Page 117 - Edo: Art in Japan, 1615–1868

From this early time the sword was appreciated as a superior cutting weapon, a symbol of the
spiritual study of the samurai, and an object of intrinsic beauty. The Record of the Engi Era, dating from
901 to 922, tells of the complex process of polishing, suggesting that the beauty of the surface was
recognized then. Another document, dating from 1316, lists famous smiths, describes their schools
province by province, and gives details of their swords' hamon and other blade characteristics. By the
Kamakura period the study of swords was regarded as a spiritual pursuit in its own right, and appraisers
like Nagayoshi Omi Nyüdó are recorded by Buddhist titles, an indication of their standing. After the first

military government was established in 1185 at Kamakura, smiths from all over Japan gathered there to
make blades for the Minamoto and then the Hójó regimes. Masamune, generally held to be the greatest
116 of all Japanese swordsmiths, worked in the late Kamakura period. The fashion was for long swords with
hamon that revealed clusters of bright crystals in the steel known as nie, or "boiling."
During the civil wars of the Muromachi period the high demand for swords resulted in a fall in
quality. Most of the old centers declined, and Bizen and Minó provinces became the main suppliers to
the conscript armies. In 1568 Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) established his capital at Momoyama in Kyoto,
symbolizing an end to the age of civil wars. Although there was to be further violence in the gradual
consolidation of Tokugawa control, the Momoyama period (1573 -1615) was relatively peaceful and
allowed the revival of Kyoto and the provincial towns and cities. Foreign trade and internal commerce
expanded. Magnificent castles and mansions were built. Organized pleasures became fashionable, a
trend reflected in the variety of rich clothing and personal accessories flaunted by the successful among
the military and merchant classes.
For the samurai the most desirable possessions were fine arms and armor, and most important
of all was the sword. Blades by masters of the Heian era and the Nanbokuchó period (1336 -1392) were
acquired and often cut down to a length more convenient for wearing. As a result, long blades often lost
the whole of their original tangs, along with any inscription. Sometimes the section of steel bearing the
inscription, usually with the signature of the smith, was inset into a new tang. Specialist appraisers like
the Hon'ami family would inlay an attribution in gold on the tang to indicate the name of the original
smith and the man who had shortened the sword. Where no fine sword was to be had, contemporary
copies were plentiful. Copies were sometimes constructed to appear shortened and were given spurious

gold-inlaid signatures, often of famous smiths such as Masamune. Swords of the Momoyama and
early Edo periods were consequently made in the shape of the cut-down blades from early periods,
and efforts to reproduce the metallurgical characteristics put new life into the swordsmith's craft.
Swordsmiths vied with each other to make swords in the styles of the old masters and to gain
the recognition that would secure them a post working directly for a daimyo. New styles evolved from
interpretations of early styles. Disarmament of the nonsamurai classes had started in 1585, with the
"sword hunt" at the temple complex on Mount Kóya where there were troublesome monk armies, and
it continued with the national sword hunt of 1588. Thus poorer quality mass-produced weapons of the
disbanded armies were removed from circulation, leading to the fashion for the broad gorgeous blades
of the Kamakura period.
Tokugawa leyasu himself stated that "the sword is the soul of the samurai," and the weapon has
come to symbolize Japan during the Edo period. The government made certain of this association. The
manufacture and use of guns were regulated, thus the retinues that accompanied the daimyo on proces-
sion to and from the capital were armed with sword, pole-arm, and bows throughout the Edo period.