful Japanese rulers) enabled the Minamoto and Taira samurai clans to usurp Fujiwara power and reestablish order. It was during this time, about 200 years after Amakuni manufactured his samurai sword, that Yasutsuna, a swordsmith in Hoki Province, would “perfect” the sword. He utilized painstakingly chosen iron sand and ore, incorporating high-heat tempering techniques that became the staple method of producing samurai swords.

Another important aspect of sword making during this period was the Five Schools, organized groups of samurai sword craftsmen that filled the constantly changing needs of the government, as power in Japan changed hands and the capital moved around the country. The Koto period saw the highest volume of samurai sword production in Japanese history, and the swordsmiths of the Five Schools, each based in its own province—Yamashiro, Sagami, Yamato, Bizen, and Mino—produced 80 percent of them, some of which were purportedly the finest samurai swords ever crafted.

Yamashiro, the earliest of the Five Schools, established itself in Yamashiro Province, in the capital at Heian (present day Kyoto), and became the local weapon supplier for the imperial government while its leadership remained there. As with the other schools of samurai sword manufacture, an abundance of high-quality iron ore, iron sand, and nearby water was an important deciding factor in the location of this school.

In 1192, the Minamoto clan took full control of the government, and the capital was moved to Kamakura in Sagami Province. The Sagami, or Shoshu, School established itself in response to this move, and the Yamato, Bizen, and Mino Schools came about to meet the demands of samurai in other regions.

Nationwide, a new samurai class was born when the Minamotos became the first to establish a feudal system of government, or shogunate, with a military style of leadership. This differed from despotic rule by a single emperor; the shogunate was a hierarchy in which regional feudal lords called daimyo answered to the shogun (military leader), and the samurai, highly trained and loyal warriors, served the interests of the daimyos.

A samurai went to exhaustive lengths to protect his master’s honor, as well as his own, while at all times thinking of the “spirit of Japan,” which made up the fabric of his being. As a consequence of his belief that his service to his nation was tantamount to his duty to his daimyo, he outwardly manifested unceasing respect, courtesy, and justice in the presence of the people of his nation. The samurai took their role as protector so seriously that when they considered themselves to have been shamed or to have failed at some task, they committed ritual suicide (seppuku).

Bitter infighting within the Minamoto family resulted in the death of Japan’s first shogun, Minamoto Yoritomo. Yoritomo’s widow, Hojo Masako, enabled the Hojo family to rise to power in the Kamakura-based leadership. Then in 1274 and 1281, the Mongols attacked Japan, creating a national emergency. This crisis prompted the Sagami School—whose craftsmanship was a blend of the Yamato, Yamashiro, and Bizen manufacturing techniques—to pursue rigorous samurai sword production, to defend the nation by serving the needs of the Kamakura government, which was located in their province. Fortuitously, the Mongols would be thwarted by a combination of the samurai and what was perceived to be help from the spirits—typhoons that struck to the advantage of the Japanese during each invasion, leading them to victory. On the domestic front, the shogun system had begun to fail. The quasi-military leadership, including officials who were more like civil servants than strong warriors, was weakened by the expense of defending the country from the Mongols. This created an opportunity for Godaigo, a man of the imperial line, to enthrone himself as emperor and attempt to abandon the shogunate system.

Godaigo seized power with the support of a clan of samurai warriors called the Ashikaga, but they later betrayed him by reinstalling the shogunate and forming their own government in Kyoto. Emperor Godaigo fled to the Hill of Yoshino near Nara, from which he attempted to rule the nation. For the next forty-five years, there would be two imperial courts, resulting in a lack of centralized control that encouraged lawlessness. Land disputes and power struggles between feudal lords led the Japanese into a bleak era of warfare known as the Sengoku period (1467–1574). During this period of chaos and discord, a broader spectrum of the Japanese population came to use samurai swords, and the demand for them continued to be great. The upheaval of these dangerous times and the increased availability of the samurai sword gave rise to what would become a variety of different “ways” or ideologies about how to employ the weapon. And as the tactics and techniques of warfare evolved, the samurai sword’s characteristics were modified in order to address the particular circumstances of the swordsmen.

SHINTO OR NEW SWORD PERIOD

Some minor alterations to the sword occurred as we proceed into the Shinto, or New Sword, period (1530–1867). The tachi (curved sword), developed during the Chokuto period, became outdated. A lengthy blade measuring up to four feet in length, the tachi had been worn with its cutting edge facing downward, suspended from the hip of the samurai by a rope that was threaded through two rings on the scabbard. The revised version’s blade length was shortened, resulting in a blade only two feet long, that would be carried fastened to the user’s left hip by a sash, with the cutting edge of the blade facing upward. According to some sources, this new kind of sword was the first to be called a katana (single cutting edge). The katana enabled the samurai to draw the sword at a moment’s notice and greatly influenced other aspects of samurai sword technique. Most of the iai-jutsu (sword-drawing) techniques described in this book came about as a result of this important physical modification of the weapon.

Some warriors of the era wore two samurai swords affixed by a sash at the side of the body, which were together known as daisho. These might have been composed of a katana or daito (long samurai swords) and wakizashi or shoto (short samurai swords), both seated on the left side at the hip. The shorter sword was considered an auxiliary to be used in tandem with the longer one, as a “back-up” in case of loss or damage to the primary blade, and even as an instrument to fall upon for suicide. (Today, this type of sword configuration is utilized in the more advanced levels of iai-jutsu; however, very few people ever train in this aspect.) A tanto (knife) was also worn, to be employed against an enemy of the samurai; it was also used if seppuku (ritual suicide) was necessary to preserve the honor of the samurai or his daimyo. In this case, another samurai would be appointed as the kaishakunin, to assist the samurai in seppuku by decapitating him, after he had cut himself across the abdomen.

Seppuku was just one of many ritualized traditions in the samurai’s strict moral code of honor, known as bushido, or “way of the warrior.” This code was to be tested by Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582), a samurai and military general whose ruthless tactics would have been perceived by samurai of the time as dishonorable. They included employing muskets, making sneak attacks, and torturing captives—all violations against bushido, which demanded that the samurai act within specific parameters of fairness. There had been a slow decline in “martial etiquette” subsequent to the fall of the Minamotos, some of bushido’s most dedicated proponents, but the chaotic Sengoku period in which Nobunaga lived would see its greatest decline. Nobunaga’s unorthodox techniques may have been the cause of his demise; he was either killed or committed seppuku when one of his own generals, who was also a samurai, staged an overwhelming attack against him at a temple where he was staying the night.

Nobunaga had been on his way to help his ally, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in an effort to overthrow a common rival when he came under attack. Upon hearing about Nobunaga’s death, Hideyoshi continued to follow in his comrade’s footsteps and conquered more territory. Hideyoshi would eventually reunify Japan from its divided, almost anarchistic state to end the Sengoku period before the close of the sixteenth century.

Hideyoshi’s clan lost control of the nation to the Tokugawa samurai in the battle of Sekigahara in 1600. This battle marked a shift in power that would result in about 250 years of relative peace in Japan under the Tokugawa “dynasty.”

Circa 1600, the head of the Tokugawa clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu, came into power and strengthened the shogunate by clearly defining distinctions between the classes. The resulting hierarchy imposed a rigid structure and enforced strict laws that applied separately to daimyos, samurai, farmers, artisans, and merchants (ordered by class, descending from the most to the least respected). During this period (the Edo period, 1600–1867), Japan looked inward, closing its borders to trade and influence from its neighbors. Aside from Ryukyu (the present-day Okinawa Prefecture), which was taken over by a small clan of Samurai sent by the Tokugawas, called the Shimazu, the shogu-nate ceased all attempts at conquest and expansion, and Japan became a relatively peaceful archipelago. This era brought about a decrease in demand for finely crafted samurai swords that were constructed to function well in combat. Thus, the sword-making techniques of the Five Schools became more and more antiquated, as an aesthetic component to the samurai sword rose in popularity.

However, with mounting commercial interests and industrialization spreading westward from the Americas and Europe, Japan’s closed-door policy was fated to be ephemeral. Japan’s technology was falling behind that of the rest of the world, which was beginning to industrialize. Once again, change would come from within when the Sotozama daimyos overthrew the Tokugawa dynasty, ending the shogunate forever and reestablishing an emperor as ruler, in 1868. With this new emperor came the end of the samurai sword’s golden era.

SHIN-SHINTO OR MODERN SWORD PERIOD

The end of the shogunate, and the reestablishment of an emperor as ruler, set the stage for a new era. For the samurai, this was cemented in 1876 when Emperor Meiji (1868–1912) prohibited the wearing of samurai swords. Samurai were rendered powerless in the eyes of the new government, which was evolving into a more Westernized form of leadership that did not depend on a powerful warrior class. After the ascension of Emperor Meiji, the Shin-shinto, or Modern, period of the samurai sword began. Changing political circumstances caused the need for the samurai sword to wane dramatically, and the quality of the blades manufactured during this period couldn’t be compared to that of the samurai swords produced by the Five Schools.

The last “mass production” (both metaphorically and literally) of samurai swords took place in preparation for World War II. Unlike in earlier eras, these swords were made in mechanized factories and inscribed with a cherry blossom on the tang to indicate the Showa era (1926–1989). The low-quality factory productions constructed in modern times were of the katana style.

Over time, the way of the samurai sword has always been changing and evolving: the popularity and availability of the sword fluctuated, battlefield experience revolutionized how samurai used it to fight, and modifications to the sword affected the circumstances of warfare. These changes have given rise to a proliferation of methods of using the samurai sword, which one might contend emanated either from the swords that were available or from the innovations of swordsmiths striving to satisfy the whims of the shogun, emperor, or daimyo, who requested such instruments to fortify their retainers.

In either case, the plethora of techniques successfully used in battle by the samurai became the foundation for the evolution of thousands of martial ryus, or “schools of thought,” that would make up a category of martial arts that the Japanese would refer to as kobu-jutsu. In spite of the decline in samurai sword quality and the sweeping social changes that brought an end to the samurai class, the kobu-jutsu disciplines of ken-jutsu and iai-jutsu, which are based on the wisdom and tradition of the samurai, quietly survived through oral and gestural transmission, from teacher to student. These aspects of kobu-jutsu constitute the theme of my next discourse and are the hallmarks of this text.