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Cover: bows down to receive his reward in the form of a . From the „Horie-monogatari-emaki“ (堀江物語絵巻) by Iwasa Matabei (岩佐又兵衛), period (17th century)

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Markus Sesko

Legends and Stories about the

© 2012 Markus Sesko eBook published by Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

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– 4 – Contents

Preface 1. The Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna 2. Onimaru, Hizamaru, Higekiri, and the big „sword renaming“ 3. Ieyasu and the sohaya no tsuruki 4. The maladies healing Ōtenta-Mitsuyo 5. Tegai Kanenaga and the Bodhisattva Monju 6. The „demonic“ Yukihira 7. and two less 8. Kannagiri- and Daihannya-Nagamitsu 9. Tōshirō Yoshimitsu 10. Gō Yoshihiro 11. The lost writing-box lid 12. The thousand of the Kikuchi 13. Fireflies and ? 14. Thou shalt not shorten me 15. The Nikkari-Aoe 16. The expulsion of two kasha 17. A giant snake as swordsmith 18. The Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro 19. The daily problems of the giant snakes 20. The Kogitsune-maru 21. Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu and Ichigo-Hitofuri Yoshimitsu 22. Detective work on the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune 23. The Heshikiri-Hasebe 24. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak... 25. The legendary sharpness of Kotetsu´s 26. Sword prices and income of the samurai

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– 6 – Preface

In the last years and decates, several publications and translation about the Japanese Sword have been published in the West. In this way, the historical backgrounds, the characteristics of the blades, smiths, and schools, as well as the art of sword forging, and the sword fittings were introduced and explained. The aim of this publication is now to bring the reader closer to the role of the Japanese sword – the nihontō (日本刀) – it played in the warrior class and the Japanese society, namely by the means of legends, stories, and anecdotes about famous swords and their swordsmiths, embedded in explanation of the backgrounds and other relevant facts. In the end, the reader should have an idea about the high value that was placed on this proverbial legendary weapon over more than thousand years of Japanese history (and even still today as an object of art). It was tried to perform a balancing act between an easy access to beginners and detailed facts for confirmed enthusiasts. With the former in mind, a small glossary was added at the end of this book, even when most of the terms are in the meanwhile easily accessible in other publications and on the internet. It must be noted that many of the legends described here are as the name already suggests legends, that means there are mostly several versions going round. Also the historical sources and records are often more or less divided but this was mentioned when required for the understanding of a certain handed down legend. The names in this publication are quoted in the Japanese way, namely: family name (myōji, 苗字), title (shōgō, 称号), common name (zokumyō, 俗名), and the actual name (nanori, 名乗 oder jisumei, 実名) which was taken after the coming of age (genpuku, 元服). In the case of Shingen the syntax of a would be: „Takeda (myōji) Shinano no (shōgō) Tarō (zokumyō) Shingen (nanori)“ (武田信濃守 太郎信玄). June 2011 Markus Sesko

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– 8 – 1. The Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna

The first story is about the conquest of the theving mountain demon Shutendōji (酒呑童子) and the sword which subserved this task. The origins of this legend are hidden in the darkness of history but according to the definition of a „legend“, it is probably based on certain real-existing actions which were later transformed and extended by dramaturgical tricks to keep it fresh and vital. At the time of the origins of this legend – we are in the middle of the 11th century (which corresponds to the middle ) – many robbers and highwaymen terrorized the routes leading to Kyōto and it was reported that again and again women and young girls were kidnapped. The Neo Confucian scholar and philosopher Kaibara Ekiken (貝原益軒, 1630-1714) pointed out in his examinations on this subject that the legend might go back to an adaption of the „Legend of the White Monkey“ (白猿伝, jap. „Hakuen-den“, chin. „Báiyúan-yún“) of the Chinese politician and author Jiang Zōng (江総. jap. Kōsō, 519- 594). In this story, a white monkey kidnapped the wife of a traveller. The latter went searching for her and came eventually to the hidden cave of the monkey. The traveller came back the next day with wine and a rope, made the white monkey drunk, tied him up and killed him. The oldest extant written or rather pictorial record of the Legend of Shutendōji is the so-called „Ōeyama-ekotoba“ (大江山絵詞, „Illustrated Story on Mt. Ōe“), which dates to the Nanbokuchō period (1336-1392) and is now preserved in the Itsuō Museum (逸翁美術館, Ikeda, Ōsaka Prefecture). Before we enlarge on the actual sword mentioned in the heading of this chapter, I would like to relate the „Legend of the Conquest of Shutendōji“ („Shutendōji-monogatari“, 酒呑童子物語). As mentioned, it deals with a thieving demon who terrorized the mountainous area of the Ōeyama in to the north of Kyōto.

– 9 – Thus the complaints of the local people reached even the emperor who ordered Minamoto no Yorimitsu (源頼光, 948-1021)*1 to deal with this situation. Just as a passing remark, Yorimitsu had already finished several robbers, rebells, and rogues upon order from the emperor. So he took his four generals, the so-called „shitennō“ (四天王) Sakata no Kintoki (坂田公時), no Tsuna (渡辺綱), Urabe no Suetake (卜部季武), and Usui Sadamitsu (碓井貞光), and set out to the Ōeyama. The party was joined en route by Fujiwara no Yasumasa (藤原保昌) and all six climbed up the path disguised as Buddhist mountain ascets. During ascent they came across three old men who – as it turned out later – were actually likewise disguised Shintō deities.*2 From them they received three magic items: a helmet, a rope, and a bottle of anaesthetizing vine. When they reached the top of the mountain, Shutendōji held a huge banquett for his vistors, in the course of which human flesh and blood was served. But they tried not to get exposed and thus ate the horrifying meal, and at the end of the „dinner“, Yorimitsu offered Shutendōji and his men some of the vine they brought. Soon they fell asleep, Shutendōji was tied up, and the party started to kill the thievy gang. When Shutendōji was decapitated by Yorimitsu, his head flew through the air and tried a last time to bite Yorimitsu in the head, but the magic helmet withstood this demonic attack. And so the sword with which Yorimitsu killed the demon got its name „dōjigiri“ (童子切, lit. „Dōji Cutter“ or „Dōji Slayer“). And today it designated as national treasure (kokuhō, 国宝) under the name „Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna“.

*1 The characters of his first name can also be read as „Raikō“ *2 Another version of this legend sais that the six went before to a pilgrimage to the three Iwashimizu-Hachimangū (石清水八幡宮) in Kyōto, Sumiyoshi-taisha (住吉大社) in Ōsaka, and Kumano-jinja (熊野神社) in Wakayama Prefecture where they got the three magic items from the local deities.

– 10 – A written evidence for the very name „Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna“ is already found in one of the oldest extant sword books, the „Nōami-hon mei-zukushi“ (能阿弥本銘尽).*3 Therein it is written that Sakanoue Tamuramaro (坂上田村麻呂, 758-811) once offered the to the grand of Ise and that Yoritomo had a dream that he was allowed to use the blade especially for the task to kill the Shutendōji. Well, the blade bears the signature of the swordsmith Yasutsuna (安綱) from the province of Hōki who is quoted in all old sword records ad having been active in the Daidō era (大同, 806-810). But from the point of view of workmanship and from comparisons to other early smiths it becomes obvious that it dates much later, likely to the early 11th century. This would agree completely with the dates of Yorimitsu but Yorimitsu but not with Sakanoue, and so the legend of Yorimitsu´s dream and his reference to the sword and him being „chosen“ for this task proves to be a mere fiction. However, the whereabouts of the sword after Yorimitsu´s „act“ are unclear. But the swordsmith Ōmura Kaboku (大村加卜) who worked for Matsudaira Mitsunaga (松平光長, 1616-1707) – later more about him – tells in his essay „Kentō-hihō“ (剣刀秘宝)*4 quite a phantastic story: „Yasutsuna himself once decided to offer the sword to the seafloor ´Palace of the Dragon King´ (ryūgū, 竜宮), threw it into the waters, but it was swallowed by a whale. Several hundred years later the sword was found in the belly of the whale, in some miraculous way not rust! Again some several hundred years later it came into the possession of (新田義貞, 1301-1338), the general of the Nanbokuchō period who was a loyal retainer of the Southern Dynasty.

*3 This work was compiled by Nōami Shinnō (能阿弥真能, 1397-1471) an published in the 15th year of (文明, 1483). His successors copied, edited, and enlarged it until twelve (永禄, 1569). *4 Lit. „Secret Treasure Swords“. It was also published under the name „Tōken-hihō“ (刀剣秘宝).

– 11 – Yoshisada mounted the sword in his campaign against but when he was en route to the latter, he was thwarted by the flood at (稲村ケ崎) which lais to the southwest of Kamakura. In order to move faster, he offered his beloved sword to the sea to return it to the Palace of the Dragon King, and lo and behold, the flood drew back spontaneously for about ten chō (~ 1.1 km) So he was in the end able to occupy Kamakura.“ It is likely that Ōmura Kaboku mixed the sword up with the „onikiri“ (鬼切, lit. „Demon Cutter“) which was indeed in the possession of Nitta Yoshisada. The Edo-period scholar (新井白石, 1657-1725) wrote on the other hand that the dōjigiri was a heirloom of the Settsu family (摂津) which were advisers*5 of the Muromachi-bakufu. The Settsu are in direct lineage from Minamoto no Yorimitsu, and thus another theory that the sword was given towards the end of the by the Ashikaga-shōgun Yoshiteru (足利義輝, 1536-1556) – quasi the „employer“ of the Settsu family of advisers – to (織田信長, 1534-1582) becomes plausible. Well, from Nobunaga, the sword went to (豊臣秀吉, 1537-1598) who ordered Hon´ami Kōtoku (本阿弥光徳, 1553-1619)*6 to make drawings and a catalogue of all swords in the family possession of the Toyotomi. The resulting work „Kōtoku--ezu“ (光徳刀絵図) does contain a drawing of a blade of Yasutsuna but it is not the als Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna which is today preserved in the Tōkyō National Museum. Hideyoshi gave the sword to (徳川家康, 1542- 1616), who left it to his son and successor as shōgun Hidetada (秀忠, 1579-1632). When Hidetada´s nephew Matsudaira Tadanao (松平忠直, 1596-1650) married Hidetada´s third daughter Katsuhime (勝姫) in Keichō 16 (慶長, 1611), the sword went as protective dowry (mamori- gatana, 守刀) into the possessions of the bride. Another theory sais that it was a present from the father-in-law to the son-in-law Tadanao.

*5 The accurate name of this post was hyōjō-shū (評定衆). *6 The Hon´amis were the official sword appraisers and polishers of the Shōgunate.

– 12 – And here the story becomes somewhat confusing because a transmission of the Tsuyama branch of the Matsudaira family (later more) sais that Tadanao´s father Hideyasu (秀康, 1574-1607) – who was the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu – was granted with a sword of Yasutsuna when he was adopted in Tenshō 18 (天正, 1590) by Yūki Harutomo (結城晴朝, 1534-1614) of Shimōsa province. This Yasutsuna was a heirloom of the Yūki family and the transmission in question sais that this sword was actually the famous Dōjigiri- Yasutsuna. Transmission or not, the inscription (sayagaki, 鞘書) on the sheath of the sword (shirasaya, 白鞘) for the mamori-gatana of Katsuhime reads as follows:

„Dōjigiri ni-shaku roku-sun go-bu“ (童子切 弐尺六寸五分, „Dōjigiri, 80,3 cm“), and on the back side: „Habaki-moto nite yaku issun, yokote nite yaku roku-bu han, kasane-atsusa ni-bun“ (鎺元にて約壱寸 横手にて約六分半 重ネ厚さ弐分, „at the base ~ 3,03 cm, at the yokote ~ 1,97 cm, thickness ~ 0,6 cm)

On the basis of the handwriting we can say that the sayagaki was done by Katsuhime herself and further that it dates about to the time when their under-age heir was entrusted to her after Tadanao was banned to Hagiwara (萩原) in due to a faux pas in nine (元和, 1623). This heir was the already mentioned Matsudaira Mitsunaga, the employer of the swordsmith Ōmura Kaboku. It is recorded that the young Mitsunaga woke up every night crying, plagued with nightmares. The doctor of the fief diagnosed the so-called disease „kan no mushi“ (疳の虫)*7 but neither medication, nor therapies or even prayers or lucky charms helped. One of the servants suggested to lay the dōjigiri to the side of Mitsunaga´s cushion during the nighttime. This was first brushed aside but later it was clinged even to the most absurd ideas.

*7 Kan no mushi are nervous problems at children which are said to be caused by parasites (mushi, 虫). The symptoms are as at Mitsunaga nightly crying fits.

– 13 – But from the night the sword was layed close to the cushion of Mitsunaga, the nightly crying fits stopped immediately. This story spread fast and soon the people believed that the dōjigiri was possessed by a fox ghost, a then „well-known“ phenomenon which was called (kitsune-tsuki, 狐憑き). As an adult, Mitsunaga became lord of the Takada fief (高田) in but due to his involvement in the fief-intern disturbance called the „Echigo Disturbance“ (Echigo-sōdō, 越後騒動) between 1679 and 1681, he was banned in the first year of (天和, 1681) to (松山) on the island of . Seven years later he was pardoned and he was allowed to return to the Matsudaira residence in Edo. During the time of his exile, nobody cared about the treasure swords in the possession of the family and so the dōjigiri was affected by so-called „koma-sabi“ (胡麻錆, lit. „sesame rust“).*8 When Mitsunaga had returned to Edo he ordered the official responsible for swords to bring the dōjigiri to the Hon´ami family for a new polish. When the official headed out early in the morning to the Hon´ami workshop in Hirokōji (広小路) in Edo´s Ueno district (上野), he encountered an unusual number of foxes between Kanda (神田) and Yanaka (谷中). The neighbours of this area immediately established a connection to the sword in question and that the foxes came to personally guarantee the safety of the dōjigiri. And it was no coincidence that shortly afterwards the neighbouring house of the Hon´ami caught fire. Once again a fox appeared, this time a white one, who was wallowing on the roof of the Hon´ami house out of pain and agony. Seeing this, one member of the family realized that of all saved swords, the dōjigiri was still in the polishing workshop. And becaue of this warning a servant was able to rescue the famous blade, but the white fox had disappeared.

*8 A not very deep, punctual rust which gives a blade the appearance of being sprinkled with sesame seeds.

– 14 – After his pardon, Mitsunaga was – in comparison with his relatives, the ruling Tokugawa family – fobbed off with a relative low income of 30.000 . In the tenth year of (元禄, 1697) his adopted son Nobutomi (宣富, 1680-1721) succeeded as head of the family and was made sixth daimyō lord of the Tsuyama fief in Mimasaka province with an income of 10.000 koku. With this, he established the Tsuyama branch of the Matsudaira family. Nobutomi had the dōjigiri tested by the sword tester Machida Chōdayu (町田長太夫), with the result that it cutted through six stacked bodies of convicted criminals and even hit the ground beneath them. This is of course sheer exaggeration because not even the best sword is able to cut through six human bodies. The recorded „result“ of this cutting test should just point out the exceptionality of the dōjigiri in the possession of the Tsuyama- Matsudaira family. Due to the great fire which raged in Edo in 1657, also the Tsuyama residence was burnt down to the ground and a theory sais that the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna suffered a fire damage (yake-mi, 焼け身) in this course. If that were the case, a blade with a newly applied tempering (called yaki-naoshi 焼き直し or sai-ha 再刃) would not have did so well at a cutting test more than fourty years later. And moreover, such an immeasurable precious treasure sword would had been rescued first of the flames. Anyway, the blade does not show any signs of a newly applied hardening. During the Jōkyō era (貞享, 1684-1688), the dōjigiri was compared by the Hon´ami family with another famous sword, the so-called „Ishida-Masamune“ (石田正宗), where the former was rated as being of superior quality.*9 At the latest at this examination, the Hon´ami family which were sword polishers and appraisers since centuries would have detected a re-tempering or a fire damage. Later shōgun (徳川吉宗, 1684-1751) ordered Hon´ami Kōchū (本阿弥光忠) in Kyōhō four (享保, 1719) to register the most famous swords of the country (meibutsu, 名物).

*9 Even today, the dōjigiri is considered the best extant blade of Yasutsuna.

– 15 – The new work called „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ (享保名物帳) lists of course also the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna and further it is also one of the „Five Great Swords“ (tenka-goken, 天下五剣).*10 On January 23td 1933, the dōjigiri, then in the possession of Viscount*11 Matsudaira Yasuharu (松平康春), was designated as national treasure. After World War II, to be more precise in spring of 1946, the sword sold by the Matsudaira family and went for then 80.000 Yen to the sword dealer Ishiguro Kuro (石黒久呂) who saw a big business with the collector and president of the Nakajima Aircraft Company, Nakajima Kiyoichi (中島喜代一). However, the deal was cancelled because with the end of the war, the basis of existence of the aircraft manufacturer broke off and so it was eventually bought by the sword collector Tamari Sannosuke (玉利三之助) for 100.000 Yen. From Tamari it went into the possession of Murayama (村山寛二) who pawned it in 1951 to Watanabe Saburō (渡辺三郎) for 500.000 Yen. Murayama wasn´t able to buy it back, Watanabe died unexpectedly, and so a long legal dispute followed. The Supreme Court of Judicature decided in 1963 for a composition with the result that the dōjigiri was officially purchased by the Bunkachō (文化庁), the Agency of Cultural Affairs. Today it is preserved in the Tōkyō National Museum. It has a splendid - koshirae of the Momoyama period (see picture 2) and in addition a identically lacquered and ornamented sword box. The mounting goes either back to the time when the sword was owned by Tadanao or was made a little later when it came into the possession of Mitsunaga.

*10 The other four blades are the Mikazuki-Munechika (三日月宗近), the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo (大典太光世), the Onimaru-Kunitsuna (鬼丸国綱), and the Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu (数珠丸恒次). *11 After the Restoration in 1868 and other reforms, the feudal system was repealed but many of the earlier daimyō and persons of high rank received as a kind of „trade-off“ europeanised titles of nobility.

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Picture 1: kokuhō Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna, mei: „Yasutsuna“, nagasa 80 cm, sori 2,7 cm, shinogi- zukuri, iori-mune, deep koshizori, funbari, ubu-nakago

Picture 2: itomaki-tachi-koshirae of the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna

2. Onimaru, Hizamaru, Higekiri, and the big „sword renaming“

In this chapter I would like to point out one aggravating circumstance in studies on the whereabouts or the transmission of swords, namely the renaming and duplicate and similar entries of certain blades. One such a story starts with Minamoto no Mitsunaka (源満仲, 912-997) whose first name can also be read as „Manchū“, like it was the case with Yorimitsu. Mitsunaka was searching for a worthy sword but he was not satisfied with the suggested swordsmiths. So he sent one of his men for a swordsmith from the mainland. The Kamakura-period „Heike-monogatari“ (平家物語) reports of an „ironworker from China who lived in a place called Deyama (出山) in the Mikasa district (三笠) of “. Well, the smith which wasn´t mentioned by name forged several swords but all fell

– 17 – short of Mitsunaka´s expectations and so he was dismissed. Disappointed but being quite confident that he was able to fulfill this task he prayed to the god who heared him and gave him iron for the forging of two swords. Several months later the smith was able to present his blades to Mitsunaka. There is another version of this story where the Japanese emperor divided a Táng-period (唐, jap. tō or kara, 618-907), almost two and a half meter measuring Chinese lance into two equally sized parts and ordered the two mastersmiths Mōfusa (猛房) from the northern provinces (Ōshū) and Kokaji Munechika (小鍛冶宗近) from Kyōto to make each one sword of it. The problem was that Mōfusa´s finished blade masures three shaku (~ 90,9 cm) but Munechika´s only two shaku and seven sun (~ 81,8 cm). The emperor felt he was cheated by three sun and had Munechika arrested. But he owned now the two blades and selected names for them, once „makuragami“ (枕上, lit. „at the cushion“) for Mōfusa´s „honest“ work because he positioned it directly at his cushion, and for the other „sun-nashi“ (寸無, lit. „no/missing sun“) for the work of Kokaji Munechika. Munechika prayed in prison for justice and for a sign of his purity of heart, whereupon the blade of the sun-nashi unsheathed itself and cut-off three sun of the makuragami. Deeply moved the emperor pardoned Munechika and renamed the sun-nashi to „tomokiri“ (友切, about „equal cutter“). From the emperor both blades went into the possession of Mitsunaka who performed a cutting test with them. The tomokiri severed the neck of the delinquent so fast that even the beard was severed too and so he called it thereupon „higekiri“ (髭切, lit. „beard cutter“). The makuragami cutted from the neck down to the knee and received so the name „hizamaru“ (膝丸, about „knee cutter“).*12 Mitsunaka gave both swords to his son Yorimitsu – yes, the same Yorimitsu as in the legend of the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna – who on the other hand granted the higekiri to his general Watanabe no Tsuna.

*12 Some sources quote the hizamaru as „hizakiri“ (膝切).

– 18 – The following incident happened before the slaying of Shutendōji, when one of his demoniac followers, the so-called „Ibarakidōji“ (茨木童子 or 茨城童子) terrorized the area around the southern Rashōmon (羅生門) entrance gate to Kyōto.*13 There was already a dispute among Yorimitsu´s shitennō generals about the truthfulness of the stories about the Ibarakidōji and Yorimitsu wanted to put an end to this discussion when he handed-over a lucky charm to Tsuna which he could leave at the Rashōmon when he was so convinced that the demon does not exist. Tsuna agreed and set off alone immediately. Reaching the Rashōmon, Tsuna´s horse shied and he had to went the last meters by foot. At the gate he hung up the lucky charm but realized that the demon was already lying in wait for him at the ceiling. The Ibarakidōji jumped down on him and grabbed his helmet but Tsuna gave the demon a short shrift and cutted off its right arm with his sword. This arm he brought back as evidence to Yorimitsu and his men and on the basis of this incident, the sword was now called „onikiri“ (鬼切, lit. „Demon Cutter“), the name already mentioned on page 12 of the first chapter. After that, Tsuna locked the arm of the demon in a chest and hid it in his house. One day someone knocked on his door and it turned out that it was Tsuna´s old foster aunt. He let her in and hosted here but soon she started to ask him about the chest and the arm. Tsuna declined showing her the demon arm but after a great deal of back and forth and because of the politeness he had to show towards his foster aunt, he agreed and opened the chest. But suddenly the old women turned into the Ibarakidōji, grabbed his arm, and escaping from the scene through the roof of Tsuna´s mansion.

*13 Another version of this story takes place at the northern of the Rashōmon situated bridge Ichijō- modoribashi (一条戻橋).

– 19 – At another time, Yorimitsu was in a fever delirium and blew with his hizamaru at a giant shadow which he thought to have seen being awake in the night. He and his four generals followed the trail of blood to a hole in the ground where a giant, over one metre measuring earth spider (tsuchikumo, 土蜘蛛) was found death. As a result, Yorimitsu renamed the hizamaru to „kumokiri-maru“ (蜘蛛切丸, lit. „spider cutter“ or „spider slayer“). Subsequently, Yorimitsu entrusted Minamoto no Yoriyoshi (源頼義, 988-1075), the heir of his younger brother Yorinobu (源頼信, 968-1048), with both swords because he wanted to support him at his campaigns against the then still unsecure northern provinces. Yoriyoshi managed it be victorious and he gave the swords his son Hachimantarō Yoshiie (源八幡太郎義家, 1039-1106), who on the other hand gave it to his fourth son Tameyoshi (源為義, 1096-1156).*14 When Tameyoshi was in the possession of the famous and for the Minamoto propitious swords, they started to make noise at night. The onikiri roared like a lion and was once again renamed to „shishi no ko“ (獅子ノ子, lit. „lion cub“). The sounds of the kumokiri-mari were similar to a snake and so it got the name „hoemaru“ (吠丸, lit. „howler“). Tameyoshis son-in-law who was chief administrator (bettō, 別当) of Kumano (熊野, a region in Wakayama Prefecture), but he did not distinguish himself as first-rate warrior. But Tameyoshi and other members of the Minamoto family nevertheless agreed that he should receive the sword hoemaru, probably as a broad hint to pull himself together. Additionally, Tameyoshi had him made an exact copy of the shishi no ko which he called „kogarasu“ (小烏, lit. „little crow“) but the latter was two bu (~ 6 mm) longer than the original. Once again a sword – this time the shishi no ko – acted at its own initiative and cutted off the oversize of the kogarasu. This reminded Tameyoshi´s son-in- law of the origins of the two swords and the shishi no ko was again renamed to tomokiri.

*14 Yoshiie´s oldest son and heir died in the Gosannen War (後三年, 1083~1087).

– 20 – From Tameyoshi the tomokiri passed over to his oldest son Minamoto no Yoshitomo (源義朝, 1123-1160). Gone were the times of the hayday of the Minamoto in the meanwhile and Yoshitomo complained to Hachiman that he had abandoned the clan although his ancestor Yoshiie beared additionally the name of the deity. Hachiman explained Yoshitomo in a dream that this has something to do with the numerous renamings of the swords which weakened the power of them. Immediately Yoshitomo changed the name of the tomokiri back to higekiri. Somewhat later Yoshitomo´s third son Yoritomo (源頼朝, 1147-1149) received the sword and the son-of-law of Tameyoshi, who realized that he was still unworthy to carry such a sword, returned the hoemaru to (源義経, 1159-1189), Yoshitomo´s ninth son. He had not learnt anything from the story above and renamed the hoemaru to „usu-midori“ (薄緑, lit. „light green“) because it reminded him of the beautifully light green shining mountains of Kumano. After the death of Yoshitsune it came into the possession of his older brother Yoritomo and so both swords had been reunited again. The list below should serve as a better overview of all the renamings of the two swords:

makuragami sun-nashi

hizamaru tomokiri

kumokiri-maru higekiri

hoemaru onikiri

usu-midori shishi no ko

tomokiri

higekiri

– 21 – So far the legend about the origins and the passing on of the swords within the Minamoto family, but now to the facts. The whereabouts of the hizamaru/usumidori are unclear but the onikiri/higekiri went afterwards into the possessions of the Mogami family (more information about this later) and is nowadays designated as jūyō- bunkazai and preserved in Kyōto´s Kitano-Tenmangū (北野天満宮). The „problem“ of this blade is its signature because over the course of years, the first character of the original signature „Yasutsuna“ (安綱) was changed to „Kuni“ (国 respectively in its older form 國) to „Kunistuna“ (国綱), but the jūyō-bunkazai is issued as „Yasutsuna“. After the death of Yoritomo at least the onikiri/higekiri remained in Kamakura (the whereabouts of the hizamaru/usumidori are as mentioned unclear), and came so eventually in the possession of Nitta Yoshisada when the latter entered Kamnakura in 1333, overthrowing the bakufu. Further confusing is that he so came at the same time in the possession of the „onimaru“ (鬼丸) called blade by the swordsmith Kunitsuna because this was the same Kunitsuna to which the signature of the onikiri was changed. Once Hōjō Tokiyori (北条時頼, 1227-1263), regent in the name of the Minamoto, invited excellent swordsmiths to Kamakura to have them worked officially for the bakufu. One o them was Kunitsuna who came originally from Kyōto´s Awataguchi school (粟田口). When Tokiyori was one day afflicted by a mysterious „disease“ – a small demon appeared every night in his bed-chamber – he dreamt of an old man who said to him: „I am your sword of Kunitsuna. Someone touched me with dirty hands and now I can´t be drawn out of my scabbard because I am so rusty. When you want to get rid off this demon, you should quickly free me from rust.“ Right at the next morning Tokiyori cleaned the blade and stored it at its rack, but as if by magic it fell down, slided out of its scabbard, and cut off a goot of the nearby brazier. This foot was made of silver and shaped like a demon. From that day onwards Tokiyori was never again pestered by the small demon and so he gave the blade the name onimaru.

– 22 – The onimaru became a treasure sword of the Hōjō family. When Takatoki (北条高時, 1303-1333) – a grand-son of Tokiyori – committed at the capturing of Kamakura by Yoshisada, the sword was taken by the latter. Yoshisada on the other hand suffered a crushing defeat just some years later in the course of the disputes betwen the northern and southern imperial dynasties. According to transmissions he committed suicide in his hopelessly besieged castle Fujishima (藤島城, ) by cutting off his own head. Whether this story is true or not is open to question but prominently involved in the death of Yoshisada was Shiba Takatsune (斯波高経, 1305-1367).*15 The onikiri was taken by Takatsune and it is assumed that the onimaru of Kunitsuna came over this way in the possession of the Ashikaga family, when Takatsune brought it together with the head of Yoshisada as proof of the death of the latter to Takauji to Kyōto. And now we are at the point where the onikiri made it into the possessions of the Mogami family and became the highly praised heirloom. The subsequent bearer of the sword after Takatsune was his nephew Shiba Kaneyori (斯波兼頼, 1315-1379).*16 Kaneyori was – in the course of the still going on campaigns against the northern provinces of – sent to Dewa and adopted at that time the name of the district where he lived, namely „Mogami“ (最上). As briefly mentioned above, the signature of Yasutsuna of this blade was altered to Kunitsuna (see picture 3), but we can only make assumptions about why this was done.

*15 The Shiba were a branch of the Ashikaga and Takatsune fought against Nitta Yoshisada on orders from (足利尊氏, 1305-1358). *16 According to a theory, the sword went first over Takatsune´s brother Shiba Iekane (斯波家兼, 1308-1356) – Kaneyori´s father – to Kaneyori. The theory sais further that Iekane was granted with the sword by Takatsune as a farewell present when he was made governor of the northern provinces (Ōshū-, 奥州管領 or Ōshū-tandai 奥州探題). After Iekane´s sudden death the sword did not went into the possession of his heir Tadamochi (直持, 1327-1383) but to his second son Kaneyori who was the governor of Dewa (Ushū-tandai, 羽州探題).

– 23 – For whatever reason, the name „Yasutsuna“ caused certain „troubles“ or „difficulties“ for the Mogami family. One possibility would be that the swordsmith Kunitsuna was evaluated higher than Yasutsuna and that the Mogami family wanted to own a sword which „plays in the same league“ as the Onimaru-Kunitsuna. Another theory says that Hideyoshi, when he came into the possession of the Dōjigiri- Yasutsuna, was looking for further Yasutsuna blades and that this is the reason why the Mogami family changed the signature, so to speak not coming in the dilemma being obligued to present it to Hideyoshi one day.*17

Picture 3: To the left the signature of the Onimaru-Kunitsuna, in the middle the signature changed to „Kunitsuna“ on the onikiri. Please note the characteristics of the middle signature namely that the second character for „tsuna“ is considerably signed farther to the right as the first character. At the Kunitsuna blade, both characters are in line and of the same size. As comparison to the right, a typical signature of Yasutsuna (here of the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna).

From the onwards, the onikiri was kept within the Mogami family as „onikiri-maru“ (鬼切丸) but it is rather unlikely that it was tried to establish a connection between the onikiri and the onimaru and that this was the reason why the signature was changed to Kunitsuna.

*17 The exchange of presents in the form of swords was an important ritual throughout the entire Japanese history. So there was the possibility that the Mogami family could have runned into difficulties when it turned out that they presented Hideyoshi at a certain occasion with another sword when everybody knew that he was looking for Yasutsuna blades.

– 24 – However, it is assumed that at least a certain connection existed between all those swords, the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna, the onikiri of Yasutsuna from the Minamoto family, and the Onimaru-Kunitsuna. The reader might wonder why we speak in the meanwhile of Yasutsuna or Kunitsuna even when we learned at the beginning of this chapter that the sun-nashi was forged by Kokaji Munechika. But it must be said that from the point of view of workmanship, the onikiri can be without doubt attributed to Yasutsuna. We can only speculate about the maker of the makuragami/hizamari but Mōfusa mentioned in the records is dated in lists of swordsmiths (meikan, 銘鑑) to the Kyūan era (久安, 1145-1151). When we go back to the origins, i.e. the time of Minamoto no Mitsunaka (源満仲, 912-997), the legend of Mōfusa and Kokaji Munechika – the smith of the other sword, the sun-nashi/onikiri – working at the same time on two swords, becomes the more questionable.

Picture 4: gyobutsu Onimaru-Kunitsuna, mei: „Kunitsuna“, nagasa 79,2 cm, sori 3,0 cm, shinogi- zukuri, iori-mune, deep -zori, funbari, ubu-nakago

Picture 5: kawa-zutsumi tachi-koshirae of the Onimaru-Kunitsuna

Picture 6: jūyō-bunkazai Onikiri, mei changed to „Kunitsuna“, nagasa 84,5 cm, sori 3,5 cm, shinogi-zukuri, koshizori, funbari, suriage-nakago

– 25 – 3. Tokugawa Ieyasu and the sohaya no tsuruki

The next story happened in the early Edo period. Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康, 1542-1616) – in the meanwhile an old man – was able to look back to a very successful career. He managed it to survive all of his greatest rivals, guaranteed himself a giant power advantage after winning the in Keichō five (慶長, 1600), and with the fall of Ōsaka Castle, also the entire Hideyoshi clan was wiped out. On the 21st day of the first month Genna two (元和, 1616), that means about half a year after the successful campaign against Ōsaka, he probably ate too much sea breams fried in sesame oil, served to him by Chaya Kuyitsugu (茶屋清次, 1584-1622), a merchant who worked for the bakufu. Because after that meal, his chronic stomach complaints worsened rapidly. First Ieyasu tried some household remedies but also none of the panacea of the best physicians of the country was able to relieve his symptoms. The physicians had given up hope and Ieyasu – realizing that his death was near – began under pain making all necessary privisions for his passing and the time afterwards. On the first day of the fourth month, he sent for the Tendai priest (天海, 1536-1643), the Rinzai priest Sūden (崇伝, 1569-1633), (本多正純, 1565-1637) – son of his favoured vassal Honda Masanobu (本多正信, 1538-1616) – and other persons. He decreed that he should be buried on the Kunōzan (久能山, Prefecture) and further that a large accessible pagoda (tōdō, 塔堂) should be erected in Nikkō (日光, Prefecture). On the 15th day of the same month he called the chamberlain (o-nando-ban, 御納戸番) Tsuzuki Kagetada (都築景忠) to his sickbed. Ieyasu´s voice – once that loud that he was able to command an entire army – was now so weak that he was hardly understood, but he ordered Kagetada to bring him the sword „sohaya no tsuruki“ (ソハヤノツルキ), put it out of the storage box, and draw to it. Ieyasu continually stared magnetized at the sword and – keeping his thoughts for himself – sent also for the city magistrate (machi-bugyō, 町奉行) and excellent sword tester Hikosaka

– 26 – Mitsumasa (彦坂光正, 1565-1632). Whe the latter arrived Ieyasu ordered him: „When there is a person condemned to death in the prison, the sword shall be tasted on him. If not, no further tests should be made with this sword.“ Mitsumasa did as he was told and came back shortly afterwards: „I tested the sword and easily it cutted through the body and stuck even in the ground underneath. A truly terrifying sharp blade.“ Ieyasu rose crawling from his bed and requested Mitsumasa to hand him over the sword. He swang the drawn blade several times through the air and with utmost satisfaction he said weakly, more to himself than to the persons around: „This sword will protect my children and children´s children.“ The next official act was that he sent for the gate keeper (jōban, 城番) Sakakibara Kiyohisa (榊原清久, 1585-1646) and ordered him: „After my death my body should be consecrated to the Kunōzan that I will be able to protect my country forever as a tutelary god.“ Everybody did as was they were told and each one Tōshōgū (東照宮) – a Shintō shrine dedicated to the now tutelary god Ieyasu (Tōshō-Daigongen, 東照大権現) – was erected on the Kunōzan and in Nikkō. One year later Ieyasu´s son Hidetada (秀忠, 1579-1632) had the Nikkō-Tōshōgu extended and the mortal remains of his father transferred there. Kiyohisa escorted the procession and when a stop was made in Hōjō (北条, Prefecute) on the peninsula Izu, he took an afternoon nap. Ieyasu appeared to him in his sleep and suggested him to change his name to „Teruhisa“ (照久).*18 In Japan it was said that a dream has something to do with an exhaustion of the internal organs*19 and Kiyohisa thought this as a proof that Ieyasu had still not left his heart. Deeply moved he followed the recommendation of his former lord and changed his name to Teruhisa.

*18 With this he allowed him to use one character of his name as a tutelary god, namely „shō“ (照) in „Tōshō-Daigongen“, which reads also as „Teru“. *19 „Yume wa gozō-roppu no tsukare“ (夢は五臓六腑の疲れ)

– 27 – Another order of Ieyasu shortly before his death was that the soyaha no tsuruki should be positioned in the Kunōzan-Tōshōgū with its tip to the west because in his wise foresight he saw that there were still potential trouble spots in the western provinces. Events proved him right because twenty years later – in the tenth month of the 14th year of Kan´ei (寛永, 1637) – the (Shimabara no ran, 島原の乱) broke out on Kyūshū. This was a bitter setback for the supposed peaceful time so far since Sekigahara and the rule of the Tokugawa family, and so Ieyasu appeared once more in Teruhisa´s dream. This time he rebuked him why the soyaha no tsuruki was still in the treasury and that it should be brouhght to the front line as fast as possible. Teruhisa runned down fastly from the Kunōzan – he was still holding deathwatch there for Ieyasu on orders of Hidetada – purified his body in the sea, runned up the mountain again, got the mentioned sword, and brought it to the front line at Shimabara. The rebellion was crushed among much bloodshed and insiders attributed the success of the Tokugawa forces also to the sohaya no tsuruki because it served as a (神体), an object possessed by a deity, in this very case Ieyasu himself. But let´s come to the sword itself. According to transmission, granted it once to the progenitor of the Mishuku family (御宿) who got his name from the place „Mishuku“ in the Suntō district (駿東) in where he had his lands. When Mishuku Masatomo (御宿政友, 1566-1615) fought at the Siege of Ōsaka at the side of the Toyotomi and was killed, it is said that his son Genzaemon Sadatomo (源左衛門貞友) handed the sword over to Ieyasu, as a kind of „compensation“ for fighting for the wrong side. According to another theory, the sword went from Katsurayama Nobusada (葛山信貞), the sixth son of (武田信玄, 1521-1573), to Nobusada´s cousin Masatomo. Masatomo´s father Mishuku Tomotsuna (御宿友綱, 1546-1606) was namely a retainer of the Katsurayama family and in addition guardian of the under-age Nobusada.

– 28 – Shingen on the other hand is a descendant of the Kai- lineage (甲斐源氏),*20 and so the loop would be closed. However, some say that the sohaya no tsuruki is a work of the swordsmith Mitsuyo (光世) who worked according to transmission around the Shōhō era (承保, 1074-1077) in Miike (三池) in . The „problem“ is the signature with the supplement „utsusu-nari“ (ウツスナリ, lit. „copy“) on the back side of the tang. First of all, the complete signature of the sword in question (picture 7): front side: „Myōjun-denji sohaya no tsuruki“ (妙純傅持 ソハヤノツルキ) back side: „utsusu-nari“ (ウツスナリ)

Picture 7: Signature on the front side of the tang.

If it is a copy, which sword served as model? In the Hakken-gū (八剣宮), a sub-temple of the Atsuta-jingū (熱田神宮) in (), a sword is preserved which was once worn by Sakanoue Tamuramaro. Documents of the shrine note the name of this sword with the characters (楚葉矢の剣) which read also as „sohaya no “.*21 Legend sais that Sakanoue had him forged a short but sturdy sword to pit himself against the likewise short, broad, and obviously very robust warabite-tō (蕨手刀, see picture 8) worn by the northern Ainu tribes.

*20 This is the Minamoto branch of . It was founded by descendants of Minamoto no Yoshimitsu (源義光, 1045-1127) after the latter was made governor of Kai province. *21 „Tsuruki“ is the unvoiced version of „tsurugi“ which means „sword“. The character for tsurugi is (剣), or in one of the many old, nowadays unused variations (劍), (劔), (劒), (剱), or (釼).

– 29 – But the shape (sugata, 姿) of the sohaya copy could also go back to the peculiarity of the supposed swordsmith Mitsuyo, who made – unlike other tachi from the late Heian, early – rather short and broad blades like it is seen on the famous „Ōtenta-Mitsuyo“ (which is described in the next chapter) too. Another theory sees the background in the signature „sohaya“ in a somewhere completely different area, namely in a religious background. The katakana syllable „“ (ヤ) was quoted in old documents often as „ka“ (カ), for example seen in the „Man´yō-shū“ (万葉集) from the 8th century. In the old pronunciation the inscription „sohaya“ reads then as „sowaka“, and sowaka is the Japanese term for the Sanskrit word svāhā“. Svāhā is an auspicious interjection in spell wordings of esoteric (mikkyō, 密教) and means about „Hail!“ or „Thus it should be!“. Representativs of this theory suggest that there is the possibility that the copy of the sohaya no tsuruki goes back to a lost or destroyed blade whose signature on the tang was that rusted that the copying smith interpreted the inscription „sohaka“ as „sohaya“. Well, no definite answers to all those question can be given but it is more likely that the blade is a copy of the Muromachi period (1336- 1573) which regarded by later sword appraisers as a work of Mitsuyo. The reason for this assupmtion is – besides of the workmanship – the supplement „Myōjun-denji“ in the signature. „Denji“ (伝持, or in the old version 傅持 like it is noted in the tang) is a term from Buddhism and means „to protect/keep the transmitted teachings and rules“. As mentioned before, one transmission says that the sword comes from the Takeda but there is no member of this family which Buddhist name as a monk (hōmyō, 法名) was „Myōjun“. But we can make a find at Saitō Toshikuni (斉藤利国, ?-1497), military governor (, 守護) of . He and several other members of his family used all the character „myō“ (妙) in their Buddhist monk names. Toshikuni was known as a sword lover and when he recided one day in Kyōto, he was presented by the Imadegawa family (今出川) with a tachi of Bizen Kanehira (備前包平). This supports also the assumption that he himself

– 30 – had him made a copy of a certain sword and had his Buddhist monk name inscribed on the tang. But we can only speculate about the smith of the copy. When the order came from Saitō Myōjun Toshikuni it is very likely that it was a craftsman from Mino province, and here, the contemporary Mino smiths Izumi no Kami Kanesada (和泉守兼定, No-Sada) and Kanemoto (兼元) are possible who for their part were famous for their excellent copies of famous blades (utsushi-mono, 写し物). This approach is also supported by a further aspect, namely that Saitō Toshikuni was an ally of the Suruga-based Imagawa family (今川). Katsurayama Nobusada´s adoptive father Ujimoto (葛山氏元, 1520-1573) was a vassal of the Imagawa, and (今川義元, 1519-1560) was married with Takeda Shingen´s older sister Jōkei´in (定恵院, 1519-1550). So we have many possibilities how a copy of a Mino smith ordered by Saitō Toshikuni a.k.a „Myōjun“ came later into the possession of the Mishuku family.

Picture 8: warabite-tō, nagasa 52 cm, sori 0,4 cm (in the same scale as picture 9)

Picture 9: jūyō-bunkazai Sohaya no tsuruki, mei: „Sohaya no tsuruki Myōjun-denji – utsusu nari“, nagasa 67,9 cm, sori 2,4 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, ikubi-kissaki

– 31 – 4. The maladies healing Ōtenta-Mitsuyo

As mentioned in footnote ten on page 16, the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo was one of the „Five Great Swords“. Sttaight away, the name „Ōtenta“ (lit. „the Great Tenta“) comes from the name of the smith, which was written in old sword documents and meikan records with different characters, for example 伝太, 伝多, 転多, 典太, 典多 oder 田多. Accordingly, also the quoting of the sword´s name can be different. The Maeda family used the characters 大伝太, the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ the variant 大伝多, and the certificate of its designation as national treasure writes the name with the characters 大典太. In the last chapter we have read that Mitsuyo is traditionally dated to the Shōhō era (承保, 1074-1077), or that is to say the first generation, because until the middle Muromachi period, several smiths with the name „Mitsuyo“ were active.*22 But the late Heian period is incompatible with the workmanship of the earliest Mitsuyo blades. It is more likely that the first generation worked 80 to 100 years later, because with the starting (源平合戦) between the Minamoto (源) and the Taira (平), also in the remote provinces of Kyūshū*23 an increased demand for weapons was given. The fact that several Mitsuyo smiths were active over the centuries probably resulted in the name „Ōtenta“ chosen by the Maeda family because they wanted to refer of course to the legendary ancestor of this lineage. Another theory says that there was maybe another, shorter Mitsuyo blade in the possession of the Maeda family which was then called „Kotenta“ (小伝太, lit. „the small Tenta“). But neither such a blade nor records on such a blade are found in the bequests of the .

*22 Unfortunately no blades with date signatures are extant by the early Mitsuyo smiths. *23 Although the Genpei War started in the eastern Kantō area, it spread until western Japan, where at the Shimonoseki strait which separates Kyūshū from Honshū, the final and decisive battles were fought.

– 32 – The origins of the history of transmission of the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo go back to the time of the Ashikaga Shōguns as it is recorded that it was – together with the Onimaru-Kunitsuna and the so-called „futatsu-mei Norimune“ (二ツ銘則宗)*24 – one of the three treasure swords of Ashikaga Takauji which were handed down from shōgun zu shōgun. Yoshiteru (義輝, 1536-1565), thr 13th Ashikaga generation after Takauji, presented the three swords to Toyotomi Hideyoshi for his great achievements in unifying the country. The following story is about how the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo went from Hideoyshi to the possessions of the Maeda family. It is the fourth year (文禄, 1595) and Hideyoshi invited to an important meeting at his (伏見) near Kyōto. The exact reason for this gathering is not recorded but probably some questions were clarified about his nephew and vassal Hidetsugu (秀次, 1568-1595) who caused as regent (kanpaku, 関白) a considerable stir. Another reason could have been plans for the second invasion of which should come to nothing two years later, of course partly due to the death of Hideyoshi. However, the meeting must had been of a certain importance because the „Who´s Who“ of Hideyoshi´s generals and military commandes attended, for example (前田利家, 1537-1599), Katō Kiyomasa (加藤清正, 1562-1611), and (黒田長政, 1568-1623). When the participants prepared for a staying awake all night long (yotogi, 夜伽) to protect Hideyoshi, they started to tell each other horror stories. One such a story was about that a vassal of Hideyoshi tried to pass during the night along the corridor to the great salon of the castle, when suddenly something or someone grabbed the end of his scabbard (kojiri, 鐺 oder 小尻) and hindred him from walking on. The man was not able to free himself from this force and make a single step towards the direction he took and had to return.

*24 This sword is mentioned in the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ but its whereabouts are unclear. It is a work of the Bizen-Ichimonji smith Norimune.

– 33 – The oldest of this round – Maeda Toshiie – rose to speak and brushed the story aside as nonsense. Such stories are told at all times to give an explanation to one´s cowardice he said. „Well, than the honourable Maeda should have a try!“ said one of the men who was obviously annoyed by Toshiie´s affected behaviour. One word followed the other and soon Toshiie was unable to make excuses. „Fine, let´s do it! And I will leave a sign at the end of the corridor that the good men do believe me.“ Katō Kiyomasa, who could have been the son of Toshiie, regarded this as the high spirits of an old man but handed him over his fan: „How about this fan as a proof of evidence?“ Toshiie took the fan with all formality and left the room. The discussion about the „test of courage“ made the rounds among the servants and even reached the ears of Hideyoshi who sent for Toshiie. He smiled and said to him: „Younker Mataza (又左),*25 if you really want to do that, better thake this“, and he handed him over his Ōtenta-Mitsuyo. With this sword Toshiie does not need to worry because it is animated by a mysterious power. So Toshiie walked courageously down the corridor but nothing happened – it remains an open question because of the sword or because it was just a silly ghost story. At the end right at the entrance to the saloon he placed the fan of Kiyomasa and returned to his men. The end of this story is that Kiyomasa was deeply impressed by Toshiie´s courage, another blade of Mitsuyo had proven that it owns magical powers, and the sword in question became officially the property of Toshiie. So far this legend but the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ mentions another one how the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo came to the Maeda. Toshiie´s fourth daughter Gō (豪, 1574-1634) has always been sickly but when she was going to marry (宇喜多秀家, 1572-1655) – daimyō of Bizen and member of Hideyoshi´s „Elder Group of Five“ (go-tairō, 五大老) – she was once more afflicted by a mysterious fever.

*25 „Mataza“ or „Matazaemon“ (又左衛門) was the child name of Toshiie which he beared before the coming of age ceremony (genpuku, 元服). Additionally, Hideyoshi was only one year older than Toshiie but they knew each other since early childhood.

– 34 – Hideyoshi thought that she was cursed and intervened: He offered Toshiie to borrow him his Ōtenta-Mitsuyo so that he was able to use it as defence against evil forces and place it near the cushion of his daughters sickbed. Toshiie accepted this offer gratefully and indeed, Gō´s problems diminished. When he returned the sword to Hideyoshi she suffered a relapse, the sword was sent back, and the whole game was to be repeated three times. Finally Hideyoshi suggested that it would be best that Toshiie just keeps the sword. Later it was said that Toshiie used the sickness of his daughter as a pretext for getting the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo. And in the records of the Maeda family we find a slightly different version of this story. It mentions that the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo went before from Hideyoshi to Ieyasu, who on the other hand passed it on to his son Hidetada when he succeeded as second Tokugawa-shōgun. Hidetada adopted Maeda Toshitsune´s (前田利常, 1594-1658) oldest daughter Kametsuru.*26 When she felt ill one day and even the best physicians of the Maeda fief were helpless, it was thought once again that she was cursed or that demons were at work. Thus Toshitsune asked Hidetada for the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo to place it close to Kametsuru´s sickbed. She recovered and – you guess it – the story repeated several times like mentioned above, until Hidetada agreed to leave the sword permanently in the possession of the Maeda family.

*26 Toshitsune was Toshiie´s fourth son but Toshiie´s successor Toshinaga (前田利長, 1562-1605) remained childless and so Toshinaga adopted his brother as heir and successor as daimyō of in third generation. Toshitsune was after the Tokugawa the richest daimyō of the country and the adoption of Kametsuru by Hidetada was of course a political one to strengthen the alliance between the two factions.

– 35 – The Maeda kept the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo together with a sword of Kokaji Munechika and a of the Shizu school*27 in a black lacquered chest over which a (注連縄, a sacred shrine rope) was put up. The treasure house which was especially built for these swords was later called „karasu-tomarazu no “ (烏止まらず の蔵), lit. „the treasury on which the crows never land“. This too goes back to the magical powers of the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo. In the ninth year of (寛文, 1669) the Maeda family ordered Hon´ami Kōho (本阿弥光甫, 1601-1682) to make a mounting (koshirae, 拵) for the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo, namely in the same style as the koshirae of the Onimaru-Kunitsuna, that means a leather covered scabbard and a protective leather cover over the tsuba (see picture 10). Since that time no one except the actual head of the Maeda family was allowed by an house interal law to touch the mentioned swords. The law prescribed further that the blades had to be looked after and eventually cleaned on a certain day, also only by the head of the family.

Picture 10: Koshirae of the Onimaru-Kunitsuna top, those of the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo bottom.

*27 The entry reads „shizu no naginata“ (静の薙刀), but it is assumed that here a different kind of writing for the Shizu school (志津) of swordsmiths was used. Another theory says that the name goes back to the fact that the naginata was once in the possession of Shizuka-gozen (静御前), the favourite concubine of Minamoto no Yoshitsune.

– 36 – It seems that this law was not so strictly applied because we know of records where Yamada Asa´emon Yoshimutsu (山田浅右衛門吉睦), a sword tester for the bakufu in fifth generation, tested the Ōtenta- Mitsuyo on bodies on the 19th day of the eighth month four (寛政, 1792). But such a cutting test is not mentioned in the documents of Maeda Harunaga (前田治脩, 1745-1810) – the then head of the family – and so it remains unclear of he made an exception for Yoshimutsu or if the latter had just made up this test because he was about to revive the name of the Yamada as sword testers and thus the testing of a famous meitō would have been beneficial to the reputation of his family. However, we have records that Hon´ami Jūrōzaemon (本阿弥重郎左衛門) was called in the third month of nine (文化, 1812) to the Edo residence of the Maeda family to give the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo a not further mentioned care or maintenance (teire, 手入れ). And in three (安政, 1856), the blade got a new polish by Hon´ami Kisoji (本阿弥喜三次) who wrote that this was the most difficult task in his entire life. The above mentioned Yoshimutsu wrote that with the first test, he cutted through a body in the area of the stomach. The second one went through the area just over the basin and in addition 15 cm in the clay base below. For test number three, the body was positioned sideways and the blow went through both shoulder blades, here too striking the clay where the bodies are layed for such cutting tests. The fourth and last test was done on three stacked bodies. The blade went with easy through the upper two bodies but got stuck in the spinal column of the third one.

Picture 10: kokuhō Ōtenta-Mitsuyo, mei: „Mitsuyo saku“ (光世作), nagasa 66,1 cm, sori 2,7 cm, shinogi-zukuri, broad mihaba, deep sori

– 37 – 5. Tegai Kanenaga and the Bodhisattva Monju

If one goes from the western gate of the Great Buddha Hall (daibutsuden, 大仏殿; within the grounds of the Tōdaiji, 東大寺) about one kilometre to the north, you reach the Shingon temple Hannya-ji (般若寺, picture 11). This temple was erected in 645 by Soga no Himuka (蘇我日向)*28 and was completely destroyed and rebuilt several times in the course of history, the last destruction was in World War II. In the year 1267, the sculptor Zenkei (善慶) and his son Zenshun (善春) made for the main hall of the Hannya-ji a gilded 4,8 m high statue of the Bodhisattva Monju (文殊菩薩).

Picture 11: The Hannya-ji in Nara.

*28 The Korean monk Ekan (慧潅) brought in 629 a statue of the Hannya deity to Japan and erected a provisional temple for her. 25 years later, Soga no Himuka replaced this construction by a „real“ temple as an appeal for the healing of the sick emperor Kōtoku (孝徳, 596-654, r. 645-654). This act didn´t helped much because Kōtoku died in the same year. The first mentioning of the name „Hannya-ji“ is found in a document of the Shōsō´in repository (正倉院, Nara) and dates to the 14th year of Tenpyō (天平, 742).

– 38 – Because of this magnificent statue – which flooded the entire main hall with golden light during sun exposure at open temple doors – the Hannya-ji became soon the center of the Monju followers of the entire country. In 1324, an additional statue was donated to the temple, namely a Monju riding on a lion (monju- bosatsu-kishi-zō, 文殊菩薩騎獅像, see picture to the right). The large, older statue was destroyed by a fire in 1490 but the one with the riding Monju is still extant and was transferred during renovation work in 1667 to the main hall in place of the former one. Originally the monju-bosatsu-kishi-zō stood in the hall where the sutras were stored (kyōzō, 経蔵). Monju was not chosen coincidentally as statue motif for the Hannya-ji. Monju (skrt. Mañjuśri) is regarded as bosatsu (the Japanese word for Bodhisattva) of wisdom (jap. hannya 般若, skrt. prajñā) and plays among others an important role in the Hannya-Sūtra. The deity is depicted holding a scroll of the Hannya-Sūtra in the one hand and a sword in the other. This sword is the so-called „sword of wisdom“ (chiken, 智剣) with which Monju cuts off the veil of delusion of man. And our next story start with this Monju statue. It is the transitional period between the eras Kōan (弘安, 1278- 1288) and Shōō (正応, 1288-1293), not long after the second invasion of the Mongols. In the district in front of the Tegai gate (more about this later), the swordsmith Kanenaga (包永) was forging diligently all day long. Kanenaga was a passionate follower of Monju and so he went with flowers and incense on the seventh day of the eighth month to the Hannya-ji to celebrate the (monju-e, 文珠会).*29

*29 The Monju-e is a special form of the Buddhist Day of the Dead (hō-e, 法会), where explicitely Monju´s name is recited.

– 39 – When he was kneeing in front of the statue, doing his prayers, and looking at the sword in Monju´s hand, he suddenly became aware its meaning as „sword of wisdom“. At that time he took it upon himself to create a sword which should be of equal rank and quality to the sword of wisdom of his favourite deity. From then on, he always prayed to Monju for becoming a master swordsmith when making a pilgrimage to the temple. And one day when Kanenaga was praying as always in front of the statue, the form of a youngling appeared in front of him who on the spot demanded: „If you forge a sword for me, I will fulfill your wish!“ The smith accepted and bowed deeper as usual, but when he got up again, the young man had vanished. „This must had been Monju´s envoy“, Kanenaga said to himself and returned hurriedly to his smithy to start with the preparations for the new „commissioned work“. First he hang-up a sacred shimenawa, looked in and near Nara for the best charcoal, and selected the finest pieces of tamahagane (玉鋼).*30 He fired the forge and started to work like a man possessed, constantly reciting the protective mantra „on-arahashana (唵悪尾羅吽佉佐洛)“ which should ensure the help and protection of Monju. Sparks flew and soon the sword took shape. After the first foundation polish Kanenaga saw that it was his best sword and after the blade was finished, he returned to the Hannya-ji to wait for the mysterious young man. He came promptly, gratefully accepted the ordered sword, and vanished again. But from the same evening, mysterious murders happened in Nara. An unidentified person randomly killed peoples passing by and the bodies found the next morning were all killed with a single sword stroke. Thus it was soon assumed that the murder must own an exceptionally sharp blade. When some eyewitnesses mentioned that the phantom had a juvenile stature, the swordsmith begun to wonder. Was his mysterious customer a real person of flesh and blood and not Monju´s envoy? He reproached himself badly and went once more to the Hannya-ji.

*30 The raw steel of which the Japanese sword is made.

– 40 – This time he wanted to pray for the people of Nara but in secret he wanted to see if something was wrong with Monju´s statue. When he entered the gloomy main hall he saw that the sword in the statues hand was not reflecting the light as usual. But Kanenaga put that down to the special lighting conditions of that evening and did his prayers as usual. Next morning when the first monk entered the hall for the Buddhist service he was frightened because three eggs were skewered on Monju´s sword!*31 He got closer carefully and took the sword with clammy, trembling hands, to examine it. After removing the hilt, he saw the fresh signature „Kanenaga“ on the juvenile and unrusty tang. The swordsmith Kanenaga was of course no stranger in Nara back then and so he was called to the abbot for a clarification of „facts“. The smith told the abbot the whole story of the mysterius youngling and the sword he ordered and that he thought he was an envoy of Monju because he was praying that hard to the Bodhisattva just before it all began. But the following night no more murders happened and the phantom had disappeared. It was like Monju had personally taken away the sword from the murder and put it as an evidence for his act in the right hand of the statue dedicated to him. This story spread like wildfire with the result that even more people made a pilgrimage to the Hannya-ji to bow to express their gratitude for warding off harm from them. Out of relief that everything turned out well, the Hannya-ji presented Kanenaga with a painting of Monju by the T´ang-Chinese painter Lín Feng (琳峰) and allowed him to use the name of the deity in the form „Monjushirō“ (文珠四郎).

*31 It was believed that the three eggs were a sign of Monju with which he called attention to himself. The number of three refers to the so-called „Shaka triad“ (shaka-sanzon, 釈迦三尊), a group of three Buddhist images composed of Shakyamuni flanked to the left and right by the Bodhisattva Monju and Fugen (普賢, skrt. Samantabhadra). In this triad Buddha stands for the goal of enlightenment, Monju for the wisdom, and Fugen as Bodhisattva of Buddhist practice, the only two ways to achieve this enlightenment.

– 41 – So far this legend but let´s go back to the aforementioned Tegai gate. Kanenaga – who is traditionally dated to the Shōō era (正応, 1288-1293) – is considered as founder of the Tegai school (手掻) of swordsmiths whose name derives from the name of the district which lies in front of the Tegai gate (Tegai-, 転害門, picture 12).*32 The Tegai gate is the entrance to the temple area of the Tōdaiji. The district, Tegai-machi, was written as the gate with many different characters. The most common were 手貝町, 天貝町, 手蓋町, 輾磑町, 転害町 and 手掻町. The variation (転害町) goes back to the time when the deity Hachiman (八幡) walked through the gate on his way to the Tōdaiji and said to the assembled crowd: „You all present today should stop killing living beings. For that I will change (tenjiru, 転じて) future disasters (saigai, 災害) for the better → (転害門) „te(n)gai-mon“, lit. „gate of the changed disasters“. The writing (手掻門) which is also used by the Tegai school goes back to the following transmission: When the monk Gyōki (行基, 668-749) invited a Brahman monk to Nara, he welcomed him at the gate in question and was waving to him as it is usual in Japan, that means with the palm facing downwards. This looked like Gyōki was scratching ka(ku) (掻) with his hand te (手) and thus it became the „gate of the scratching hand“.

Picture 12: Tegai gate

*32 The neighboring district is still today called „Kanenaga-machi“ (包永町).

– 42 – The writing form (碾磑) which means „millstone“ is derived from a certain millstone of agate which was once imported from Korea. Transmissions say that the stone was positioned in the eastern area of the Tōdaiji close to the dining hall, which is quite close to the Tegai gate and so it is assumed that this writing of the gate´s name goes back to the millstone being positioned there in early times. Now I would like to introduced a meibutsu blade which goes on Tegai Kanenaga´s account, namely the so-called konote-gashiwa Kanenaga“. Konote-gashiwa (児手柏) is the „Chinese Arborvitae“ or „Biota“ (Platycladus orientalis) whose leaves are shaped like the hand of a child (ko no te, 児の手). And the name of the sword goes back to the daimyō Hosokawa Yūsai (細川幽斎, 1534-1610) who alluded with it to a poem of the „Man´yō-shū“ which reads:

„Nara-yama no konote-gashiwa no futamen ni, ka ni mo kaku ni mo nejike-hito no tomo.“ (奈良山の児手柏の両面に、かにもかくにも佞人の友。) „Like the leaves of the konote-gashiwa of the Nara-yama, the same on both sides, in this or in that way are the flatterers!“*33

Unfortunately, the blade – which was in the possession of the Mito- Tokugawa family (水戸徳川) – suffered a fire damage (yake-mi, 焼け身) at the big Kantō earthquake from 1923 so that the original hardening got lost. This hardening/tempering and as a consequence thereof the pattern of the tempered edge (hamon, 刃文) gave its name to the blade because it is interpreted completely different on each side. Today we only know a drawing of the original form of the hamon, published in the „Tsuguhira-oshigata“ (継平押形, see picture 13).*34

*33 At the konote-gashiwa it is hard to tell what is the upper and what the under side of its leaves. *34 A collection of drawings of the treasure swords of , made by the swordsmith Ōmi no kami Tsuguhira (近江守継平) who worked in Edo.

– 43 –

Picture 13: Drawing of Kanenaga´s konote-gashiwa in the „Tsuguhira-oshigata“. The term „konote-gashiwa“ had naturalized later for a sword with two different temper lines designs on both sides.

6. The „demonic“ Yukihira

This story ties to Hosokawa Yūsai, the daimyō mentioned in the last chapter who gave the „konote-gashiwa Kanenaga“ its name. His favourite sword was a work of the smith Yukihira (行平), who is traditionally dated to the Genkyū era (元久, 1204-1206) and worked on the Kunisaki peninsula (国東) of Bungo province on Kyūshū. His full name was Kishin Dayū (紀新大夫) and „Yukihira“ was the name he used as a swordsmith and with which he signed his blades. Once day he was visited by a strangely dressed young man. „Honourable smith, I come because I am bullied in my village and my relatives were banned from the village community. Therefore I ask you if you can forge me a sword with which I can take revenge.“ „Well, an exclusion from the village community is a bad thing and so I will accept your order“, Yukihira replied, but realizing that the young man was of a strange appearance: he had short hair and a partly shaved head with a topknot, a hairstyle which were not in fashion until the Edo period.*35 In addition he had crow feathers swen to his dress.

*35 This kind of hairstyle with partly shaved head (sakayaka, 月代) and topknot (chonmage, 丁髷) is the typical „samurai hairstyle“ as we know it from pictures and movies.

– 44 – However, order is order and under serious hip pain the then already old swordsmith Yukihira started to work. He forged a 2 shaku and 7 sun (~ 81,8 cm) measuring tachi and when he realized that this should be one of his best masterworks he even forgot his pain for a while. The young man came at the pre-arranged time and date but because of Yukihira´s reduced working capacity, the blade was not completely finished but had only a first foundation polish. With many apologies he handed him over the sword but the young man didn´t matter about that. He shouldered the blade and went away. Yukihira shouted: „The sword does not even have a hilt?“, but the mysterious stranger did not hear his words. Some days later the youngling came back to the smithy and said with a grin from ear to ear: „Your sword is excellent. I slaughtered all scoundrels without mercy! As I feel now relieved, I want to return the favour and offer my free services as an assistant.“ Yukihira replied that he is not able to learn the craft of sword forging in such a short time but the uncanny young man had a very quick perception and soon forged, folded, and tempered an excellent blade only on the basis of the master smith´s oral instructions. No man can do that, that´s for sure. At another day the „apprentice“ came with a huge amount of shiny coins and said that Yukihira is free to buy all the best raw material he likes. But when he tried to head out to the next village to buy some stuff he was suddenly unable to get up. Well, the smith ascribed this to his hip complaint and so the young man got to work allone. He forged at lightning speed 66 blades, signing them all with „Yukihira“,*36 and stored them in a cave at a mountain behind the smithy. Back again he said: „Master, you are old. It would be better if you stop working at all. Therefore I forged for you many shorter and longer blades which you can sell and live with the money free from worries for the rest of your life.“ Yukihira was moved and thanked the young man in tears.

*36 Whereas he signed the character in semicursive style (gyōsho, 行書) but Yukihira signed always in block letters (kaisho, 楷書).

– 45 – But the stranger continued: „When I took revenge back then with your sword the deity Brahmā (jap. Bonten, 梵天) appeared in front of me and reprimanded sharply that I should better hide three years for what I did. Thus I thought by myself it would be a good idea to spend this three years with you master and I thank you that you welcomed me in your smithy.“ Saying these words the youngling disappeared was never seen again. But as soon he was gone the hip complaints disappeared too. However, the smith was not too old to forge blades but he could do his living from the finished swords of his former assistant placed in the mentioned cave. When doind „sales talk“ the smith mentioned always proudly: „This sword was forged by a demonic god and it cuts exactly that way!“ So the first two characters of his name „Kishin Daiyū“ (紀新大夫) were sometimes replaced by (鬼神) which means „demonic god“ but are also read as „Kishin“. Yukihira himself leaded an obsessive way of life too because he was sent to exile several times. According to records of the former lord of Kishi (岸) where the smith was working, one time even for 16 years to Kōzuke province. The exact reasons for these punishments are not known and it is said that Yukihira forged even swords under another name in his place of banishment. One legend says that he killed an adversary even during proceedings of another banishment and that he was therefore deleted from the „goban-kaji“ list (御番鍛冶)*37 pf emperor Gotoba (後鳥羽, 1180-1239). And the smithes of the Takada school (高田) from Bungo province told that Yukihira had an influence on the swordsmiths of the bakufu when he was banished to the village of Yui (由井) which is close to Kamakura.

*37 When Gotoba abdicated in 1198 he invited the best swordsmiths of the country as so-called „ban-kaji“ (番鍛冶, lit. „rotating smiths“ or „smiths on a rota basis“) to his residence. The goal of this „study group“ was to create a perfect sword blade.

– 46 – Now back to Hosokawa Yūsai. Shortly before the Battle of Sekigahara Yūsai ruled with his about 500 men Tanabe Castle (田辺, Tango province) for the Tokugawa. When Ishida Mitsunari (石田三成, 1560-1600) deployed for the final move against Tokugawa Ieyasu, he layed siege to Tanabe with 15.000 men, among others under the leadership of his generals Onoki Shigekatsu (小野木重勝, 1563-1600) and Maeda Shigekatsu (前田茂勝, 1582-1621). Yūsai was less frightened of losing the castle or his live but that the continuation of the anthology „Kokin-waka-shū“ (古今和歌集) on which he worked could be lost forver. One of his students was prince Hachijōnomiya Toshihito (八条宮智仁, 1579-1629), the younger brother of the then emperor Go- Yōsei (後陽成, 1571-1617). It was tried two times to talk Yūsai into surrendering via this connection because everybody realized that resistace was useless and a peaceful surrending of the castle the best way. But Yūsai was stubborn. The court definitely expected the death of Yūsai and because they did not want the loss of his, „kokin-denju“ (古今伝授) called works on the epochal anthology, the officially issued an imperial order to hand out all the documents. Thus an envoy was sent to Tanabe which consisted of the aristocrats Sanjōnishi Saneeda (三条西実条, 1575-1640), Nakanoin Michikatsu (中院通勝, 1556- 1610), and Karasumaru Mitsuhiro (烏丸光広, 1579-1638), who were famous poets themselves and therefore „in the trade“. Yūsai obeyed and surrended the castle two day before the Battle of Sekigahara after being besieged for two months. In the end Yūsai was relieved too that his kokin-denju continuation of the „Kokin-waka-shū“ was in safe hands and presented for good measure Mitsuhiro with his beloved tachi of Yukihira. This sword was then known under the name „Kokindenju-Yukihira“ and is nowadays designed as national treasure (see picture 14). It remained uninterruptedly in the possession of the Karasumaru family until it was passed over the the aristocrat marquis Nakayama Takamaro (中山孝麿, 1853-1919) in 1894.

– 47 – When his family put the sword up for auction in June 1929, Hosokawa Moritatsu (細川護立, 1883-1970) – the then head of the Hosokawa family in 16th generation, president of the NBTHK and grandfather of the later prime minister Hosokawa Morihiro (細川護煕, geb. 1938) – bought it right away and was happy that the sword was once again a family property.

Picture 14: kokuhō Kokindenju-Yukihira, mei: „Bungo no Kuni Yukihira saku“ (豊後国行平作), nagasa 79,9 cm, sori 2,9 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, ko-kissaki, deep koshizori, funbari, ubu- nakago in kijimomo shape

Picture 15: Mounting of the Kokindenju-Yukihira which goes probably back to the time of Yūsai.

7. Ishida Mitsunari and two Masamune less

In the last chapter we have read that Hosokawa Yūsai handed over his beloved Yukihira sword because he was besieged by Ishida Mitsunari, but Mitsuhira too lost two famous swords in the course of the turmoils before and during Sekigahara. Mitsunari has always been an ally of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and when the latter had himself installed as kanpaku regent (関白) in the 13th year of Tenshō (天正, 1585) due to an adoption of the noble family Konoe (近衛), he appointed Mitsunari as one of his „Five Commissioners“ (go-bugyō, 五奉行) who were charged with governing the capital city of Kyōto and the surrounding areas. The other four – all of them being strong

– 48 – supporters of Hideyoshi´s former lord Oda Nobunaga – were Asano Nagamasa (浅野長政, 1547-1611), Natsuka Masaie (長束正家, 1562?- 1600), Maeda Gen´i (前田玄以, 1539-1602), and Mashita Nagamori (増田長盛, 1545-1615). Eleven years later the invasion of Korea had begun and when Hideyoshi´s health declined arpidly from the fifth month of Keichō three (慶長, 1598), he gathered the most imprtant daimyō of the country in his Fushimi Castle to arrange matters of his still underage heir Hideyori (秀頼, 1592-1615). He installed a commission of five guardians (go-tairō, 五大老) consisting of Tokugawa Ieyasu, Maeda Toshiie, Mōri Terumoto (毛利輝元, 1553-1625), Ukita Hideie, and (上杉景勝, 1555-1623), who should continue Hideyohi´s policy until the full age of Hideyori. Here too it applies that too many cooks spoil the broth but Hideyoshi had no other choice because an exclusion of one of the major daimyō of that time would have made things even worse. Three months later Hideyoshi died and Ishida Mitsunari´s rash, arbitrary, and unauthorized actions only a couple of days later overturned the go-tairō and go-bugyō constellation which was doomed to fail from the start. Also Katō Kiyomasa (加藤清正, 1587-1611) and (福島正則, 1561- 1614), both famous generals in the Korea campaign and old vassals of Hideyoshi felt betrayed and when above that all an attempted murder of Mitsunari on Ieyasu leaked out, all the daimyō involved wanted to see the agitator dead. Mitsunari fled in a cloak-and-dagger operation – disguised as a female and hidden in a woman´s sedan – out of Ōsaka Castle and went, you may not believe it, directly to Ieyasu who then stayed at Fushimi Castle. Ieyasu spared him and was even prepared to mediate between Mitsunari and his pursuers. He suggested that Mitsunari should retreat to his castle in Sawayama (佐和山)*38 in Ōmi province and assigned his own son Hideyasu as escort.

*38 The Sawayama fief was given to Mitsunari in Bunroku four (文禄, 1595) by Hideyoshi. It was worth 194.000 koku.

– 49 – As a sign of gratitude he gave Ieyasu a sword of Masamune which had the nickname „Kirikomi-Masamune“ (切込正宗) because of its numerous battle marks (kiri-komi, 切込). According to legend he said: „Lord Ieyasu, you are circumspect, of a sharp mind, and consider carefully every word. Even if you are yet hardly over thirty years, you are able to accurately assess every behaviour and situation. A truly unrivalled warrior!“ Ishida Mitsunari himself got the blade as present from Ukita Hideie who on the other hand bought it – according to the „Kyōhō-meibutsu- chō“ – for 400 kan (貫 = 100 ryō)*39 from a certain Mōri Wakasa no Kami (毛利若狭守).*40 For comparison, the annual salary of a simple vassal of a fief (hanshi, 藩士) without any office-related special payments was about 3 ryō. After Hideyasu received the sword of Mitsunari, he gave him the name „Ishida-Mitsunari“. He kept it for the rest of his life and later it came into the possessions of the Tsuyama branch of the Matsudaira family which was already mentioned in chapter one. Today it is designated as jūyō-bunkazai and is preserved in the Tōkyō National Museum.

Picture 16: jūyō-bunkazai Ishida-Masamune, mumei, nagasa 68,8 cm, sori 2,4 cm, shinogi-zukuri, deep sori, chū-kissaki, ō-suriage

Abb. 17: Close-up picture of the battle marks. On the left picture the mark close to the tip and on the right picture those close the base of the blade →

*39 1 ryō (両) was the unit for one piece of gold of abut 16,5 g and was equivalent to 1 koku of rice. *40 It is assumed that this entry refers to Mōri Terumoto.

– 50 – As the title of this chapter suggests, Ishida Mitsunari owned once two blades of the famous, if not even the most famous of all swordsmiths – Gorō Nyūdō Masamune (五郎入道正宗), who is traditionally dated to the Kareki era (嘉暦, 1326-1329). The second pieces was a tantō which he presented to Fukuhara Naotaka (福原直高, ?-1600),*41 the husband of his younger sister. But before we deal with this blade, I want to enlarge upon sword presentations we repeatedly read of in the last chapters. Why did a daimyō or other person feld compelled to part with a certain blade in his collection? The answer lies in the obligatory and semi-obligatory sword presentations, especially in the New Year´s celebrations held by the bakufu. At those celebrations, certain families had to donate certain things and in the same sense, specified presents were exchanged. When for example on the 17th day of the first month the mato-hajime (的始), the first ritual test shootings of the archery dōjō in the year took place, the responsible persons and the participants of the evening ritual of the first shooting contest (kuji- mato-hajime, 籤的始) were presented with swords on the very next day. Other occasions where swords „had“ to be presented were the official New Year´s banquet in the residence of the shōgun, the so- called „ōban“ (埦飯), the visi and the departure of the shōgun himself (onari, 御成), the succession as head of a family, the participation in a battle, the granting of a rank or title, as well as at special meetings, gatherings, and so on and so forth. Quasi the starting signal for the official calender of events of the Muromachi-period bakufu was the so- called „sword presentation of the three deputies“*42 (on-dachi-kenjō no gi, 御太刀献上の儀) right after the New Year´s celebrations. For this purpose the rank or rather the condition (i.e. if signed, unsigned, shortened or unaltered) was exactly defined. As an example I would like to quote from the etiquette regulations of the Ōuchi family („Ōuchi-mondō“ 大内問答, published in Eishō six [永正, 1509]):

*41 He is also listed with the name Fukuhara Nagataka (福原長堯). *42 The families of the Shiba (斯波), Hosokawa (細川), and Hatakeyama (畠山), together called san-shoku (三職) or san-kanrei (三管領).

– 51 – „Regarding sword presentations it has to be mentioned that such blades which became a katana by cutting-off the tang or tachi with no signature from the beginning are not suitable for a present of highest degree, that means for the shōgun. Each and every sword has to be examined carefully in advance for its usability as present. Regarding unsigned blades, they are not suitable for a large celebration but well suited for a common festival.“

Another entry of the Muromachi-period „Hōkō-kakugo no ki“ (奉公覚悟之書, „Records about the Knowledge in the Civil Service“) dealing explicitely with blades for presentations reads:

„Famous blades suited for presentations are: Jinsoku, Sanemori, Masatsune, Tomonari, Yoshimitsu, Masamune, Kuniyoshi, Hisakuni, Yukihira, Munechika, Nobufusa, Arikuni, Kanehira, Kunitsuna, Norikuni, Kunitomo, Kunitsugu, Kiku-Ichimonji, and the like. In the case of attending an onari, two or better three representative blades by the above mentioned swordsmiths should be prepared.“

Ant the „Sōgo-ōzō-shi“ (宗吾大艸紙) written in the first year of Kyōroku (享禄, 1528) contains a detailed list of swordsmith´s names whose names and/or signatures are suitable for a present at an onari:

„Jinsoku (神息, Buzen), Amakuni (天国, Yamashiro), Sanemori (真守, Hōki), Munechika (宗近, Yamashiro, Sanjō school), Masatsune (正恒, Ko-Bizen), Nobufusa (信房, Ko-Bizen), Yukihira Kishindayū (行平紀新大夫, Bungo), Tomonari (友成, Ko- Bizen), Miike Denta (三池伝太, Chikugo), Hisakuni (久国, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Kuniyoshi (国吉, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Arikuni (有国, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Yoshimitsu Tōshirō (吉光藤四郎, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Kunitsuna (国綱, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Masamune (正宗, Sagami), Sadamune (貞宗, Sagami), Kunitoshi (国俊, Yamashiro, Rai school), Kanehira (包平, Ko-Bizen), Norikuni (則国, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), Yasukuni (安国, province unknown), Kunitomo (国友, Yamashiro, Awataguchi school), signatures in the form of a 16-petalled chrysanthemum, Kunitsugu (国次, Yamashiro, Rai school), and the like. Blades by other smiths might be suitable too but it must be beared in mind that they should be at least tachi.“

– 52 – But back again to Mitsunari´s Masamune which was in the meanwhile in the possession of his brother-in-law Naotaka. Naotaka was a vassal of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and ruled a fief in Bungo province. According to this loyalty, he fought on Mitsunari´s, i.e. the western side at the Battle of Sekigahara, and together with Kakemi Iezumi (垣見家純, ?-1600) and Kumagai Naomori (熊谷直盛, ?-1600) – both long-standing vassals of Hideyoshi too – he was detached to support the strategically important Ōgaki Castle (大垣城, Mino province) which was then held by Itō Morimasa (伊藤盛正, ?-1623). Ōgaki was attacked by an alliance of several daimyō and Naotaka had to give up and surrender the castle. He asked if he is permitted to enter priesthood but because he was via his wife a relative of Mitsunari this was not granted and he had to commit seppuku. One of the attacking generals of the eastern army was Mizuno Katsunari (水野勝成, 1564-1651), who made sure that he got hold of Naotaka´s Masamune-tantō at this occasion. Because Katsunari beared later the honorary title „Hyūga no kami“ (日向守), this name was applied to the blade too and thus it is mentioned as „Hyūga-Masamune“ in the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“. According to transmission, the original nickname of the blade was „Katada-Masamune“ (堅田正宗) but the exact backgrounds of this name are not known. However, the Hyūga-Masamune came later in the possessions of the Kii branch (紀伊) of the Tokugawa family. Today it is with its excellent Edo-period mounting preserved in the Mitsui Memorial Museum (三井記念美術館, Tōkyō) and is moreover designated as national treasure.

Picture 18: kokuhō Hyūga-Masamune, mumei, nagasa 24,8 cm, very shallow sakizori, hira-zukuri, ubu-nakago. The „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ notes that the two „gomabashi“ (護摩箸) called grooves on one side of the blade were added on order or rather on the recommendation of Hon´ami Kōtoku (本阿弥光徳, 1554-1619), the ninth head of the Hon´ami family.

– 53 – 8. Kannagiri- and Daihannya-Nagamitsu

We have just read in the last chapter that the Hyūga-Masamune was originally called „Katada-Masamune“. This has nothing to do with this chapter but should serve as bridge to the protagonist of the following legend who was a certain bushi called Katada Matagorō (堅田又五郎). Katada was a place on the southwestern tip of Lake ,*43 who was an important traffic junction and a fishing centre at all times. The Ōnin War (Ōnin no ran, 応仁の乱) which broke out in the first year of Ōnin (応仁, 1467) in Kyōto soon spilled over into the neighboring provinces (Katada is about 20 km linear distance to Kyōto). The lords of the numerous smaller fiefs in this area used the turmoils of the war to get the local supremacy. The most outstanding of this so-called „Katada- shū“ (堅田衆) or „Katada-shoji“ (堅田諸侍) called groups was Katada Hirosumi (堅田広澄), a vassal of Hideyoshi who was in the controll of lands worth 20.000 koku. Katada Matagorō lived somewhat earlier, around the end of the Ōnin War which lasted ten years. He was one day on the way at the foot of Ibukiyama (伊吹山) in Ōmi province, accompanied by a carpenter. It was already late and to avoid walking in the dawn, they stepped on it. But it didn´t help and at falling night they where middle of nowhere in a gloomy wood. Without warning the carpenter turned into a horrifying figure and attacked Matagorō with his teeth bared. Matagorō was surprised for a second but drew his sword – a blade of Bizen Nagamitsu (備前長光) – and thrusted at the creepy carpenter, or at least what was left of him. Matagorō was lucky that he had his sword thrusted through the belt and not wearing it over the shoulder like it was common for travellers.

*43 Today, Katada is not longer an independent village but was 1967 incorporated to the city of Ōtsu (大津).

– 54 – With a metallic „pling“ the blade cut in half the plane (, 鉋)*44 the carpenter had raised as defence and suddenly the monster vanished into thin air. Due to this incident, Matagorō called his sword „Kannagiri-Nagamitsu“ (鉋切り長光), lit. „plane-splitter Nagamitsu“. This incident quickly made the rounds and eventually reached the Rokkaku family (六角),*45 castellans of Kannonji (観音寺城) and military governors of southern Ōmi province, who without forder ado ordered the confiscation of the sword. The exact circumstances of the involuntary handing-over or why a simple bushi beared a blade of the famous swordsmith Nagamitsu are not known. However, records of the Rokkaku family say that the piece became at the latest in the Eishō era (永正, 1504-1521) the favourite sword of Rokkaku Ujitsuna (六角氏綱, 1492-1552). Ujitsuna had no son and heir and so Yoshikata (義賢, 1521-1598), the eldest son of his older brother Sadayori (定頼, 1495-1552) had to succeed as head of the family as was the law at those days. And consiquently the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu went into his possessions. Some years later Yoshikata felt ill and once again, no one of the fief´s physicians was able to cure him. A worried vassal of the family visited a fortuneteller (uranai-shi, 占師) who said: „I see that the illness of your lord has something to do with a certain Matagorō and that he is under a curse of a killed carpenter. To solve the curse, one has to die for the sick person and further, the sword has to be offered to the Hyakusai tempe (百済寺, which lies to the east of Lake Biwa).“

*44 This was not a plane with wooden chest and slanting cutting edge but a so-called „-kanna“ (槍鉋, lit. „ plane“) which is – as the name suggests – shaped like a spear. It is used with carving movements to plane wood. *45 The Ōmi-based branch of the Minamoto family beared also the family name „Sasaki“ (佐々木). Later this branch was split up into four further branch families: the Rokkaku, Kyōgoku (京極), Ōhara (大原), and Takashima (高島). So the Rokkaku family is sometimes also referred to as Sasaki-Rokkaku family.

– 55 – The hard lot was assumed by Namazue Sadaharu (鯰江定春), lord of Namazue Castle (鯰江城) of the same name. Sadaharu came from a branch of the Rokkaku family and amid countless praises and expressions of thanks he was buried alive at the temple grounds of the Hyakusai! But the fortuneteller was to be right because Yoshikata´s condition was better and better every day after this gruesome ceremony. At that time, the tension of impending war grew in the air and one of the main routs to Kyōto leaded through the southern part of Ōmi province. The political and military power of the Ashikaga shōguns was now completely destroyed and a kind of power vacuum had arosen in the course of which Oda Nobunaga saw his opportunity of attaining a supremacy. With (足利義昭, 1537-1597) – which he installed later as „puppet shōgun“ – he marched towards Kyōto in the eleventh year of Eiroku (永禄, 1568), opposed by the army of Yoshikata. But resistance was futile, the castle of Kannonji was besieged and surrendered, and Yoshikata was able to escape to the mountain region of Kōga (甲賀) in the southeast of Lake Biwa. It is likely that the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu went into the possessions of Nobunaga when Yoshikata surrendered the castle because some years later, on the 24th day of the sixth month of Tenshō seven (天正, 1575), he presented it together with a famous tea bowl called „shūkō“ (周光) to his vassal Niwa Nagahide (丹羽長秀, 1535-1585) who served him loyal since his youth. From Nagahide the sword went under not nearer defined circumstances to Gamō Ujisato (蒲生氏郷, 1556- 1595), lord of Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle (会津若松城) in northern Japan. Another possibility how the sword could have came to Ujisato would be the following: Ujisato´s father Katahide (賢秀, 1534-1584) was castellan of Ōmi´s Hino Castle (日野城) and a retainer of Rokkaku Yoshikata who was back then in control of the lands around Kannonji Castle where also Hino Caste was located. When Yoshikata holed up in the mountains of Kōga, his retainer Katahide was not willing to surrender Hino without resistance to Nobunaga.

– 56 – Well, Nobunaga sent thereupon Katahide´s brother-in-law Kanbe Moritomo (神戸盛友) (who was adopted into the Gamō family) as negotiator and Katahide finally gave up. Maybe Nobunaga gave Moritomo the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu as a kind of bribe and attempt of persuasion. The common transmission of the passing on of the Kannagiri- Nagamitsu says that the sword went from Ujisato to Toyotomi Hideyoshi who presented it to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who on the other hand bequeathed it to his son Hidetada. But things were somewhat different. When the third Tokugawa-shōgun Iemitsu (家光, 1604-1651) visited Ujisatos´son Tadasato (忠郷, 1602-1627) in his residence on the 14th day of the fourth month Kan´ei one (寛永, 1624), he received as a welcome gift a tachi of Bungo Yukihira, a of Sōshū Sadamune (相州貞宗), and the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu. Additionally it should be said that Tadasato´s mother Furihime (振姫) was the third daughter of Ieyasu, i.e. the aunt of Iemitsu. And so the Kannagiri came into the possession of the Tokugawa family. Iemitsu´s sister Tamahime (珠姫, 1599-1622) was married to Maeda Toshitsune who was already introduced in the chapter about the Ōtenta- Mitsuyo. Their daughter Kametsuru married in Kan´ei three (1626) Mori Tadahiro (森忠広, 1604-1633), son of Mori Tadamasa (森忠政, 1570-1634). Tadahiro was installed successor of Tadamasa and future lord of the Tsuyama fief. As a wedding present Tadahiro received a wakizashi of Taima Kuniyuki (当麻国行) and the Kannagiri- Nagamitsu. But their luck did not hold because Kametsuru died four years after the wedding at the age of 18, and Tadahiro only three years later with 30, even before his father Tadamasa. So Tadahiro´s younger brother Nagatsugu (長継, 1610-1698) became the official successor of Tadamasa. Nagatsugu was granted with a very long life and when he retired in the second year of Enpō (延宝, 1674) he presented the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu together with a calligraphy to Ietsuna (家綱, 1641-1680), the son of Tadamitsu and the fourth Tokugawa-shōgun.

– 57 – Shortly thereafter, in the ninth month of Enpō six (1679), the sword got an appraisal (origami, 折紙) of the Hon´ami family designating it a monetary value of 25 gold pieces. The sword was handed down from shōgun to shōgun until the end of the Edo period and already the work „Hon´ami Kōetsu-oshigata“ (本阿弥光悦押形) published in the eighth year of Keichō (慶長, 1603) notes „shōgun nite“ (将軍ニ而, lit. „at the shōgun[´s place]“). That means also that the oshigata of the blade was drawn in the residence of the shōgun. But at the time of the big Kantō earthquake from 1923 the sword was together with the „konote-gashiwa Kanenaga“ in the residence of the Mito-Tokugawa branch in Edo´s Mukōjima district (向島) and suffered therefore a fire damage (yake- mi, 焼け身) which meant the loss of its tempering. The then head of the Mito-Tokugawa family, marquis Tokugawa Kuniyuki (徳川圀順, 1886-1969) immediately informed the owner of the blade – the 17th shōgun prince Tokugawa Iemasa (徳川家正, 1884- 1963) – and asked him to let him the blade. Three weeks later Iemasa agreed and by intercession of Kuniyuki, it received in 1949 the status of jūyō-bunkazai even it had no longer its original tempering. As a transition I want to compare the tang of the Kannagiri- Nagamitsu with the national treasure blade „Daihannya-Nagamitsu“ (大般若長光) which is the subject of the next episode. Depicted on the next page (picture 20) one can see the identical position of the signature as well as of the uppermost, original mekugi-ana.

Picture 19: kokuhō Daihannya-Nagamitsu, mei: „Nagamitsu“, nagasa 73,6 cm, sori 2,9 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, deep koshizori, funbari, broad mihaba, ikubi-kissaki, ubu-nakago at which only the very tip of the tang was altered slightly

– 58 –

Picture 20: Tang of the Daihannya-Nagamitsu top and of the Kannagiri-Nagamitsu bottom. Please not the matching position of the signature and the uppermost mekugi-ana.

The Daihannya-Nagamitsu appears in historical records the first time when it went from the 13th . Ashikaga-shōgun Yoshiteru to ging (三好長慶, 1523-1564, his first name can also be read as „Chōkei“). The balance of power of late Sengoku-period Japan were far away from being settled and when Yoshiteru was installed as shōgun in 15 Tenbun (天文, 1546) after the forced abdication of his father Yoshiharu (義晴, 1511-1550), he was with eleven years de facto under control of the regent (kanrei, 管領) Hosokawa Harumoto (細川晴元, 1514-1563). All these actions took place outside of Kyōto but later Yoshiharu conclude agreements with the Hosokawa regent that he was allowed to return to Kyōto where the Ashikaga shōgun had ruled before. So far so good but Miyoshi Nagayoshi – actually a vassal of Hosokawa Harumoto – switched sides and deserted to of Yoshiharu´s enemies. As a result new fightings broke out, Miyoshi was victorious but spared Yoshiharu´s life with the intention that he was now in control of the then shōgun instead of Harumoto. So it is likely that the sword came into the possession of Miyoshi Nagayoshi in the course of this new distribution of power.

– 59 – Later the sword came to Oda Nobunaga, probably when the Miyoshi family was driven out of Kyōto in 1568. At the Battle of Anegawa (Anegawa no tatakai, 姉川の戦い) which took place two years later, it was Tokugawa Ieayu who distinguished himself and so Nobunaga rewarded him with the Daihannya-Nagamitsu. In 1575 there were new fightings, this time around the besieged castle of Nagashino (Nagashino no tatakai, 長篠の戦い), which was held successfully against the outnumbering Takeda army by the then only twenty year old Okudaira Sadamasa (奥平貞昌, 1555-1615) – a retainer and son-in-law of Ieyasu. For this glorious act which contributed to the victory of Nobunaga and Ieyasu he received from the latter the Daihannya- Nagamitsu and Oda Nobunaga allowed him to use the character „Nobu“ of his name whereupon Sadamasa changed his name to „Nobumasa“ (信昌). Nobumasa passed on the sword to his fourth son Tadamasa (忠明, 1583-1644). Tadamasa´s mother was a daughter of Ieyasu and when he was adopted 1588 into the Tokugawa family, he received the family name „Matsudaira“ (松平), the former family name of Ieyasu before he used the name „Tokugawa“. Later the sword was transferred to this Matsudaira branch which was in control of the Oshi fief (忍) in . But for financial reasons the Matsudaira had to part from certain pieces of the family property in the Taishō era (大正, 1912-1926), among them the Daihannya-Nagamitsu. It was bought by the politician and statesman Count Itō Miyoji (伊東巳代治, 1857- 1934). After the death of the latter it was once more auctioned off by the relatives and bid when to the Imperial Museum (Teishitsu- hakubutsukan, 帝室 博物館) – the present-day Tōkyō National Museum – for the then unbelievable high price of 50.000 Yen. In 1951 the sword received the status of a national treasure. Of course there was a lot of talk about the price the museum paid but it was originally a price too which gave the sword the nickname „Daihannya“.

– 60 – It all started with the „daizuke“ (代付) called practice that from the late Muromachi period onwards, a certain monetary value was assigned to smiths and their works. The publishing of such lists was of course connected to the sword presents mentioned in the last chapter and helpet to weigh which sword could be presented to whom and on which occasion. Blades received origami papers from the Hon´ami family, the official sword appraisers of the Shōgunate, and there was a separate list for swordsmiths how much their blades are worth. Such an assessment list was the „Shokoku-kaji-daizuke no koto“ (諸国鍛冶代付の事, „Assessment of Swordsmith from the Various Provinces“) published in the 19th year of Tenshō (天正, 1591). In this work blades by Sanjō Munechika, Awataguchi Tōshirō Yoshimitsu (粟田口藤四郎吉光), Awataguchi Kunitsuna, and Bungo Yukihira were valued with 100 kan, followed by Masamune with 50 kan, and Sōshū Sadamune (相州貞宗) with 30 kan. For the Daihannya-Nagamitsu, the unbeliavable value of 600 kan (in Japanese pronounced as „roppyaku-kan“, 六百貫) was estimated! Because this value was so unrealistic it was jokingly compared with the 600 volumes of the „Large Sūtra on the Perfection of Wisdom“ (Daihannya-kei, 大般若経) because „600 volumes“ reads also as „roppyaku-kan“. And so the blade got its nickname „Daihannya“. This shows how important the holding of Nagashino Castle was for Ieyasu that he rewarded Nobumasa with this most valuable blade.

– 61 – 9. Tōshirō Yoshimitsu

In the last chapter we read about the ascribing of monetary values to blades and smiths where also the name Tōshirō Yoshimitsu was mentioned. This swordsmith belonged to Kyōto´s Awataguchi school and is traditionally dated to the Shōgen era (正元, 1259-1260). He is considered as one of the most outstanding representatives of the Awataguchi school and was regarded with Masamune and his student Gō Yoshihiro as one of the best three smiths (the so-called „sansaku“, 三作) during the Edo period. In the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ he is represented with 16 blades which places him in terms of quantity on the third place in this work.*46 The following legend took place at the time shortly after the warded-off invasion of the Mongols, that means at the end of the 13h century, when the reconstruction of the Tamon hall (Tamon-dō, 多聞堂 or 多門堂) had begun. The hall was destroyed by fire with the Kurama temple (鞍馬寺) in the first year of (大治, 1126). The temple complex of Kurama lies about 15 km to the north of Kyōto and was founded in 770 or 796 – according to the particular transmission – on the mountain of the same name for the protection of the imperial capital. The temple houses a wooden statue of the deity Bishamonten (毘沙門天) which is designated as national treasure. Another name of Bishamonten is „Tamonten“ (多門天 or 多聞天), and this was the origin of the name of the hall where the statue was once placed. For the reconstruction a great many of iron nails were needed. Many of the temples in Nara, for example the Tōdaiji (東大寺) or the Kōfukuji (興福寺) maintained smiths of their own who made swords or for the warrior monks (sōhei, 僧兵) but also tools like saws, axes, planes, and all the bits and pieces like naisl for the maintenance of the temples.

*46 He is only „beaten“ by Masamune with 39 and Sadamune with 19 blades.

– 62 – The Kurama temple did not have own smiths and so the master builder sent errand boys to the near Kyōto to give orders to the corresponding craftsmen. Among those errand boys was a young man who was sent to the swordsmith Tōshirō Yoshimitsu, back then already famous for his tantō, to pick-up pre-ordered nails. Many times he had to commute between the Kurama temple and Kyōto but so he had the chance to watch how the master forged his blades. To own such a tantō one day, this was the greatest wish of the young man. One day he mustered up the courage to ask the smith: „Master Tōshirō, I have to commute between the Kurama temple and Kyōto every day. This is a bad and dangerous route full of highwaymen and robbers. Could you please forge me a tantō that I am able to defend myself? In return I will bring you wood for firing the forge for free as long as the construction works on the Tamon hall are going on.“ The smith knew of the dangerous routs to Kyōto and moved by the honest request of the young man he accepted. From that day forward he brought him daily new wood even it was raining or snowing and even when there were nails to pick-up. After three years the Tamon hall was finished but not the tantō for the hard-working errand boy. Emphatically he reminded Tōshirō Yoshimitsu of his primise but he just boldly brought a piece of steel in the length of a dagger out of the forge, replying tersely: „I only came so far“. He hammered three or four times on the piece of steel and put it aside. The young man was protesting: „I struggled with my part of the agreement for now three years. It´s s shame that you not even thought about fulfilling your part of the agreement…“ Yoshimitsu realized that he was wrong and said: „Well, when you come back tomorrow your tantō will be finished.“ And indeed, the smith handed him over a beautifully forged blade when the young man visited the forged on the next day. One of his errands brought the man into an area called Ichinohara (市原野) which is about three kilometres to the south of the Kurama temple. Already the monk Kyōsan (慶算, 1138-1213) of the local Miidera (三井寺) complained about that the area stopped being save for a long time.

– 63 – It is unknown of the young man had known of Kyōsan´s complaints but on the way back he had to shelter from a approaching storm under a cedar. It did not take long and he fell asleep when a huge spider came lowering down from a branch of this tree. The spider saw the man as prey and spinned him with her spider threads. But when she tried to pull him up the tree, the tantō draw itself and cutted the young man out of the deadly cocoon. The spider repeated this gruesome game persistently several times until a mounted vassal of the Isshiki family (一色)*47 passed by from his pilgrimage to the Kurama temple. He jumped from the , drove away the spider, and freed the young man; but he was immediately fascinated by the tantō with its magical powers. The spider´s prey had not noticed what was going on in his deep sleep and so the warrior told him in what danger he was all the time. And then he broached the subject of the tantō: „I know of no man who owns such a dagger. Is it all right with you when I show it to my lord Isshiki and informing him from the whole incident?“ The young man consented and quickly they rode both to Kyōto. The lord was astounded and decided spontaneously to give him 1.000 hiki (疋) for the tantō. 1.000 hiki was equivalent to 10 kan, that converts to 2,5 ryō. We have read in the chapter about Ishida Mitsunari´s Masamune that the average annual salary of a simple hanshi was about 3 ryō. And so the offer of the lord must had surely exceed the salary of the errand boy. The deal was made and the Isshiki lord called the blade of Yoshimitsu „Kumokiri-Tōshirō“ (蜘蛛斬り藤四郎, lit. „spider cutter/ spider slayer Tōshirō“).

*47 This would match because the Isshiki family was founded by Ashikaga Yasuuji´s (足利泰氏, 1216-1270) son Kōshin (公深, ?-1330) when he was appointed as administrator of the Isshiki fief in . But the other point is that Kōshin must had stayed in Kyōto at that time because Isshiki is about 100 km to the east of the capital – to far from riding there so easily to show the lord a tantō.

– 64 – Now to a different legend about a blade of Yoshimitsu. After the decisive battle at the Minatogawa (湊川) in three (建武, 1336), the attempt of emperor Go-Daigo (後醍醐, 1318-1339) to give all the political power back to the imperial court had finally failed. Go-Daigo´s most loyal retainer was Kusunoki Masashige (楠木正成, 1294-1336) who – facing his near death – committed seppuku away from the major battlefield. One of the military leaders who caused the downfall of Kusunoki was – according to the late Nanbokuchō-period epos „“ (太平記) – a certain Ōmori Hikoshichi Morinaga (大森彦七盛長, exact dates unknown). Overwhelmed by the rewards and promotions after this achievement he enjoyed life to the full where he was especially attached to the sarugaku play (猿楽)*48 and women (he was widely known as lecher). When he was on the way to the spring festival of the Konrenji (金蓮寺, ) in the fifth year of Ryakuō (暦応, 1342), he encountered a beautiful young lady standing at the riverbank. Hikoshichi could not resits and asked her for fun if he should carry her on his back over the river. Unexpectedly she flirtatiously looked at him and climbed on his back without blushing. Hikoshichi´s father was a hunter from and so he was used to carry deer or wild boards home on his back, compared to that young lady was so to speak like a feather. But when Hikoshichi had entered the river for some metres she became heavier and heavier with every step. He turned his head to see what wa going on but saw that she had turned into an about two metre measuring demon with bloodshot eyes, a huge mouth, and two horns.*49 Hikoshichi tried to get rid off the demon but the latter grabbed him on his topknot and pulled him into the air. By heavy resistance he eventually managed it not to be pulled higher and both fell into a muddy rice field.

*48 A forerunner to the later Nō play. *49 In another version of the legend Hikoshichi sees the horns in the reflection on the water surface.

– 65 – Hikoshichi´s servants had watched the entire scene and when the rushed to help they saw that the demon had stolen the life energy of their master. He had an open-mouthed, blank, and expressionless look, and the demon shouted down from the heaven: „I am Kusunoki Masashige´s spirit of vengeance! The matter at the Minatogawa is not yet clarified…“ Back then the fear of spirits of vengeance of persons who died in mysterious circumstances or who died a violent death was omnipresent and so Hikoshichi askes the priests of his lands to hold a posthumous requiem mass to appease the spirit of Masashige. Once again it has to be mentioned that there are several versions of this legend going round, and according to the dramaturgic inerpretation of a later Nō or version, the story is set in different areas of the country or the identity of the spirit of vengeance is a different one. In addition, Kusunoki Masashige was later turned into an ideal of an emperor loyalist, and Ōmori Hikoshichi came out quite badly in Edo-period performances. On another day some itinerant monks were touring this region, asking with their sarugaku play for some alms. Hikoshichi visited one such performance but he was bored that there were neither young nor beautiful women to be found in the countryside. He sat nevertheless down behind the „best choice“ as suddenly a fierce storm came. Everybody tried to find shelter from the cloudburst and when the young woman in front of Hikoshichi stood up and turned around, she had turned into a demon which stretched its hand out to grab the tantō he had girded. But Hikoshichi was able to react, turned to the side, draw the dagger, and cut the demon in the hand. He yelled and escaped through a gap between the dark clouds. After this incident Hikoshichi became depressive and lethargic and went to bed earlier and earlier. The servants were concerned about his condition and tried to obtain informations on the demon so that they were able to help him. They concluded that it was maybe either the spirit of vengeance of Kusunoki Masashige or of his daughter - (千早姫), coming back to earth to get back the tantō which was stolen by Hikoshichi after Masashige´s suicide.

– 66 – And so additonal guards were positioned every night in front of Hikoshichi´s bed-chamber but this of course did not represent a permanent solution. One of the retainers had the idea to ask a Zen priest to spend all night long in zazen meditation in front of the bed-chamber because it was told that spirits of vengeance were afraid to near to persons in such a state of mind. After the exchange of some alms a priest was willing to do as suggested and so also the demon had to switch to „plan B“. Turned into a spider he lowered himself from the roof at midnight and tied together the topknots of the sleeping guards with his spinning thread. Now turned into female demon again he went to Hikoshichi´s bed, grabbed him on his neck, and flew with him into the jet-black night sky. Tied to each other the guards lost valuable time when they heard shortly afterwards an impact at the roof. The eldest in the group ordered a young vassal of Hikoshichi to climb the roof with a torch and he should find – more death than alive – their lord, giving the death rattle: „The demon has stolen my dagger. This is a serious disgrace for a warrior and it does no longer make any sense to live on…“ The young man still tried to cheer him up but Hikoshichi was already dead. Suddenly a loud laughter could be heard from the sky and an object fell down in the garden of the residence. Carefully they approached and in the light of the torches they saw a skull to which the tantō was bound with a rope. The men agreed that thus must be the skull of Kusunoki Masashige and that the spirit of vengeance had now retaliated. The tantō in question was a work of Tōshirō Yoshimitsu and went later into the possession of the Ashikaga-shōgun. There the piece was highly regarded under the name „Hōchō-Tōshirō“ (包丁藤四郎). „Hōchō“ means actually „kitchen knife“ and is used for a broad tantō blade.

*50 Famous for this nickname are two very broad tantō of Masamune which are both called „Hōchō-Masamune“.

– 67 – But with 2 cm in width, the Hōchō-Tōshirō is a rather slender tantō. The name goes back to another connection with the aforementioned term, namely to hōchō-dō“ (包丁道) or „hōchō-shiki“ (包丁式), the „way or respectively the rite/method of the kitchen knife“. This way/method describes the strongly ritualized art of „cooking“ or preparation where a fish is divided only by the ose of a kitchen knife and two long chopsticks (manabashi, 真魚箸). Once the famous cook Taga Takatada (多賀高忠, 1425-1486) is said to have carved a crane with this tantō of Tōshirō Yoshimitsu, thus the nickname „Hōchō- Tōshirō“. Later the blade went to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and subsequently to Uesugi Kagekatsu, Tokugawa Hidetada, Ieyasu, and finally to Yorinobu (徳川頼宣, 1602-1671), Ieyasu´s tenth son and founder of the Kii branch of the Tokugawa family. Later it remained family-owned by the Tokugawa but suffered a fire damage when parts of were burned in the third year of Meireki (明暦, 1657). There was another tantō blade called „Hōchō-Tōshirō“ in the possession of the Tokugawa family, which is actually quite broad (see picture 21). And the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ lists in the chapter „fire damages“ (shōshitsu no bu, 焼失之部) also a tantō with the nickname „Hōchō-Tōshirō“. However, it is not fully identified if this entry refers to the former blade mentioned above but it is very likely because the second, broader one is designated as jūyō-bijutsuhin and does not show any hints of a fire damage or re-tempering. Either the names were mixed-up over time or just both blades were called the same way „Hōchō-Tōshirō“.

Picture 21: jūyō-bijutsuhin Hōchō-Tōshirō, mei: „Yoshimitsu“, nagasa 21,8 cm, hira-zukuri, iori- mune, broad mihaba, thin kasane, tang slightly shortened

– 68 – Finally, let´s stay briefly at Yoshimitsu. One of his most famous blades – the so-called „Hirano-Tōshirō“ (平野藤四郎, see picture 22) – is today owned by the imperial family (gyobutsu, 御物). The names goes back to the transmission that once Kimura Shigegori (木村重茲, ?-1595), a vassal of the Toyotomi family, bought the tantō from the very rich merchant Hirano Dōsetsu (平野道雪, his first name can also be read as „Michiyuki“) and presented it later to Hideyoshi. From Hideyoshi the piece went to Maeda Toshinaga who gave it later to the Tokugawa-shōgun Hidetada. The latter on the other hand presented it to Maeda Toshitsune (前田利常, 1594-1658) who was married to Hidetada´s daughter Tamahime. At the end of the Edo period the Maeda family donated the tantō to emperor Meiji.

Picture 22: gyobutsu Hirano-Tōshirō, mei: „Yoshimitsu“, nagasa 30,1 cm, uchizori, hira-zukuri, mitsu-mune, relative thick kasane

10. Gō Yoshihiro

In this chapter I would like to introduce two blades of the last of the „sansaku“, Gō Yoshihiro. According to transmission, Yoshihiro was a retainer of the Momonoi family (桃井) which ruled the Matsukura (松倉) district (gō, 郷) of Etchū province. On the basis of this local context, Yoshihiro is also called „Matsukura-gō“ (松倉郷) or just „Gō“ (郷), whereas the latter term was also written with the character (江) from the Edo period onwards which reads „Gō“ too. Yoshihiro is dated to the Kenmu era (建武, 1334-1338). He was one of the so-called „Ten Students of Masamune“ („Masamune no jūttetsu“, 正宗の十哲), but

– 69 – this list has to be treated with caution because there are dated blades extant by some of those swordsmiths listed which do not match with the artistic period of Masamune. For the sake of completeness, I quote this list, but there are also varying lists going round. So is sometimes Kongobyōe Moritaka (金剛兵衛盛高) from Chikuzen province instead of Rai Kunitsugu or Sekishū Naotsuna.

Gō Yoshihiro (郷義弘) Etchū Norishige (則重) Bizen Nagayoshi (Chōgi) (長義) Bizen Kanemitsu (兼光) Hasebe Kunishige (長谷部国重) Sekishū Naotsuna (石州直綱) Chikuzen Samonji (筑前左文字) Yamashiro Rai Kunitsugu (来国次) Mino Shizu Kaneuji (志津兼氏) Mino Kinjū (Kaneshige) (金重)

Unfortunately there are no dated or signed blades extant by Gō Yoshihiro and soon the saying came up that „you can never see a ghost or a Gō“. This saying alludes to the numerous ghostly sightings in many places but in the end there is hardly anyone who personally witnessed them. But it is firmly believed that they exist, like blades of Gō. The first blade to be introduced is designated as national treasure and bears the gold-inlayed signature (kinzōgan-mei, 金象嵌銘) „Tenshō jūsan, nigatsu-hi – Gō – Hon´ami suriage kore + Siegel (kaō, 花押)“ (天十三二月日 江 本阿弥磨上之, „Gō blade, shortened by the Hon´ami family on a day of the second month Tenshō 13 [1585]“). And the back side of the tang bears the kinzōgan-mei of the previous owner of the blade: „shoji Inaba Kan´emon no Jō“ (所持稲葉 勘右衛門尉).*51

*51 „Shoji“ (所持) means „owner“, „in possession of…“.

– 70 – Inaba Kan´emon no Jō (?-1598) – his first name was „Shigemichi“ (重通), „Kan´emon“ is his common name (zokumyō, 俗名) and „Jō“ his honorary title title (shōgō, 称号) – belonged once to the unit (called „uma-mawari-shū“, 馬廻衆) which was assigned for the protection of Oda Nobunaga when he was on horseback on the battlefield. After the death of Nobunaga, Inaba became a retailer of Hideyoshi, once again as uma-mawari, and fought for him in the twelfth year of Tenshō (1584) at the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute (Komaki-Nagakute no tatakai, 小牧・長久手の戦い). For his military achievements in this battle he was rewarded with lands in Kawachi province. From the first year of Bunroku (文禄, 1592) until his death he was stationed in (名護屋) in from which Hideyoshi started his campaigns to Korea. Lehend says that Tokugawa Ieyasu bought this Gō Yoshihiro from him for 500 kan. The date and the exact circumstances are not recorded but it must had been after 1585 because the kinzōgan signature mentiones explicitely that Inaba Kan´emon no Jō (Shigemichi) was then still its owner. It is possible that the blade was damaged during the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute and had to be shortened. However, in the fifth year of Keichō (1600) – right before the Battle of Sekigahara . Ieyasu learned that Ishida Mitsunari, whom he allowed to retreat to his lands to Sawayama before, was going to make a new army in the west. Thus he entrusted his second son Yūki Hideyasu his favourite baton of command (, 采配) and the Gō of Inaba Shigemichi as cheering symbols for his task to hold certain eastern areas for him. After the victory of the Tokugawa side, the blade remained in the possession of Hideyasu. Together with the Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna and the Ishida-Masamune it became one of the three most valuable treasure swords of the Echizen-Matsudaira family (越前松平), the founder of which was namely Hideyasu. Afterwards all three blades went eventually into the possession of the Tsuyama branch of the Matsudaira.

– 71 – As the name suggests, the nickname „Inaba-Gō“ (稲葉江) under which the blade is mentioned in the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“, goes back to its former owner, Inaba Kan´emon no Jō Shigemichi.

Picture 23: kokuhō Inaba-Gō, mei: „Tenshō jūsan, nigatsu-hi – Gō – Hon´ami suriage kore + kaō“ – „shoji Inaba Kan´emon no Jō“, nagasa 70,9 cm, sori 2,03 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, elongated chū-kissaki, broad mihaba, ō-suriage-nakago

Another blade of Gō Yoshihiro bears a quite poetic nickname, namely the so-called „Samidare-Gō“ (see picture 24). Samidare (五月雨) is the continuous, early summer rain which heralds the rainy season tsuyu (梅雨) in the fifth month of the lunar calendar. The „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ says that the name of the blade goes back to its tempering which looks like the veil of mist (kiri, 霧) hanging over the country in the days of the samidare. In addition, also the order of owners is recorded in the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“, starting with Hon´ami Kōsa (本阿弥光瑳, 1576~1637). Kōsa was the great-grandson of Taga Takatada who was introduced in the last chapter and the cousin and later adopted heir of Hon´ami Kōetsu (本阿弥光悦, 1558-1637). When Kōetsu died, Kōsa succeeded as head of the Hon´ami family but he died just eight month afterwards. And so Kōsa´s son Kōho (光甫) followed which we got to know in the chapter on the Ōtenta-Mitsuyo.

Picture 24: jūyō-bunkazai Samidare-Gō, mumei, nagasa 71,8 cm, sori 1,5 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori- mune, broad mihaba, shallow sori, chū-kissaki, ō-suriage nakago

– 72 – The next owner after Kōsa was Kuroda Nagamasa, followed by . According to transmissions of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa family, Iemitsu presented the blade on the 21st day of the ninth month Kan´ei 16 (寛永, 1639) to Mitsutomo (光友, 1625-1700), the second generation Owari-Tokugawa. The sword record („Tōken- shutsunyū-chō“, 刀剣出入帳) of this family notes also the monetary value of the blade, namely 5.000 kan, and that there was once a mounting too when it was recorded as present. Mitsutomo was an excellent fencer and studied the art of swords- manship of the Shinkage-ryū (新陰流) under Yagyū Ren´yasai Yoshikane (柳生連也斎厳包, 1625-1694), who on the other hand was a retainer of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa family.*53 On a sidenote: One of the most favourite swords of Yagyū Renya´sai was a 1 shaku 4 sun (~ 42,4 cm) measuring wakizashi in katakiriba-shinogi- zukuri – a shape where one side of the blade is forged with a ridge line and the other side not – made by the „house smith“ of the Yagyū, Hata Mitsuyo (秦光代).*53 When Ren´yasai was one night surprised by an assassin, he drew this short sword and killed the enemy with one single cut. On the basis of this incident the blade got the nickname „Oni- Hōchō“ (鬼包丁), lit. „devil´s kitchen knife“. The successors of the Tokugawa mainline gave the Samidare-Gō in 1944 to the Tokugawa Museum in Nagoya which was erected nine years before. This museums contains among others the treasures and the collection of the Owari-Tokugawa branch. The sayagaki of the shirasaya reads:

(五月雨郷 御刀 無代 長弐尺参寸七分 元禄十二卯年七月廿五日 尾張中納 言殿御遺物) „Samidare-Gō mito – mudai – chō 2 shaku 3 sun 7 bu – Genroku 12 usagidoshi shichigatsu nijūgonichi – Owari Chūnagon-dono go-ibutsu“

*52 Mitsutomo succeeded even as 6th grandmaster of the Shinkage- ryū main line. *53 The characters for his name are also read as „Mitsushiro“.

– 73 – „Sword Samidare-Gō – priceless (lit. „without monetary assessment“) – length 71,8 cm – Genroku twelve (1699), year of the hare, seventh month, 25th day – from the bequest of Lord Owari Chūnagon“

The inscription „Lord Owari Chūnagon“ refers to Tokugawa Tsunanari (徳川綱誠, 1652-1699), Iemitsu´s son and third generation of the Owari-Tokugawa branch.

11. The lost writing-box lid

The following story is about Kuniyoshi (国吉), the master of Tōshirō Yoshimitsu of whom we read about in the last but one chapter. Kuniyoshi is traditionally dated around the Hōji era (宝治, 1247-1249) and like his student Yoshimitsu he was first and foremost famous for his superior tantō blades. One day he was visited by a noble old man in his forge in the Awataguchi district in north-eastern Kyōto. The stranger was well-dressed but especially the walking stick attracted the attention of Kuniyoshi. It was namely a so-called „hatozue“ (鳩杖), lit. „dove cane“, which was awarded by the imperial court to meritorious followers when the reached the age of eighty. This walking stick was decorated with a dove head at the handle. The choice of a dove goes back to the observation that those birds never choke on their food. And this was wished to very old persons too because death of choking is one of the biggest killer at this age. „A noble person“, thought Kuniyoshi and bowed deeply. The old man mentioned the reason for his visit with a quiet voice: „I need a 2 shaku 3 sun (~ 69,7 cm) measuring ceremonial sword (, 剣). Money is no object.“ „Your wish is my command. It might take 37 days for sure until the sword is finished.“ The man just nodded at him and left.

– 74 – Kuniyoshi arranged an exact timetable because by no means he wanted to disappoint the old man. The other thing he was kind of nervous was that he never forged such a long ceremonial sword. „Normal sized“ ken measured commonly less than 2 shaku (~ 60,6 cm). As mentioned, he forged mostly tantō, followed by long and curved tachi. But after all, he succeeded and the sword turned out to be a masterwork. After the 37 days the man came as agreed, again with his dove cane. Kuniyoshi handed him over the sword and the customer examined it thoroughly. „Excellent! It was for sure not an easy task to forge this blade.“ As a payment he gave Kuniyoshi the lid of a writing-box with a staple of 100 gold pieces on top of it. The smith was very pleased with the extremely generous payment, bowed to the ground as deep as possible, and thanked the old man. Some days later the high priest of the Sumiyoshi shrine (住吉神社) was just at checking the treasure chamber of the shrine. He noticed that the lid for a very precious writing-box was missing. He looked for it but was not able to find it. He called for all priests under his command so that they could look for the lid together but – as if bewitched – the lid had disappeared even the treasure chamber was locked. So they saw no other option as to prey for an oracle about the whereabouts of the lid. And really, one of the three deities*54 to whom the Sumiyoshi shrine was dedicated, answered: „The first step is to visit a certain Awataguchi Kuniyoshi“. This was kind of puzzling but the master swordsmith was no stranger in Kyōto. Kuniyoshi flinched when the priests explained him the facts. He told them from the old man who ordered a long ceremonial sword and payer 100 gold pieces, handed-over on a writing- box lid. And when he showed the lid to the priests, it was really the one missing from the treasure chamber. Kuniyoshi told them also about the dove cane and the priests agreed that it must had been an incarnation of one of the three Sumiyoshi deities.

*54 The three are: Sokotsutsu-o no mikoto (底筒男命), Nakatsutsu-o no mikoto (中筒男命), and Uwatsutsu-o no mikoto (表筒男命), altogether known as „Sumiyosh-sanjin“ (住吉三神).

– 75 –

Of course the story spread like wildfire and the „fact“ that even a deity ordered a sword by Kuniyoshi contributed greatly to the fame and subsequently to the business of this smith. Another famous blade of Kuniyoshi is the „Nakigitsune“ (鳴狐, picture 25), lit. „howling fox“. The blade is at the one hand especially precious because it bears a complete signature of Kuniyoshi, including his honorary title (Sahei no Jō, 左兵衛尉, see picture 26), and on the other hand because it is an important mosaic piece for the studies on the chronological develompent of the „“ (打刀). The uchigatana was a shorter sword worn at the beginning of its emergence by lower ranking soldiers, at a time when high-ranking mounted bushi still wore the bow as main weapon on the battlefield. Regarding swords, those high- ranking warriors wore a tachi combined with koshigatana (腰刀). The latter was used for self-defence in hand-to-hand battle or – when there was enough time – for committing seppuku. The koshigatana was also worn in peaceful times, thrusted through the belt of civlian garments, and increasing in length over the years. Roughly simpliefied, the uchigatana was later adopted by high-ranking warriors as their main sword and from the middle to the end of the Muromachi period, it was paired with the shorter wakizashi (脇指) to the well-known daishō sword pair (大小). Now there are several theories about the exact processes of this development or rather from which sword developed from which kind of sword. The Nakigitsune- Kuniyoshi is insofar very interesting because it shows that high-ranking bushi – only a person of this status was able to afford a blade of the quality level of a Kuniyoshi – ordered already at the end of the Kamakura period blades which were considerably shorter than the tachi and clearly longer than the koshigatana.

– 76 – The Nakigitsune-Kuniyoshi was handed-down within the Akimoto family (秋元), the daimyō of the Tatebayashi fief (館林) in Kōzuke province. The first generation which was entrusted with the government of this fief was Akimoto Nagatomo (秋元長朝, 1546-1628), a retainer of the Usesugi family. But it is not recorded when the sword came into the possession of the Akimoto family.

Picture 25: jūyō-bunkazai Nakigitsune, mei: „Sahei no Jō Fujiwara Kuniyoshi“ (左兵衛尉藤原 国吉), nagasa 54,1 cm, sori 1,4 cm, hira-zukuri, mitsu-mune, sakizori, ubu-nakago

Picture 26: Detailed image of the signature.

12. The thousand spears of the Kikuchi

We are in the turmoils of war of the Nanbokuchō period, this time on Kyūshū. The death of Emperor Godaigo in 1339 does not mean automatically the end of the dispute between the Northern and Southern Dynasties and also the shōgun Ashikaga Takauji – who just recently came to power – was confronted with a confusing constellation of rivalling families. Kyūshū and the northeastern provinces have always been hard to bring under a central power like the Yamato court of the bakufu, and the policy was so far as to leave the local hegemons as far

– 77 – as possible „independent“ and install a kind of superordinated controlling body. One such a controlling body which existed since the was the office of Dazaifu (大宰府) in Chikuzen province which controlled the foreign trade and the relationship ti the mainland. When the Minamoto came to power in 1185, the Dazaifu office was replaced by the so-called „Defense Commissioner of the West“ (Chinzei-bugyō, 鎮西奉行). When about hundred years later to Mongols invaded Kyūshū the bakufu felt constrained to extend this office and thus the office of the „General Governor of the Western Garrisons“ (Chinzei-tandai, 鎮西探題) was installed. Such offices were the key for a supremacy on Kyūshū and each imperial dynasty tried to appoint one their men to this post. But in addition to Dazaifu, there was another force active in this region, namely the „Supreme Commander of the Conquering of the West“ (seisei-taishōgun, 征西大将軍), enacted by the imperial court during the Heian period. Emperor Godaigo appointed in 1336 one of his sons, Prince Kanenaga (懐良親王, 1329-1383), to the post of seisei-taishōgun, with the mission to keep under control the Kyūshū-based supporters, followers, and relatives of the Southern Dynasty to which Godaigo belonged. In this task he was supported by the local emperor-loyal military governors of the Kikuchi (菊池) and the Aso (阿蘇) clan. The next two decates were a constant back and forth between the Northern and Southern Dynasty. In the fourth year of (延文, 1359),*55 Prince Kanenaga faced an upcoming attack of the Ashikaga, represented by Shōni Yorinao (少弐頼尚, 1293-1371) who switched to the side of the bakufu some years earlier. Kikuchi Takemitsu (菊池武光, 1319-1373) and other generals were mobilized and an army of about 40.000 men took position on the northern coast of River Chikugo (筑後川), faced with an alliance of about 60.000 warriors. The fightings were very brutal and records say that altogether 26.000 men were killed on both sides.

*55 This is the 14th year of Shōhei (正平) according to the counting of the Southern Dynasty.

– 78 – Kikuchi Takemitsu and his allies were vitctorious and this secured the supremacy of the Southern Dynasty on Kyūshū for about ten years. A vidid insight into the fierceness of this conflict gives us some 500 years later the historian and poet Rai San´yō (頼山陽, 1780-1832):

„Uma kizu-tsuki, yaburete ki-masumasu furuu.“ (馬傷冑破気益奮) „Teki o kiri, kabuto o tori, uma o ubatte-noru.“ (斬敵取冑奪馬騎) „Ya o kōmuru koto, harinezumi no gotoku, mokushi saku.“ (被箭如蝟目眥裂) [...] „Kirai kasui ni waratte, katana o araeba,“ (歸來河水笑洗刀) „Chi wa hontan ni hotobatte, kōsetsu o haku.“ (血迸奔湍噴紅雪)

„On wounded horses, the broken, but not more than ever! The enemey is killed, his helmet is taken off, and his horse is taken. Pierced by arrows they look like hedgehogs, the skin around the corners of the eyes is torn open and bleeding. […] The river sounds like roaring laughter when they were cleaning their swords in it on the way back home. The blood ran down in streams so that the glacier turned red later this year.“

This river where they had cleaned their swords was later nicknamed „Tachiarai-gawa“ (太刀洗川, „Swordcleaning/Swordcleaner River“) the the near village was also called „Tachiarai“ (太刀洗).*56 With one of the last strophes of this long poem – it contains altogether 36 – I want to turn to the legend of the thousand spears. In this line, the poet San´yō refers to Takemitsu´s father Kikuchi Taketoki (菊池武時, 1272- 1333):

„Junkoku no ken wa daifu yori tsutou.“ (殉國劍傳自乃) „So he receives the sword of his father with which the latter already gave his life for his land.“

*56 The present-day community Tachiarai-machi (大刀洗町) uses another character at the beginning but the name goes nevertheless back to this village and the nickname of the river.

– 79 – In the third year of Genkō (元弘, 1333), Taketoki attacked on secret orders from Godaigo the then acting Chinzei-tandai Hōjō Hidetoki (北条英時, ?-1333) in Hakata. However, the plan became known before and Taketoki and one of his sons died in the arousing fightings. But before his death he assigned Takeshige (武重, 1307-1338) as his successor and detached him from the front line to their home lands so that he was able to pull the strings of the Kikuchi family. Theoretically, a retreat would have been possible by Taketoki but he decided to fight for the emperor and this loyalty is indicated in San´yō´s line. Two years later there was another turning point in Godaigo´s tries to restore the power of the imperial court when suddenly Ashikaga Takauji turned against him. Godaigo ordered straight away that this „issue“ should be approached by Nitta Yoshisada directly in Kamakura. Kikuchi Takeshige belonged to the army of Yoshisada, having the prestigious post of the vanguard. With his 1.000 men he encountered on the Tōkaidō close to the Pass (箱根峠, about 50 km west of Kamakura) Takauji´s younger brother Tadayoshi (直義, 1306-1352) who commanded an army of about 3.000. One year earlier Takeshige was posted in the 64-men command of the musha-dokoro (武者所) which had the supervision of the troops protecting the Imperial Palance in Kyōto. This means he and his men were not armed with heavy equipment like ōdachi (大太刀) or naginata. But Takeshige was not frightened because the Kikuchi family was renowned for their unconventional methods in the warding-off of the Mongols. Thus he ordered his men to mount their tantō blades on two metres measuring bamboo poles to attack with the „ersatz spears“ from within the bamboo thicket. Tadayoshi´s warriors were highly perplexed of this so-far unknown tactics and had to retreat with great difficulties. This is the origin of the term „Kikuchi-senbon-yari“ (菊池千本槍, „The Thousand Spears of the Kikuchi“). But it has to be mentioned that the spear (yari, 槍) was at that time not the common weapon for a warrior which would be decisive for the outcome of a battle. Thus some consider Takeshige´s tactics at Hakone decisive or rather important for the later introduction of the yari as the common weapon of the .

– 80 – However, in the end Ashikaga Takauji came off the winner of the subsequent battle at Minatogawa which we were talking about in chapter 9. Back in his home province of Higo and basing on the mentioned experiences in battle, Takeshige invited based swordsmiths from the Enju school (延寿) from to his lands to forge him short (about 15 to 20 cm blade length) and robust yari in the form of tantō blades with an elongated tang (see picture 27). Much later in the , the Kikuchi-senbon-yari had been rediscovered as a symbol for a loyalty to the emperor and the imperial court. Namely during the resistance movement against the bakufu around the periods of (嘉永, 1848-1854) and Ansei (安政, 1854-1860), royalists started with cutting off the tang of old handed-down kikuchi-yari from about the time of Takeshige and to mount them symbolically as tantō. And that is a factor why unshortened spears of that kind with an ubu- nakago are so hard to find nowadays.

Picture 27: kikuchi-yari

Also the blades of the later daggers of the naval officers go back to the shape of the kikuchi-yari. For example commander Matsuo Keio (松尾敬宇, 1917-1942) – who participated in the submarine attacks on the port of Sydnay in May 1942 – noted that he faced his enemies with a kikuchi-yari which was handed-down in his family since generations. An interesting sidenote, the propaganda film „Kikuchi-senbon-yari Sydney-tokubetsu-tokkōdai“ (菊池千本槍シドニ ー特別特攻隊, „ The Thousand Spears of the Kikuchi and the Suicide Attack Unit Sydnay“) towards the end of World War II was produced under the leadership of the author Kikuchi Kan (菊池寛, 1888-1948), a namesake of Takeshige.

– 81 – 13. Fireflies and Swords?

Let´s stay at the turmoils of the early Nanbokuchō period. In the third month of Kenmu three (建武, 1336), four months after the battle at the Hakone pass, Ashikaga Takauji was stuck on Kyūshū. To this place he was driven by Nitta Yoshisada and Kusunoki Masashige after entering Kyōto, losing the capital just after a short time. The some thousand men of Takauji met the superior army of the Godaigo alliance at the back of Tatara (多々良浜, Hakata Bay, present-day ), at the same place where once the Mongols arrived. The emperor-loyal alliance was led by Kikuchi Takeshige´s (菊池武重, 1307-1338) younger brother (菊池武時, ?-1341), followed among others by Aso Korezumi (阿蘇惟澄, 1309-1364), the then head of the Aso family. The Aso were as the Kikuchi loyal to the emperor since oldest times. Right at the beginning of the fightings, the alliance was able to disturb Takauji´s battle formation and split the army. For a moment, it seemed that victory was theirs. But then, a force north wind sprang up and covered Taketoki´s warriors in a huge sand cloud, robbing completely their sight. In addition, many men went over to the ebeny, and this was the disastrous end for the alliance and the victory for Takauji. Takauji was able to use this „tactic of conversion“ because except of the Kikuchi and Aso, most other members of the rather loose alliance held a wait-and-see policy and where not all for Godaigo´s plans. Aso Korezumi – his older brother Korenao (惟直) died in this battle – was able to return wounded to his lands at the foot of Mt. Aso of the same name. His ō-dachi by Rai Kunitoshi (来国俊) with a blade length of more than one meter suffered strongly from the mowing movements Korezumi faced his enemies. Totally exhausted he lied down and was fast asleep, having a strangle dream. A swam fireflies (hotaru, 蛍) – very atypical for this time of the year – came flying along, sitting down on the blade of his Rai Kunitoshi. The entire sword glowed in the dark of the night. Korezumi slept deeply until next

– 82 – morning. Surprised about the dream he immediately unsheathed his sword, but he couldn´t believe his eyes: all chips and cuts of the cutting edge (so-called „ha-kobore“, 刃毀れ) were gone! As head of the Aso family, Korezumi held also the office of high-priest (daigūshi, 大宮司) of the (Aso-jinja, 阿蘇神社, present-day Prefecture), and so the sword was kept there as family treasure over generations under the name „Hotarumaru“ (蛍丸). In 1931, the Hotarumaru was submitted by baron Aso Tsunemaru (阿蘇恒丸), the then head of the family, to the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and was designated as national treasure. After the end of World War II, the sword was lost in the course of the sword hunt of the occupying forces. There are rumours that the blade is still in a unknown private collection in Japan but it is more likely that it was destroyed just like many thousand other swords. Fortunately we have a drawing of the blade (see picture 28). It was published in the „Shūko-jūshu“ (集古十種), a 85-volume catalogue over ten categories (jūshu, 十種) of antiques (shūko, 集古), commissioned in the twelfth year of Kansei (寛政, 1800) by (松平定信, 1759-1829), the then daimyō of Shirakawa.

The notes at the side of the picture read:

„Higo no kuni, Aso-daigūshi Korezumi Hotarumaru-tachi no zu“ (肥後国阿蘇大宮司惟純螢丸太刀圖), „Picture of the tachi Hotarumaru of the Aso high-priest Korezumi from “ (Note: Here, a different character for „sumi/zumi“ was used; → compare 澄 and 純). „sōchō 4 shaku 5 sun – haba 1 shaku 2 bu – nagasa 6 sun 8 bu“ (惣長四尺五寸 幅一寸三歩 長六寸八歩), „entire length ~ 136,6 cm (the blade length measures 101,3 cm), blade width ~ 3,9 cm, length of the (smaller) hi ~ 20,6 cm“ „ gonen sangatsu-ichinichi“ (永仁五年三月一日), „first day of the third month Einin five (1297)“

– 83 – In this context, I would like to introduce another blade by Rai Kunitoshi which is designated as national treasure too. Except of the blade length, it has a very similar shape (sugata, 姿) as the Hotarumaru. This sword is signed with Kunitoshi´s civilian name „Magotarō“ (in the form „Rai Magotarō saku“, 来孫太郎作) and bears the date „Shōō gonen mizunoe-tatsu hachigatsu jūsannichi (正応五年壬辰 八月十三日, „13th day of the eighth month Shōō five [1292], year of the dragon“). So it was forged just five years before the Hotarumaru. The elegant sugata, the hi which is cutted centrally on the shinogi-ji running through the entore tang and its end before the kissaki, as well as the smaller hi towards the base of the blade – all those elements are identical on both blades. The smith Kunitoshi belonged to the Rai school in . Traditionally, he is dated to the Kōan period (弘安, 1278- 1288). There are works extant which are signed either with „Rai Kunitoshi“ or just with „Kunitoshi“, and because these blades are somewhat different in workmanship and shape, it is unclear if there were two generations Kunitoshi.

– 84 –

Picture 28 left: Drawing of the „Shūko-jūshu“, right (not true to scale and vertically mirrored): kokuhō tachi, mei: „Rai Magotarō saku – [kaō] Shōō gonen mizunoe-tatsu hachigatsu jūsannichi“, nagasa 77,3 cm, sori 3,9 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, deep sori, funbari, ubu-nakago (in the possession of the Tokugawa Museum, Nagoya)

– 85 – 14. Thou shalt not shorten me

Uesugi Kenshin (上杉謙信, 1530-1578), one of the most prominent military leaders of his time, felt one day for whatever reason compelled to have one of his Ichimonji blades shortened. The Ichimonji school emerged in around the beginning of the Kamakura period. This province gave rise to many excellent master smiths since the late Heian period. Those early smiths are referred to as the „Ko- Bizen“ school (古備前, lit. „early Bizen school). From the middle Kamakura period the Ko-Bizen smiths were joined by the Osafune school (長船) which flourished until the end of the Muromachi era. But in this long tradition, the Ichimonji school with their congenial masterworks marked undoubtedly the culmination of all Bizen smiths. One trademark of the Ichimonji school was that their blades were mostly signed just with the character for „one“ (jap. „ichi“, 一) and this is also the origin for the name of the school: „Ichimonji“ means „character (for) one“ or in the wider sense just „line“ or „stroke“. Thus one day Kenshin brought the blade to the house polisher of the Uesugi family who should carry out the shortening. He asserted that he will set about doing this as soon as possible and because it was already late in the evening, he stored the blade in the sword drawer (katana- dansu, 刀箪笥) and went to bed. Exhausted by the hard work he felt asleep quickly but had a strange dream in the middle of the night. There was a beautiful princess crying heartrendingly, begging the polisher not to hurt her. At the next morning the polisher (togi-shi, 研師) started his work as usual but he was not able to forget the unsettling dream. Towards the end of his work day, it was time for the Ichimonji of Kenshin and he started to file off the end of the tang. But as it was again rather late, he put aside the blade in the drawer unfinished. Again the princess appeared in his dream, this time the more desperate and under tears she beseeched the polisher: „Please stop hurting me!“ In his dream he asked her name. „I am called Tsuru and I know that it is your order but please stop hurting me!“

– 86 – Right at the next morning he went to the person responsible for the swords of the fief (on-koshimono, 御腰物) to tell him about his strange dream and to ask for advice. With frightening they found out that both of them had the same dream and they agreed that it has something to do with the Ichimonji blade in question. It was decided that works on the blade should rest until their lord had returned to the fief. As not to evoke any harm, he then decided that the blade should be left as it is and called in henceforth „Himezuru-Ichimonji“ (姫鶴 一文字). There was a sword appraiser (kantei-ka, 鑑定家) called Hosoya (細屋) working for the Uesugi family who had studied under the Hon´ami family in Edo. Ten years after Kenshin´s death he compiled an oshigata collection of the blades in the possession of the Uesugi family in which the Himezuru-Ichimonji is mentioned in the following way:

„Himezuru-Ichimonji nari. Jōjō, hyakkan, mine Ichimonji nari. Yakiba ō-midare nari.“ (姫つる一文じ也。上々、百貫、美禰一文字也。やきば大乱也。) „Himezuru-Ichimonji. Of highest quality, worth 100 kan, signed*57 ´Ichimonji´. Pattern of the tempered edge in ō-midare (large waves).“

The Himezuri-Ichimonji is nowadays preserved in the Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum (Yonezawa-shi Uesugi-hakubutsukan, 米沢市 上杉博物館, Yamagata Prefecture) and is designated as jūyō-bunkazai. It is interesting that the depiction of the tang in the oshigata collection of the Amiya family („Amiya-oshigata“, 網屋押形) shows only three of the now four peg holes and that the tang is in addition 2 cm longer as the present one. That means that the blade was shortened later regardless of Tsuru´s pleading.

*57 The term „mine“ (美禰) mentioned here, in some places at this oshigata collection written with the characters (見禰), is somewhat unclear in this context because it stands for the back of a blade „mine“ (峰 or 嶺) or „mune“ (棟). In the usual syntax of describing swords in earlier years, the signature is mentioned at this very place and so this part was translated as „signed ´Ichimonji´.“

– 87 – However, Kenshin transmitted this sword to his heir Kagekatsu (景勝, 1556-1623) who was actually the son of his older sister because Kenshin himself had no children. Another sword which went from Kenshin to Kagekatsu is the famous „Yamatorige-Ichimonji“ (山鳥毛一文字), lit. „mountain birn plumage Ichimonji“, called after its very flamboyant temper line reminding on the magnificent and dense plumage of a mountain bird. In the sword records of the Uesugi family the characters for the blade´s nickname are also quoted with their Sino-Japanese reading „Sanchōmō“. Kagekatsu was as Kenshin a renowned sword connoisseur and compiled a list of the 35 best treasure swords of his „collection“, called „Kagekatsu-kō o-te-erabi sanjūgo-koshi“ (景勝公御手選三十五腰). Also interesting is that Kenshin had both Ichimonji blades mounted with identical koshirae (see picture 31). Such an uchigatana-koshirae without tsuba is called „aikuchi“ (合口).*58 In chapter 11 we learned that high-ranking bushi wore up to the Muromachi period koshigatana as companion swords (sashizoe, 差添え) to their tachi. Experts assume that Kenshin and other contemporary warriors wore quite long uchigatana as sachizoe to their tachi which were mounted without tsuba and thrusted through the belt like koshigatana. The reason for this practice are probably to be found within the permanent changes of turbulent Sengoku era: When the actual war sword – the tachi – was handed over to sword carriers in the camp, a higher-ranking general or military commander was then still able to call upon a „full“ long sword in a case of emergency.

*58 At such a mounting, the collar of the hilt (fuchi, 縁) meets (au, 合う) directly the mouth of the scabbard (koiguchi, 鯉口).

– 88 –

Picture 29: jūyō-bunkazai Himezuru-Ichimonji, mei: „Ichi“, nagasa 71,5 cm, sori 2,0 cm, shinogi- zukuri, iori-mune, relative broad mihaba, koshizori, chū-kissaki, three mekugi-ana (one of them plugged)

Picture 30: kokuhō Yamatorige-Ichimonji, mumei, nagasa 78,3 cm, sori 3,2 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, deep koshizori, funbari, ikubi-kissaki, ubu-nakago

Picture 31: The two mountings, those of the Himezuru-Ichimonji on top, and of the Yamatorige- Ichimonji on bottom. Both mountings are designated together with their blades as jūyō-bunkazai or kokuhō respectively.

– 89 – 15. The Nikkari-Aoe

The meibutsu „Nikkari-Aoe“ had originally a blade length of 2 shaku and 5 sun (~ 75,8 cm) but was later shortened to the present-day nagasa of 1 shaku 9 sun and 9 bu (~ 60,3 cm) which makes it in terms of sword nomenclature an ō-wakizashi (大脇指), a large wakizashi. On the tang there is the gold-inlayed name of its past owner but parts of this kinzōgan-mei are lost due to the shortening. The remaining signature reads „Hashiba Gorōzaemon no Jō Naga...“ (羽柴五郎左 衛門尉長). „Hashiba“ was the self-chosen former name of Toyotomi Hideyoshi when he was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga. The name „Hashiba“ (羽柴) is actually a composition of two characters of Nobunaga´s most famous generals, namely Niwa Nagahide (丹羽長秀, 1535-1585) and (柴田勝家, 1522-1583), together pronounced as „Hashiba“. This was not a pure playing around of Hideyoshi but a clever tactic because so he was able to secure the goodwill of two of the most powerful military leaders of his time. Well, but who is now meant with „Hashiba Gorōzaemon no Jō Naga...“? – Niwa Nagahide´s common name*59 was “Gorōzaemon“ but the family name „Hashiba“ can not be applied to him because he himself was the name patron for this conglomerate. So we come to his oldest son and heir Niwa Nagashige (丹羽長重, 1571-1637) who inherited together with the headship of the famlily also the common name from his father. In the 15th year of Tenshō (天正, 1587) he participated in Hideyoshi´s campaigns against Kyūshū but was punished because of inappropriate behaviour to one of his retainers. At that time such a punishment meant basically a transfer to another fief with a lesser income. From the large amount of 1.230.000 koku from his father´s provinces of Echizen, Wakasa, and Kaga, only 40.000 koku were remaining in his new Mattō fief (松任, present-day Ishikawa Prefecture).

*59 See last paragraph of the preface.

– 90 – But Hideyoshi probably used this punishment only as a pretext for strongly reducing the power of the Niwa family. Five years later Nagashige participated also in the Korean invasions, namely as one of the so-called „Hashiba Followers“ (Hashiba-jijū, 羽柴侍従) – in his case as „Hashiba-Mattō-jijū“ (羽柴松任侍従, lit. „Hashiba Follower from Mattō“). Thus the complete signature of the sword read originally probably „Hashiba Gorōzaemon no Jō Nagashige shoji“ (羽柴五郎左 衛門尉長重所持), „in the possession of Hashiba Gorōzaemon no Jō Nagashige“.*60 We can now speculate about the shortening of the blade. First we can say that Nagashige had inlayed his name on the tang after he had received the sword from his father and second, that the blade had then already been shortened from 75,8 to 60,3 cm. That means it is possible that Nagashige himself had the blade shortened for whatever reasons – maybe it got damaged towards the base – and subsequently added his name on the tang. Also unclear is the second shortening that took place, i.e. when the tang was cutted a few centimeters right after the character for „Naga“. The most easiest assumption is that the blade was shortened to the desired blade length regardless what was written on the tang. This practice was very common and also the adding additional peg holes was handled not particularly demurely: In many cases they go mercilessly through characters of the signature. Another reason for the shortening could be that the blade came into the possession of a wealthy merchant because except the bushi class now one was allowed to wear a blade measuring more than 2 shaku (~ 60,6 cm). Often this was pushed to its limit, i.e. to the last millimeter, and nouveau riche merchant class openly displayed their cultural and financial catch up to the warrior class with wearing high-ranking swords and fittings. But this is a theoretical thought because the sword was continuously in the possession of the Kyōgoku family (京極), more about that later.

*60 „Jō“ (尉) was once the rank of a deputy official of the Imperial guard. Later, i.e. from the Muromachi period onwards, this rank was granted as a honorary title.

– 91 – A third option for the shortening of the tang up to the character for „Naga“ could be that the then owner tried to erase Nagashige´s name and instead allude to Nagahide as previous owner. As mentioned, Nagashige was transferred for disciplinary reasons and when he sided with Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara he ended in ruin and as impoverished rōnin (浪人). Well, three years after Sekigahara he was again given a fief with an outcome of 10.000 koku and after participating at the Ōsaka campaigns at the side of the Tokugawa he again gained reputation, but in contrast to his father, his „career“ was regarded as fail by many of his contemporaries. So maybe the owner tried to erase his name from the sword as mentioned above. However, regarding the nickname „Nikkari-Aoe“, three different transmissions exist. First I would like to present the version of the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“. We are in the early Azuchi-Momoyama era (安土桃山時代, 1568-1600). In the Gamō district (蒲生) of Ōmi province there was rumour about a demon stroke terror around the local Mount Hachiman (八幡山). Lord of these lands was Nakajima Shūridayū (中島修理大夫) and he was forced to act. So he – other transmissions say it was his brother Kuridayū (九理太夫) – went to the mentioned area. On his belt he wore his sharpest sword, a blade by the Aoe school from Bitchū province. The forrest became more and more dense and night came in. Suddenly Nakajima encountered a women with a child in her arms. She sat the kid on the ground and asked with a gauntly grin if the honourable man would pick up the small children. When it crawled towards him he immediately thought by himself: „a woman with her child here in the deep forest and at that time, this is quite odd and the demon must be involved in this!“ He drew his sword and cutted down at the kid but then the woman laughed the more gauntly and approached him: „Then you should hold me in your arms instead!“ But Nakajima gave her a short shrift and cut down in a straight blow whereupon both of them, the woman and the child vanished. The next day Nakajima tried to get to the bottom of this matter and hurried to the place where everything happened last night, assuming that two bodies must be there. But instead of them he found

– 92 – two mossy stone lanterns (ishidōrō, 石灯籠, see picture below) whose upper parts were lying on the ground nice and neatly severed. „So that must had been the demon?!“ he thought by himself and returned home, whereupon he gave the sword the nickname „Nikkari-Aoe“ „Nikkari“ (にっかり) or also nikkori“ (にっこり) means „grin, sneer“. The second version of the story is found in the „Jōzan-kidan“ (常山紀談), a collection of anecdotes compiled by the Confucian scholar Yuasa Jōzan (湯浅常山, 1708-1781). The main protagonist of this transmission was a retainer of Asano Nagamasa (浅野長政, 1547-1611). As stated in chapter 7, Nagamasa on his side was a retainer of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and was granted with the districts Kōga (甲賀) and Kurita (栗太) of Ōmi province due to his long- standing loyalty and military achievements. The income of rice of both districts was 20.300 koku. One day this vassal was on the way from Kōga to the south- eastern province of Ise and had to cross the Suzuka mountain range (鈴鹿山脈). He had to hurry because it already got a dark. As Nakajima, he suddenly met a young woman. Sceptically he stopped and addressed her but the women just grinned in a fearsome manner whereas he drew his sword and cutted her down. With a loud plump her head felt to the ground. The next morning he looked for the place again to examine where she had been but was only able to find a stone statue of the deity Jizō (地蔵) which are frequently seen at the wayside – the head of the statue lying to the side in the grass. So he gave the sword the nickname „Nikkari-Aoe“. And the third version goes back to the transmission of the Kyōgoku family. It deals with a certain general Koma Tango no Kami (駒丹後守 or 狛丹後守), commander of the tenth battle line (jūban-zonae, 十番備) of the Sasaki family (佐々木). One night Koma was on the way in Ōmi´s Gamō district near the village of Chōkōji (長光寺) when he encountered a female figure. Because she was smiling Koma

– 93 – approached her but as it turned out that she was a shapeshifted demon he too drew his sword and killed her with one single blow. Of course, he called his sword „Nikkari-Aoe“ after this incident. But now to the historical facts. Oda Nobunaga entrusted Shibata Katsuie in the first year of (元亀, 1570) with the defense of Chōkōji Castle (長光寺城) because Rokkaku Yoshikata (六角義賢) who was introduced in chapter 8 was just on the way to reconquer it from Nobunaga. During the siege of the castle the one and only spring of Katsuie dried up and only three water jugs were remaining. Katsuie ordered his men to empty those jugs with in one go as if there´s no tomorrow and shashed them demonstratively. Egged by this „samurai- like“ behaviour of their lord the men achieved a true victory and drove away the Rokkoku besiegers. Later Mt. Chōkōji on which the castle once stood was popularily called „Kamewari-yama“ (甕割山, lit. „jug- smasher mountain“). Katsuie was officially installed as castellan of Chōkōji and when he heared of a legendary sword called „Nikkari-Aoe“ going somewhere round in his lands associated with the castle he ordered that it shall be confiscated. He presented it to his son Katsutoshi (勝敏, 1568?-1583). But Katsutoshi had no luck with this sword when he participated at the age of 15*62 in the Battle of Shizugatake (賤ヶ岳) in Tenshō eleven (天正, 1583). The Shibata suffered a defeat and when his father committed seppuku the remaining retainers advised him to flee but he stayed and was captured and executed by Niwa Nagahide. And this was probably how the sword „Nikkari-Aoe“ came as war spoils in the possession of Nagahide. Later the sword came into the possession of Hideyoshi who – being taken with the story behind it – had a special storage box made for it. Hon´ami Kōtoku´s records from about that time say that it then measured already only 60,3 cm and that the tang was cutted off right after the character for „Naga“.

*61 There are several theories about his year of birth and so his age at the time of the battle ranges between 14 and 16.

– 94 – As mentioned before, the thougts about a shortening by a wealthy merchant were just theoretical but should nevertheless be quoted as a background information in which context such shortenings could have been carried out. Hideyoshi´s son Hideyori had two mountings made for the blade, one of them can be seen in picture 33. The precise circumstances how the sword came into the possession of the Kyōgoku are not handed-down but it is most likely that the Nikkari-Aoe was once a present of Hideyori to Kyōgoku Takatsugu (京極高次, 1563- 1609). Takatsugu´s successor, viscount Kyōgoku Takanaga (京極高修), received in 1940 the status jūyō-bijutsuhin for the blade. After World War II it was owned by a certain Aonuma Mitsuo (青沼光夫) but in 1997 it was bought by the city of Marugame (丸亀, Kagawa Prefecture on Shikoku) because the Kyōgoku were the lords of the Marugame fief of the same name. Since then the Nikkari-Aoe is preserved in the Historic Archive of the City of Marugame.

Picture 32: jūyō-bijutsuhin Nikkari-Aoe, mei: „Hashiba Gorōzaemon no Jō Naga...“, nagasa 60,3 cm, sori 1,2 cm, shinogi-zukuri, mitsu-mune, broad mihaba, ō-kissaki, ō-suriage-nakago

Picture 33: Nikkari-Aoe and one of its koshirae.

– 95 – 16. The expulsion of two kasha

The following legend starts with Matsudaira Gozaemon Chikamasa (松平五左衛門近正, 1547-1600), the elder (karō, 家老) of the Ogyū branch (大給) of the Matsudaira family. The Ogyū branch was founded by Chikamasa´s great-grandfather Matsudaira Norimoto (松平乗元, 1446-1537) when he took over the Ogyū fief of the same name in Kamo district (加茂) of Mikawa province. It is said when Tokugawa Ieyasu´s retainer Ishikawa Kazumasa (石川数正, 1533-1593) deserted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the latter had suggested that Chikamasa should change sides too, but he refused and remained loyal to Ieyasu. In Tenshō ten (1590) Chikamasa followed Ieyasu when the latter marched with troops of Hideyoshi to the Kantō area to overthrow the Hōjō clan. Hideyoshi offered Ieyasu that he could have all lands of the defeated Hōjō whereupon he agreed and stayed in Kantō. In this course, Chikamasa was entrusted with the Sannokura fief (三蔵) in Kōzuke province with an income of 5.500 koku accompanied by the permission to establish his own family branch of the Ogyū-Matsudaira. We are somewhere between the 18th year of Tenshō (1590) and the Battle of Sekigahara when the wife of a friend of Chikamasa whose details are not transmitted died. Chikamasa accompanied the funeral procession when suddenly literally out of the blue a terrible thunder- storm came up. Lightnings stroke to the side of the procession which did not know which way to turn so shocked by the strong winds and the torrential rain. A very dark cloud moved exactly above the coffin and a weird arm came out of her, trying to pull the coffin into the sky. Chikamasa acted intuitively, drew his sword with a loud combat cry and severed the arm of the unknown thing. The arm was on the spot inspected: It was coated with black fur and three pointed claws which shimmered like celadon. The participants of the funeral procession were astounded but agreed that it must be the arm of a „kasha“ (火車 or 化車).

– 96 – A kasha is a monster which is known to came down from the sky accompanied by blazing flames to grasp the bodies of those who were bad shortly before their death or lived a depraved life. Unfortunately it is not transmitted what the wife of Chikamasa´s fried did to evoke a kasha. Picture 34 shows a picture of that monster, drawn by Sawaki Sōshi (佐脇嵩之, 1707-1722) and published in two Genbun (元文, 1737) in his „Monster Encylopedia/Bestiary“ called „Hyakkai- zukan“ (百怪図巻).

Picture 34: Kasha from the „Hyakkai-zukan“. Please note the old pronunciation or quotation „kuhasha“ or „kwasha“ (くハ知や) respectively to the right side of the painting.

„What a sharp sword“, noted one of those standing close to Chikamasa when he severed the arm of the kasha, and Chikamasa replied: „A work of Fujishima Tomoshige (藤島友重)!“ And on the basis of this incident the blade got the nickname „Kashakiri- Tomoshige“ (火斬り友重).

– 97 – The first generation Tomoshige was active from the end of the Kamakura to the early Nanbokuchō period. He lived in Fujishima in Echizen province and there are two theories regarding his career as swordsmith. The first says that he studied under Sanekage (真景) *62 who lived in the neighboring province of Kaga and who was for his paret a student of Norishige. The second theory which was already published in the sword publication „Tenshō-bon mei-zukushi“ (天正本銘尽) from the Tenshō era (1573-1592) says that he was a student of Rai Kunitoshi who was introduced in chapter 13 (the smith who made the Hotarumaru). But dated blades of Tomoshige are only found from the Ōei era (応永, 1394-1428) and successive generations were active until the middle Edo period. Some time after the „coffin incident“, Chikamasa´s daughter was married to Suwa Yorio (諏訪頼雄, ?-1631), the younger brother of Yorimizus (頼水, 1571-1641) who in turn was Lord of Suwa Castle (諏訪城) in . Like in the case of Chikamasa, parts of the Suwa family followed Ieyasu to the Kantō area and stayed there. In the course of the wedding the Kashakiri-Tomoshige and a claw of the severad arm were granted by the father-in-law Chikamasa to his son-in- law Yorio. The story was of course also known by Yorimizu who ordered his younger brother to leave it to him. Yorimizu on the other hand inherited it – without claw – to his second son Yorisato (頼郷, 1597-1669) who was in the council of elders of Tokugawa Tsunashige (徳川綱重, 1644-1678), the older brother of the fifth Tokugawa- shōguns Tsunayoshi. This provenience of the Kashakiri-Tomoshige is to be found in the chronicle „Kashakiri-tō no ki“ (火車斬刀之記) written by Yorisato´s son Yorioto (頼音) in the third year of Enpō (延宝, 1675) but which is somewhat inaccurate. For example, Chikamasa is quoted with the characters (近政) instead of (近正) which are consistently published in all official family registers of the bakufu like the „Kansei-chōshū-shokafu“ (寛政重修諸家譜).

*62 Well, other records say that it was the second generation who went from Fujishima to Kaga to become a student of Sanekage.

– 98 – And according to the latter work, Chikamasa had two daughters but none of them were married to Suwa Yorio. On the other hand, the third daughter of Chikamasa´s grandson Narishige (成重, 1594-1633) married into the Suwa family. However, after Yorioto the Suwa family split into two lines and it is not transmitted in which line the Kashakiri- Tomoshige was handed down. In chapter 14 we have head about Kagekatsus list of his 35 best treasure swords „Kagekatsu-kō o-te-erabi sanjūgo-koshi“ (景勝公 御手選三十五腰). Some sources say that this list contained 36 swords, inspired by the so-called „Thiry-six Poetry Immortals“ (sanjūrokkasen, 三十六歌仙) selected by the Heian-period poet and courtier Fujiwara no Kintō (藤原公任, 966-1041). Whether 35 or 36, Kagekatsu´s list contains a blade called „Kashakiri“. It is a wakizashi of Sōshū Hiromitsu (相州広光, see picture 35) but the exact backgrounds in which way this blade came to its nickname are not noted in this work. The blade in question was designated in 1933 – together with its chiisagatana-koshirae (小サ刀)*63 from the late Muromachi period made on orders of the Uesugi family – as jūyō-bijutsuhin, submitted by baron Uesugi Noriaki (上杉憲章), the then head of the family.

Picture 35: jūyō-bijutsuhin „Kashakiri“, mei: „Sagami no Kuni-jūnin Hiromitsu“ (相模国住人広光) – „Kōan ninen jūgatsu-hi“ (康安二年十月日, „a day in the tenth month of the second year of Kōan [1362]“), nagasa 38,4 cm, sori 0,6 cm, hira-zukuri, broad mihaba

*63 Lit. „small katana“. A short wakizashi which is – unlike a koshigatana – mounted with a tsuba like an uchigatana. This is so-to-speak a hybrid form between a koshigatana or the later tantō and an uchigatana.

– 99 – Whe can speculate about the name of the Uesugi Kashakiri inasmuch as there was one very brave vassal of the Takeda family who beared the nickname „Kashakiri“. This vassal was Tada Mitsuyori (多田満頼, 1501-1563) who served Takeda Shingen and his father Nobutora (武田信虎, 1494-1574). Incidentally, Mitsuyori was a descendant of Minamoto no Yorimitsu who dealt with the demon Shutendōji. Mitsuyori´s third son Kyūzō (久蔵) went into the Battle of Nagashine in Tenshō three (1575) under the command of Shingen´s son Katsuyori (勝頼, 1546-1582). This battle was a turning point in Japanese warfare because Oda Nobunaga applied for the first time the arquebus in large numbers which was introduced to Japan forty years earlier. Nagashine meant a crushing defeat for the Takeda but Katsuyori was able to escape with six men, among them Kyūzō. Shortly afterwards Kyūzō was captured by warriors of the Oda army but before he rid himself of all his armor to hide his rank. Only in his scarlet loincoth he was brought to Nobunaga who said: „If you tell me your name I gave you the honor to commit seppuku!“ Kyūzō smiled and replied: „I am Tada Kyūzō from Mino province.“ Somewhat perplexed meant Nobunaga: „Then you are the Kyūzō whose father killed a kasha at a funeral? Lo and behold! Like Owari is Mino now under my command but when you pledge loyalty to me I will release you. Also Akugenta Yoshihira (悪源太義平, 1141-1160) and Soga Gorō Tokimune (曽我五郎時致, 1174-1193) were once captured and they were nevertheless honorable warriors. Reconsider that!“ Having spoken these words Nobunaga ordered his squire Hasegawa Tōgorō Hidekazu (長谷川藤五郎秀一, ?-1594) to release Kyūzō, but when he cut the ties Kyūzō grasped a spear of a near guard and killed five of Nobunaga´s vassals in fury. Shocked drew Hidekazu his tachi, said bluntly „So that is how you respond to the mercy of my Lord?“ and killed Kyūzō with a single blow. Nobunaga muttered: „A pity about the good man but be that as it may…“ and got back to „battlefield business“ as usual.

– 100 – So it is possible that the blade of Hiromitsu mentioned in the „Kagekatsu-kō o-te-erabi sanjūgo-koshi“ was once in the possession of Kyūzō and further, that he inherited it from his father Mitsuyori who - according to legend – killed a kasha at a certain funeral. When we now let our mind wander, we could assume that Kyūzō handed over the blade to before he escaped from the battlefield because it is unlikely that he carelessly discarded it together with his armor. And Katsuyori´s stepsister Kikuhime (菊姫, 1563-1604) married in Tenshō seven (1579) Uesugi Kagekatsu. So maybe the Kashakiri by Sōshū Hiromitsu was a wedding present of Katsuyori to Kagekatsu?

17. A giant snake as swordsmith

The following legend comes from northern Echigo province, or to be more precise, from the village of Itoigawa (糸魚川, present-day Prefecture) on the Sea of Japan. During the Nanbokuchō period this area was for a certain period under the control of Nitta Yoshisada who was appointed as military governor of Kōzuke and Echigo provinces in Genkō three (元弘, 1333) by Go-Daigo. When Ashikaga Takauji moved three years later to Kyōto to fight against Yoshisada, he left behind his underage son Yoshiakira (義詮, 1330-1367) in Kamakura because in the case that Takauji died he should be his successor as shōgun. Takauji assigned Uesugi Noriaki (上杉憲顕, 1306-1368) as Yoshiakira´s guardian and made him beside of that military governor of Echigo province in the fourth year of Ryakuō (暦応, 1341). This office was continuously held by the Uesugi family until the Muromachi period.

– 101 – The river Himegawa (姫川) which flows into the Sea of Japan at Itoigawa has its source in Shinano province which lies to the south of Echigo. The river was the main traffic artery for the transportation of salt but for Uesugi Kenshin – the then lord of Echigo province – it was also a potential route of entry of an army of Takeda Shingen, who in his turn controlled Shinano province. Thus Kenshin erected along this strategic important area the castles of Fudōyama (不動山城) and Nechi (根知城). Because the constant danger of war between the Takeda and the Uesugi there was of course an increased demand for weapons given. Itoigawa was also a station on the Hokurikudō (北陸道), the main road which runs along Japan´s north coast, and so the supply of raw materials was secured. Well, in one of the numerous forges the protagonist of the following legend, an ageing swordsmith, was active. Unfortunately he had no son who could continue his profession but he had a daughter which was the most beautiful young women in Itoigawa, if not in whole Echigo. She had many admirers and a lot of the young men of the village made her marriage proposals but the old smith made great demands on his future son-in-law: „He must forge me 1.000 sword blades in one night when I should give him my daughter!“ Of course none of the potential candidates was able to meet this requirement but one evening a young warrior visited the forge, accepting the challenge. The old man was happy because it was the very first who even tried it and in addition, it seemed to be a well match for her daughter: he was strong but with delicate features and also the daughter was immediately enraptured. „Until tomorrow morning to the first crowing of the cock I will forge you 1.000 blades but I for my part have one condition too: Please leave me alone and make sure that no one enters the forge or even secretly watch me at my work!“ The smith agreed and the young man set to work immediately. He fired the forge and soon a wild and uninterrupted hammering was audible in the whole village. The old smith felt mind of worried and so tiptoed to the forge to peep through an opening in the wall.

– 102 – Horrified of what he saw he shrinked back: A giant snake folded the blades and a smaller acted as assistant! „I should give my daughter to this monster? Never,“ thought the smith but time was short to the first crowing of the cock. But the smith was quite smart. He took a kettle with hot water and went to the hen house. With the chisel he opened a small hole in the height of the bamboo pole on which the cock sleeps every night. Slowly he poured the hot water into the hole and when the rising water level reachet and warmed the feet of the cock he thought it was the morning sun and started to crow. The giant snake was angry because it has succeeded to finish 999 blades to that point and vanished without together with its assistant. So the old smith had rescued his daughter and won in addition also alot of swords he could sell. He examined the work of the snake and was very pleased because all the blades were excellently forged. But what made him wonder was that all tangs were signed with „Naminohira Yukiyasu“ (波平行安). According to transmission it was the smith Masakuni (正国) from the Yamato Senjū´in school (千手院) who went around the era (永延, 987-989) to Kyūshū to the village of Naminohira in (present-day prefecture). The most famous representative of the school of the same name was Masakuni´s son Yukiyasu (行安), who is traditionally dated to the Kankō era (寛弘, 1004-1012).*64 But there are no records found which mention a later smith of the Naminohira school (the school was active to the very end of the Edo period) which had worked at any point in time in Itoigawa. The origin of this legend could be that Itoigawa – as important port on the Sea of Japan and a station of the Hokurikudō – traded with the remote Kyūshū provinces and that in this way blades of Yukiyasu came to the northern Echigo province.

*64 There was also a Senjū´in smith who signed with „Yukiyasu“ so there is the theory that it was he and not Masakuni who went later to Naminohira on Kyūshū. The workmanship of early Naminohira blades, i.e. of the Ko-Naminohira school (古波平, lit. „early Naminohira school“), is quite close to the workmanship of Yamato blades.

– 103 – The probably most famous Yukiyasu blade– there were several generations active with this name – is preserved in the Sanage-jinja (猿投神社) in Aichi prefecture about 25 km to the east of Nagoya. It is a slender, very elegant and classical tachi of the Heian period (see picture 36). The blade is unshortened and bears the signature „Yukiyasu“ chiselled boldly in large letters. From all extant and signed blades of the Naminohira school this one is considered to be the oldest one. From the early 1920s the blade was with its mounting (picture 37) for a long time at display in the war museum Yūshū-kan (遊就館) of Tōkyō´s Yasukuni shrine (靖国神社). But when the Pacific War changed to the disadvantage of Japan, it was brought back to the shrine. Since that time it was hardly shown to the public and according to some reports the condition of the blade is also not that good. Unfortunately there are no records of the Sanage-jinja extant which mention how the sword came into its possession or by whom it was offered.

Picture 36: jūyō-bunkazai tachi, mei: „Yukiyasu“, nagasa 70,9 cm, sori 3,03 cm, shinogi-zukuri, ubu-nakago in kijimomo shape, slender blade, deep koshizori, strong funbari

Picture 37: Hyōgo-gusari tachi-koshirae (兵庫鎖太刀拵) to the Yukiyasu blade above. Late Heian period but unfortunately some fittings and the chains (kusari, 鎖) which gave this kind of mounting its name are no longer extant.

– 104 – 18. The Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro

The next story has its origins around the swordsmith Kunihiro (国広) who founded later in his career in Kyōto´s Horikawa district (堀川) the very successful Horikawa school of the same name and became thus known as one of the so-called „founders“ of the shintō (新刀),*65 the “New Sword“. Kunihiro, whose first name was Tanaka Kintarō (田中金太郎, 1531?-1614), was not only a swordsmith but also a samurai serving the Itō family (伊東) which controlled parts of Hyūga province on Kyūshū. After the downfall of the Itō in the year 1577, Kunihiro traveled as a swordsmith through several provinces of Kyūshū until he appeared at the famous Ashikaha School (Ashikaga- gakkō, 足利学校) in in the 18th year of Tenshō (天正, 1590). According to transmission, the Ashikaga school was founded already in the early Heian period and was with more than 3.000 students towards the end of the Muromachi period the biggest academic center of Japan. But why came Kunihiro all the way from Kyūshū to the eastern Kantō area? Some say that he seeked refuge from the turmoils going still on back then on Kyūshū. In addition, the then head of the school – the Buddhist priest Sōgin (宗銀) – came from lands of the Itō too. Sōgin took over the management of the school in 1579 and it is likely that they knew each other already from their time on Kyūshū.

*65 The last two decades of the was a time of upheaval for Japan. The economy and culture focused the more on the constantly growing metropols of Kyōto and Ōsaka and this meant a strong attraction for artists, craftsmen, and of course swordsmiths too. So far the swordsmiths got their steel from local smelting works but now, due to the expansion of the transportation system, raw materials were available more or less everywhere in the country. This in turn led to a „thinning“ of the forging traditions developed since the Heian period and so the early Keichō era (慶長, 1596-1615) meant a turning point from the centuries-old tradition of the „Old Sword“ (kotō, 古刀) to the „New Sword“.

– 105 – The lands on which the Ashikaga school was runned were under the control of Nagao Akinaga (長尾顕長, 1556-1621),*66 a retainer of the branch of the Hōjō clan and then lord of Tatebayashi Castle (館林城). But the boldness and military power of Nagao were a thorn in the side of Hōjō Ujimasa (北条氏政, 1538-1590) – the then head of the Hōjō and lord of (小田原城) – who tried to get rid off Nagao by accusing him falsely of a disregard of courtesy to the Hōjō family. Ujimasa placed each 20.000 men at the disposal of his brother Ujitada (氏忠, ?-1593) and his nephew Ujikatsu (氏勝, 1559- 1611) and ordered them to regain Tatebayashi Castle. The buildup of troops spread like wildfire among the population of the local Ashikaga district because it was thought when the Hōjō were able to capture the castle they will not halt and conquer the entire district. And so a quite respectable army was levied there too. Kunihiro, who was able to look back on some achievements from fightings on Kyūshū, was entrusted with the command of an unit. Initially it seemed to be an easy victory for the Hōjō but it turned into a ten-day siege of Tatebayashi Castle. The high priest of the local Morinji temple (茂林寺) was already viewing the piles of corpses in his inner eye and strongly pushed to negotiations. With this request he came at the right moment because the Hōjō-samurai got sick of the besieging. In addition it turned out that they were bluffing concerning the number of their troops. Nagao Akinaga agreed in handing-over the castle to the Hōjō without a fight but for that he wanted to be appointed as lord of Ashikaga Castle (足利城). After this incident Nagao rewarded the population for their support and also Kunihiro got an official letter of appreciation and a yari of Sōshū Yoshihiro (相州吉広) who was a student of Hiromitsu which was introduced in chapter 16.

*66 With full name Nagao Shingorō Taira no Ason Akinaga (長尾新五郎平朝臣顕長).

– 106 – But the overall situation in the Kantō was still unstable because shortly later – towards the end of the 17th year of Tenshō (1589) – was at making plans to finally destroy the Hōjō completely. Ujinao (氏直, 1562-1591), son of Ujimasa and the last head of the Hōjō clan, scheduled a big family conference which ended in the decision to barricade in Odawara and to face a siege.*67 All remaining retainers were ordered to Odawara Castle and in this couse also Nagao Akinaga was „consulted“, appointed with the defense of the northwestern part of the castle. In this part of the castle the forge was located and Nagao – seeing his near end – called for Kunihiro to make him a special sword for his last battle. After his oath of allegiance to the Hōjō in the 14th year of Tenshō (1586), Nagao Akinaga was granted by Ujimasa with a sword of Chōgi (長義).*68 Kunihiro made a copy of this Chōgi blade (see picture 39) and chiselled the name of Akinaga as its owner. The signature of the utsushi-mono reads: „Kyūshū Hyūga-jū Kunihiro saku – Tenshō jūhachi-nen kanoe-tora nigatsu-kichijitsu – Taira Akinaga“ (九州 日向住国広作天正十八年庚刁貮月吉日平顕長), „made by Kunihiro from Hyūga, Kyūshū – on a lucky day on the second month Tenshō 18 [1590], year of the tiger – Taira Akinaga“. Hideyoshi´s siege of Odawara started in the second month of the 18th year of Tenshō and so this signature corresponds exactly to the historical facts.

*67 The name of this conference, the so-called „Odawara Conference“ (Odawara-hyōjō, 小田原評定), has survived to this day, namely as a term for negotiations which drag on such a long time until it is too late for the right decitions. In the concrete case, the family conference of the Hōjō sat as long until the sieging army of Hideyoshi marched up right before the castle. But the besieged lacked nothing and so a comparison to the Congress of Vienna of 1814 suggests itself. The Field marshal and writer Charles-Joseph Ligne (1766-1814) characterzied the proceedings of the congress with the words: „Le congrès danse beaucoup, mais il ne marche pas“ (The congress dances, but does progress.) *68 Chōgi, who worked in Bizen province, is traditionally dated to the Kenmu era (建武, 1334- 1338) and was one of „Masamune´s Ten Students.“

– 107 – Interesting is that also the original blade of Chōgi bears a signature applied by Kunihiro, namely „Honsaku Chōgi – Tenshō jūhachi-nen kanoe-tora gogatsu-mikka – Kyūshū Hyūga-jū Kunihiro no mei o utsu – Tenshō jūyon-nen shichigatsu nijūichinichi, Odawara-sanpu no toki shitagau yakata-sama kudashi-okare nari – Nagao Shingorō Taira no Ason Akinaga shoji“ (本作長義天正十八年庚刁五月三日ニ九州 日向住国広銘打天正十四年七月十一日小田原参府之時従屋形様 被下置也長尾新五郎平朝臣顕長所持), „Original by Chōgi – signature applied by Kunihiro from Hyūga, Kyūshū, done on the third day of the fifth month Tenshō 18, year of the tiger – [the blade was] granted on the 21st day of the seventh month Teshō 14 together with a residence for the following to Odawara – owner [of the blade] Nagao Shingorō Taira no Ason Akinaga“. The question is now what where the backgrounds of this signature, and in the following I would like to speculate about why Kunihiro added this signature to the original blade of Chōgi. It could be possible that Kunihiro was ordered to shorten the blade and to mention explicitely the original maker and the then owner. Or the blade was presented to Nagao already as shortened Chōgi and he ordered Kunihiro to add the signature in question. But obviously the copy (dated „second month“) was made before the signature was added to the original blade. And it is also obvious that the copy was modelled on the already shortened blade because both show about the same length and proportions. It is rather unlikely that Nagao had him made a shorter but otherwise identical copy of his original Chōgi. The most likely explanation is that Nagao had him made an utsushi-mono in the second month of Tenshō 18 and when the situation developed to the disadvantage of Odawara – the siege ended in the seventh month – he called for Kunihiro again for a signature, to have him as owner and the backgrounds of the granting immortalize on the original blade.

– 108 –

Picture 38: jūyō-bunkazai katana, mei (see text above), nagasa 71,2 cm, sori 2,4 cm, shinogi- zukuri, iori-mune, ō-suriage, broad mihaba, thin kasane, deep sori, ō-kissaki

Picture 39: jūyō-bunkazai Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro, mei (s.o.), nagasa 70,6 cm, sori 2,8 cm, shinogi- zukuri, iori-mune, broad mihaba, thin kasane, ō-kissaki

However, the siege ended without bloodshed. The surrender of the Hōjō was followed by the usual executions and punishments, many committed seppuku, Nagao Akinaga´s lands were confiscated and he himself was put under the control of Satake Yoshinobu (佐竹義宣, 1570-1633), lord of Ōta Castle (太田城) in where he died later lonely but peacefuly. The original blade of Chōgi is nowadays preserved in the Tokugawa Museum and is mentioned as in the possession of the Tokugawa family the first time in a sword register from the fifth year of (慶安, 1652). Once again, the exact backgrounds of the way it came to the Tokugawa is unknown. Well, Satake Yoshinobu sided with Ishida Mitsunari at the Battle of Sekigahara which meant a punishment and reduction of more than half of his lands. Later he supported Ieyasu at the siege of Ōsaka and so it is likely that the blade came this way from Akinaga over Yoshinobu to the Tokugawa family. The history of the copy and the associated ghost story was gathered and written down by Sugihara Shōzō (杉原祥造), a member of the sword association „Chūō-Tōken-Kai“ (中央刀剣会), which had the chance in the 1920´s to examine the blade and draw an oshigata of it.

– 109 – According to Sugihara, the copy of Kunihiro went after the death of Nagao to a certain Ishihara Jinzaemon (石原甚左衛門), a remaining vassal of the Hōjō. Ishihara´s income was quite trimmed and so he saw himself compelled to sell the blade. Together with his pregnant wife he set out to the next big town – Komoro (小諸) in Shinano province – when suddenly the contractions started. Far away from their destination he decided to carry his wife to the next valley where they had seen a column of smoke. But they found only a small almost ruined hut in which an old women with silvery-white hair lived. „Madam“, asked Jinzaemon very polite, „can my wife rest in your warm hut until I have obtained some medicine in Komoro?“ She replied with a scary grin: „It is an honour and pleasure for me.“ Immediately he set off to Komoro at a run and several hours later he came back to the old hut, but from a distance, he heared his wife crying. He rushed through the door and saw that the old women was just on eating the newborn baby! He drew his blade by Kunihiro and cutted down at the witch but his blow was not fatal and so she was able to escape through an open window. This was followed by a mad rush through the thicket of the forest and Jinzaemon was able to follow her trail of blood until he reached a small fissure in a rock. Still with his bloody blade in the right hand he shouted in the crack: „You can hide but I will smoke you out!“ He gathered all the leaves lying around and made a fire right in front of the fissure. Soon deep black clouds of smoke penetrated into the cave and soon the witch came out crawling. She tried to took Jinzaemon by surprise and flew over his head but as he was a trained warrior, he thrusted at her, slicing her body from the left to the right side. After this incident he called his blade „Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro“ (山姥斬り国広). „Yamauba“ (山姥) – also pronounced as „yamanba“ – is a mountain crone found in Japanese folklore. Shortly afterwards it came to the Battle of Sekigahara and Ishihara Jinzaemon, who had become a rōnin, went to Hikone (彦根) in Ōmi province because he hoped for being employed by the local Ii family (井伊). „Anything goes“ was the matter of those days and when he should be able to achieve some victories or at least to display a great

– 110 – bravery, maybe he could expect a steady employment as official vassal of the Ii clan. When he made his approach he met an Ii vassal called Atsumi Heihachirō (渥美平八郎)*69 whose sword broke shortly before. „We samurai must stick together and so please accept my blade as a present,“ said Jinzaemon, probably as act of ingratiation to the Ii, and handed him over the Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro. The Ii sided with Ieyasu at the Battle of Sekigahara and Jinzaemon´s plan worked: he became a retainer of the Hikone fief under Ii Naomasa (井伊直政, 1561-1602). Until the the blade remained in the possession of the Atsumi family but when the living conditions worsened for bushi, he pawned it at a local soy sauce dealer called Kitamura (北村). It came as it had to come and he was not able to buy it back and so it was bought by a certain Mr. Mii (三居). It was owned by him at least to the Taishō era (大正, 1912-1926) because it was him where Sugihara Shōhō had the chance to examine it. Today the Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro is privately owned in Tōkyō.

*69 Here the story deviates from historical facts because according to records of the Hikone fief, Heihachirō – who had an income of 300 koku – died in the 14th year of Genroku (元禄, 1701). So it is impossible that he met Ishihara Jinzaemon right before the Battle of Sekigahara.

– 111 – 19. The daily problems of the giant snakes

There was a giant snake (daija or orochi, 大蛇) living around the 586 metres high Abu-yama (阿武山) in (present-day Prefecture) which frightened the local population. According to eyewitnesses, the body of the snake stretched over eight valleys and its belly was that big that it could easily swallow an entire elephant. Its eyes were flashing, the teeth sharp, and there were flames coming from its mouth when breathing out. The lord of this fief, Kagawa Mitsukage (香川光景), was concerned about the welfare of his people but what worried him more was that a rebellion could arouse when he remained inactive. So he gathered all his sons and retainers to consult on ways and means to kill the giant snake. One relative of Mitsukage – some sources say he was his younger brother – at this gathering was the only 18 years old Kagawa Uemonnodaiyū Katsutaka (香川右衛門大夫勝雄, 1515-1569). Katsutaka was fearless, with 6 shaku and 8 bu (~ 1,84 m) very tall, coarse facial features, and despite his young age a wild goatee which made him look like Shōki (鐘馗),*70 the mythological Chinese demon queller. „I have killed some men. That´s easy. But to kill a demon or a tengu,*71 that would be the right thing for me!“, boasted Katsutaka who tried to make a name for himself with killing the giant snake.

*70 Shōki (鐘馗, chin. Zhong-kúi) was an ugly physician from the T´ang-era (618-907). He aimed at a career in the government and underwent all admission tests, mastering them with flying colors. But when he was introduced to the emperor, he rejected him because of his ugliness. Of shame he killed himself right in front of the emperor at the steps to the imperial palace. Conscience-stricken the emperor ordered a ceremonial funeral for him and in gratitude to that, Shōki´s soul pledged that he will protect all Chinese emperors from evil spirits and demons. *71 (天狗) A mythological, supernatural creature in Japanese folklore with human and avian characteristics.

– 112 – Mitsukage replied: „Well, than I assign this task to you, esteemed Katsutaka. Give me a proof when you have succeeded in killing the snake which is already owning large areas of my land.“ With these words he handed him over a treasure sword which was handed-down within the Kagawa family for generations: a 3 shaku 1 sun (~ 93,9 cm) measuring ō-dachi of the swordsmith Yoshimoto (吉元). There are several theories about this smith. One say he was the son of Yoshifusa (吉房) who was one of the outstanding smiths of the Fukuoka- Ichimonji school. Other records say that he was the adopted son of Sukeyoshi (助吉) who in his turn was the founder of the Yoshioka- Ichimonji school. Thus the dating of Yoshimoto is unclear too, ranging from Ryakunin (暦仁, 1238-1239) over Kōan (弘安, 1278-1288) to Shōwa (正和, 1312-1317). The presentation of this precious sword heightened the more Katsutaka´s determination and turning to the assembled men and sweared solemnly: „It is a great honour for me that this task is assigned to me, a youngling, instead of one of you who you are such great warriors. When I fail I will never ever offend you with my miserable sight!“ He went home immediately, put on his armour and helmet, mounted the long ō-dachi to his belt, and the vassals of Mitsukage put an excellent horse at his disposal. Leaving behind a thunderstorm he finally reached the Abu-yama. Heading to the top his horse had to stop because a rocky ledge narrowed down the mountain path. Behind the rock there was a huge kaya (榧, Japanese Nutmeg-yew, Torreya nucifera) and, almost missed by Katsutaka, a giant snake slept on this tree, resting her humongous head at a thick branch. Slowly he drew his ō-dachi, ready to kill the monster but at the last moment he thought that it is unworthy of a warrior to kill a sleeping enemy. Thus he raised his voice: „Giant snake, listen to me! Dragons and creatures like you live deep in the mountains and that is your home. But we humans live in villages and you are not allowed to invade because you seriously harm them. If you will not refrain from this habit I will let my sword speak!“

– 113 – The snake awoke, saw Katsutaka, and immediately sprayed her poison. Gone blind the young warrior staggered around but was able to crawl to a spring where he and his horse had quenched their thirst shortly before they came to the rocky ledge. He washed his eyes and attacked the giant snake and after a short fight he decapitated her with his giant tachi. But the snake was not immediately dead because the head rose up into the sky to come down again on Katsutaka with its blazing flames. „Not enough for you?“, he yelled and gave the head such a massive blow that it fell some hundred meters away into a rice field. The furrow the giant snake head teared open when it reached the ground was later locally called „Jaōji Gorge“ (Jaōji-buchi, 蛇王子淵, lit. „Snake-Prince Gorge“) and since then it was told that the spring as magical eye-curing powers. The sword was offered to the family shrine of the Kagawa, the Mitsuhiro-jinja (光廣神社) of Aki´s Yagi village (八木). However, the whereabouts of the sword are unclear because it is no longer existant in that shrine. Incidentally, there is another tachi preserved in the - Hachimangū (盛岡八幡宮, Iwate Pefecture) which bears the name „jakiri-maru“ (蛇切丸, „Snake Cutter“). According to legend, the progenitor of the Tamayama family (玉山) killed with this sword a giant snake at the Minogasaka Pass (蓑ケ坂) near the town of Sannohe (三戸町) in (present-day ). The blade is nowadays designated as jūyō-bunkazai (Important Cultural Property) of Iwate Prefecture but it bears just the rough attribution „work in the Yamashiro tradition, late Heian to early Kamakura period“. But the name jakiri-maru appears also in another context. In the northern prefectures of Yamagata and Akita, thus quite close to Iwate and Aomori, people tell the story of the brigand Ogachi Tarō (雄勝太郎). It is assumed that he got his name „Ogachi“ from the pass of the same name for which he charged a toll. An interesting sidenote: When we reverse the two characters, we get Katsutaka´s first name (勝雄). However, except that he took road tolls, the brigand was not a bad egg because he also took care of the safety of the pass road and the

– 114 – area as a whole. But to the south of this pass near the village of Nozoki (及位), a member of his band of robbers did his mischief. This man had the same name as the sword mentioned before, namely „Jakirimaru“. This annoyed Ogachi very much because he actually tried to get along with the local people. Ogachi invited all his men to a huge banquet under the pretext to share out some „revenues“ but at the height of the party he decapitated Jakirimaru whereupon all other attendees fled. The sword which he took from the dead robber was with 3 shaku and 3 sun (~ 100,8 cm) even longer as the blade of Yoshimoto and he gave him the name of his previous owner, Jakirimaru. It is unclear under what circumstances the blade went into the possession of the Takahashi family (高橋), but there, it was handed down from one generation to another under the name „Kanemaru“ (金丸). Another snake-killing sword was made by Magoroku Kanemoto (孫六兼元) from Seki (関) in Mino province. The first generation Kanemoto was active around the Meiō era (明応, 1492-1501), the second around (大永, 1521-1528). In the second year of Bunka (文化, 1805), Yamada Asa´emon Yoshimune (山田朝右衛門, 1767- 1823) – official sword tester of the bakufu in the fifth generation – published a work called „Kaihō-kenshaku“ (懐宝剣尺) which contains a list of 228 swordsmiths whose blades are classified to five categories of sharpness. Kanemoto is classified to the uppermost category, the so- called „saijō-ō-wazamono“ (最上大業物, lit. „very sharpest blades“). The sword mentioned before with which another giant snake was killed was originally a wakizashi with 1 shaku 5 sun (~ 45,5 cm) blade length. It was later shortened to 1 shaku 3 sun (~ 39,4 cm) and added with a signature about the provenience of the blade. This signature (see picture 40) reads: „Kanemoto-katana, Tenshō nijū-nen kore o agaru – Yoritsugu, Kōshū Ishibe ni oite, jakiri“ (兼元刀 天正二十年上之 頼次江州於石部虵干刀 ), „katana by Kanemoto, shortened in the 20th year of Tenshō (1592) – Yoritsugu killed a snake with it in Ishibe in Ōmi province.“

– 115 –

Picture 40: Signature of Kanemoto´s jakiri

The word „ja“ (蛇, snake) is chiselled with an old, unusual character (虵) whose outgoing last stroke on the right side is executed like a snake. Also „kiri“ (切) is executed with a different left-standing radical (干 instead of 七), but such variations in notation were not uncommon at that time. The addition „kore o agaru“ (上之) means „this was shortened“ and is another way – usually the term „suriageru“ (磨上げる) is used – to describe the shortening of a blade. „Yoritsugu“ refers probably to Toki Yoritsugu (土岐頼次, 1545-1614).*72 The Toki were once the military governors of Mino province but when Yoritsugu´s grandfather Masafusa (政房, 1457-1519) died in the 16th year of Eishō (永正, 1519) this office called „Mino-shugo“ was succeeded by Saitō Toshinaga (斎藤利良, ?-1538). After Toshinaga´s death and inmidst the turmoils of the , Saitō Dōsan (斎藤道三, 1494-1556) expelled the Toki clan including Yoritsugu from Mino. Dōsan himself was before a retainer of the Toki family. As a result, Yoritsugu became a vassal of (松永久秀, 1510-1577) and later uma-mawari-shū (see chapter 10) of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. In the year 1587 he was granted by the latter with lands in the Furuichi district (古市) of Kawachi province (present-day Ōsaka Prefecture) which had an income of just 500 koku.

*72 By the way, his mother was the daughter of Rokkaku Sadayoshi of chapter 8.

– 116 – Now there are basically two opportunities how Yoritsugu could have come to Ishibe. First, it was the 20th anniversary of his father´s death Yorinari (頼芸, 1502-1582) in Tenshō 20 (1592), the year which is mentioned in the signature. His grave lies in Kire (岐礼, Gifu Prefecture) in Mino province and so it is possible that Yoritsugu passed Ishibe on the way from Furuichi. Another possibility is Hideyoshi´s large-scale survey (taikō-kenchi, 太閤検地) which reached Ōmi province just one year before. It could be that Yoritsugu was posted away as low-ranking vassal Hideyoshi´s in some function as surveyor to the mountain range of Ishibe. Interestingly, Saitō Dōsan´s nickname was „The Serpent of Mino“ (Mino no mamushi, 美濃の蝮) but this has of course nothing to do with Kanemoto´s wakizashi. After Hideyoshi, Toki Yoritsugu served Tokugawa Ieyasu and sided with him at the Battle of Sekigahara. Afterwards he was promoted to the rank of (旗本), a so-called „bannerman“ in the direct service of the Tokugawa bakufu. And Ieyasu even presented him with the famous sword „Shishiō“ (獅子王, lit. „Lion King“) to which the following legend exists. According to the „Heike-monogatari“, emperor Kaiser Konoe (近衛天皇, 1139-1155, r. 1142-1155) was once frightened by a creature which flew over the imperial palace every night. He called for (源頼政, 1104-1180) who deal with that problem. In one of the following nights Yorimasa and his men sat in ambush in front of the palace when a dark cloud moved in. Yorimasa saw something in it and – with swearing that he commit suicide when failing at this task – shot straightaway an arrow into the cloud. But he hit the strange creature which turned out to be a so-called „“ (鵺), a legendary chimera which is described having the head of a monkey, the body of a tanuki (狸, racoon dog), the legs of a tiger, a snake (or a dragon) as a tale, and a cry like a White´s Trush (toratsugumi, 虎鶫). Still alive the nue felt down to the ground but was finally killed by Yorimasa with nine sword strokes.For this heroic deed Emperor Konoe granted him with the above mentioned sword with the nickname „Shishiō“.

– 117 – However, it is unclear how the sword came to the name „Lion King“ and how it came later into the possession of Tokugawa Ieyasu. After the latter handed it over to Yoritsugu it became a treasure sword of the Toki family which presented it at the end to Emperor Meiji. Today it is designated as jūyō-bunkazai and preserved in the Tōkyō National Museum. The accompanying mounting whose leather hilt wrapping is unfortunately lost, dates to the late Heian, early Kamakura period (see picture 41).

Picture 41: jūyō-bunkazai Shishiō, mumei, blade in Yamato tradition, probably late Heian period, nagasa 77,3 cm, sori 2,7 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, ko-kissaki, deep koshizori, length of the koshirae 102,5 cm

20. The Kogitsune-maru

The next story is based on the Nō play „Kokaji“ (小鍛冶). Even if this most famous of all legends around the swordsmith Munechika is known since centuries we are unable to track back its author or its time of origin. The oldest written record of the play dates to the second month of Tenshō six (天正, 1578), a production of a certain Kongōdayū (金剛太夫) performed at the Ishiyama-Honganji (石山本願寺, ) which was destroyed by Oda Nobunaga only two years later. But it is assumed that the legend of Munechika and the fox was already

– 118 – performed as Nō in the Muromachi period. Well, the legend itself takes place in the reign of Emperor Ichijō (一条天皇, 980-1011, reg. 986- 1011), who had a strange dream that suggested him to have him forged a sword. The very next day he sent his envoy Tachibana no Michinari (橘道成, exact dates unknown) to the forge of Munechika which was located in the eastern part of Kyōto, at the third horizontal major axis (Sanjō, 三条). Michinari got off his oxcart and said: „Are you the swordsmith Munechika? The emperor had selected you personally to make him a sword. And you should begin with the forging work immediately!“ „I am honoured that such a prestigious task is transferred to me but I don´t have an assistant at the moment which must help me at forging such an excellent masterwork worthy of the emperor.“ „If that is true you should look for an assistant!“, replied the envoy harshly and took his leave. With great sorrow to fall out of favour with the emperor Munechika went straightaway to the Fushimi- (伏見稲荷大社) which is located – as the name suggests – in the southeastern suburb of Fushimi, only ten kilometres from his forge, to pray for divine assistance. It was already dusk and when he strided through the numerous red-lacquered gateways of the shrine, a boy came out of the half-light and said: „You are Kokaji Munechika from Sanjō, aren´t you?“ „How did you know my name? I haven´t seen you before!“ But the boy did not answer his question and continued: „You came because you got imperial orders to forge a sword for the emperor, don´t you?“ The smiths stared totaly confused at the strange boy but went down on his knees: „Yes, it is all true but I don´t have an assistant who is indispensable for such a task!“ „I fully understand that you are concerned but I can calm you because when you have cleaned and purified your forge in accordance with the old rules I will be there to work as your assistant.“, said the boy and vanished as fast as he has appeared. As early as the next morning, Munechika prepared everything for this new project. He underwent the ritual washing, put on a white garb similar to those of a Shintō priest, and purified the platform with the anvil in front of his forge by surrounding it with shimenawa ropes with

– 119 – .*73 When he spoke a prayer for divine assistance, the boy appeared from behind the forge silent as a fox and now Munechika realized that it must be Inari-Myōjin (稲荷明神), the god of fertility, rice, and agriculture whose messenger appears in the shape of a white fox. Very humble the smith got onto the ground. „You asked for help and I will give it to you!“, spoke the deity Inari with dignified voice. The forge was fired and soon both started to forge and fold the steel. But the young boy acted as no human assistant could act: Without a single oral instruction by the smith he was able to know when, where, and with which force he had to support him with his hammer blows. The blade turned out to be a great masterwork and of gratitude to the assistance of the deity Munechika signed the front side with his name „Kokaji Munechika“ (小鍛冶宗近), and in addition the back side with „Kogitsune“ (小狐) which means „little fox“. But as soon as he had chiselled the very last stroke of this signature, the boy had vanished. The next day the swordsmith proudly handed-over the sword nicknamed „Kogitsune-maru“ (小狐丸) to the envoy Michinari. So much for the theory or rather the Nō play. It is unclear how far emperor Ichijō was actually involved in this legend but as Munechika is traditionally dated to the Eien era (永延, 987-989), at least the chronological factor is coherent. The earliest written record of the Kogitsune-maru dates to the late Heian period, and already back then it was a treasure sword of the noble Kujō family (九条). In the records of the family we read that it was worn by Fujiwara no Kanenaga (藤原兼長, 1138-1158) on the 28th day of the twelfth month Ninpei three (仁平, 1153) at the official accession to office as Councillor (chūnagon, 中納言). Kanenaga was the heir of (藤原頼長, 1120-1156), and also Yorinaga´s second son Fujiwara no Moronaga (藤原師長, 1138-1192) wore the Kogitsune-maru when he succeeded as chūnagon shortly afterwards on the 25th day of the eleventh month Kyūju one (久寿, 1154).

*73 Gohei (御幣) are plaited white paper streamers. Such gohei-hanged shimenawa are used to mark sacred precincts.

– 120 – Two years later – in the first year of Hōgen (保元, 1156) – it came to the Hōgen Rebellion (Hōgen no ran, 保元の乱) of the same name which was about a dispute of the Imperial succession and the degree of control exercised by the Fujiwara family who had become hereditary Imperial regent (kanpaku, 関白) during the Heian period. It is said that Shinzei (信西, 1106?-1160),*74 the son of Fujiwara no Sanekane (藤原実兼, 1085-1112), wore the Kogitsune-maru at that time. But it is unclear how the sword came from the possessions of the Kujō family*75 to Shinzei and back, because in another entry of the family chronicles of the 15th day of the eighth month Ōan three (応安, 1370), it is mentioned that the sword is once again in the possession of the Kujō family. This entry says that the Kujō residence was stroke by a lightning, and when the then kanpaku regent Kujō Tsunenori (九条経教, 1331-1400) drew the Kogitsune-maru and held it into the air to drive away the thunderstorm, he was himself stroke by another lightning via the tip of the sword. But if this story is true, then the sword must had been destroyed or at least heavily damaged at that time. One transmission says that the Kogitsune-maru made later its way to Echizen province. Even the eighth Tokugawa-shōgun Yoshimune (徳川吉宗, 1684-1751) took the hints of this transmission seriously, because we know of extant documents of Kuze Shigeyuki (久世重之, 1659-1720) – a member of the then bakufu cabinet – that Yoshimune made inquiries about the sword at the Kasugamyō-jinja (春日明神社) in Awaga (阿波賀) in Echizen province. We learn from the reply of the shrine that they owned a 2 shaku 2 bu (~ 61,2 cm) measuring blade with the niji-mei (二字銘, two-character signature) „Munechika“ whose shirasaya beared the inscription „Kogitsune-maru kage“ (小狐丸影). But older documents say that the blade was mounted in a magnificent koshirae with mother-of-pearl inlay.

*74 „Shinzei“ was his name as Buddhist monk. His real name before was „Fujiwara no Michinori“ (藤原通憲). *75 Yorinaga was the uncle of Kujō Kanezane (九条兼実, 1149-1207), the founder of the Kujō branch of the Fujiwara family.

– 121 – But irritating is the addition „kage“ which refers to a so-called „kage-uchi“ (影打ち). A kage-uchi is a second blade made sometimes by the swordsmith at the same time he makes the actual blade for his customer. After the final polish he then decides which one is of better quality, the inferior work is kept by the smith and is not signed. So it is rather unlikely that Munechika signed this blade with a niji-mei and that a kage-uchi from the Heian period was preserved as (sacred) relic in a shrine until the middle Edo period. Matters are further complicated by the fact that several shrines own swords with the name „Kogitsune-maru“, so for example the Hachimangū (八幡宮) in Kōfu (甲府, ). But this blade is a 3 shaku (~ 90,9 cm) measuring ō-dachi which is absolutely unthinkable for a Heian-period emperor or aristocrat which preferred substantially shorter and more slender blades. Also the records of the possessions of the old Isonokami-jingū (石上神宮)*76 in Nara mention a sword called „Kogitsune-maru“ which should be stored in a sealed chest. But the shrine does not give a permission to check its treasures and so this entry can´t be verified. A later mentioning of the sword in connection with the Kujō family dates to the Momoyama period, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi tried to advance his career by obtaining the clan name of „Fujiwara“. Hideyoshi addressed the nobleman and chancellor (daijō-daijin, 太政大臣) Konoe Sakihisa (近衛前久, 1536-1612) and asked for an adoption. But Kujō Tanemichi (九条種通, 1507-1594) was strictly against this, arguing that the three hereditary sanctuaries of the Fujiwara family – a portrait of Kamatari (鎌足, the founder of the ), a Lotus-Sūtra of the Tendai high-priest Eryō (恵亮), and the sword Kogitsune-maru – are still in the possession of the Kujō branch and this makes the Konoe branch inferior and not able to make decisions about an adoption of Hideyoshi. However, the protest of Tanemichi didn´t help and Hideyoshi was adopted by Sakahisa in the 13th year of Tenshō (1585).

*76 In this shrine the holy sword Futsunomitama no tsurugi (布都御魂剣) with which once Susanoo no mikoto (素戔嗚尊) killed the eight-headed dragon Yamata no orochi (八岐大蛇).

– 122 – Well, the whereabouts of the sword Kogitsune-maru are still unclear down to the present day. The most famous blade of Munechika is the so-called „Mikazuki-Munechika“ (三日月宗近). The name has the sword from the crescent-shaped (mikazuki, 三日月) temper elements which accompany the hamon in the lower area of the blade. As mentioned in chapter 1, the Mikazuki-Munechika belonged to the „Five Great Swords“ (tenka-goken, 天下五剣), and it is designated as national treasure since 1951. Today it is preserved at the Tōkyō National Museum (see picture 42). The earlier owners of the Mikazuki-Munechika are obscure but at least since the Muromachi period it was in the possession of the Ashikaga family. It is said when Matsunaga Hisahide and an alliance of the Miyoshi family attacked the Nijō Palace (二条御所) in the eighth year of Eiroku (永禄, 1565), the then shōgun Ashikaga Yoshiteru (足利義輝, 1536-1565) defended himself with this sword until his death. After the attack, the so-called „Eiroku Incident“ (Eiroku no hen, 永禄の変) it went with other Ashikaga treasures in the possession of Miyoshi Masayasu (三好政康, 1528-1615) who presented it later to Hideyoshi, from which it went to his pricipal wife Nene (ねね). After her death as nun called Kōdai´in (高台院) in the year 1624 the Mikazuki-Munechika was presented to shōgun Tokugawa Hidetada. From that time until the end of the feudal era it was continuously in the possession of the Tokugawa family as one of its most precious treasures.

Picture 42: kokuhō Mikazuki-Munechika, mei: „Sanjō“ (三条), nagasa 80,0 cm, sori 2,7 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, deep koshizori, very pronounced funbari, ko-kissaki, ubu-nakago

– 123 – 21. Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu and Ichigo-Hitofuri Yoshimitsu

In this chapter I would like to introduce the last of the tenka-goken, the so-called „Juzumaru“ (数珠丸) by the swordsmith Tsunetsugu (恒次). The sword was once in the possession of the great Buddhist reformer Nichiren (日蓮, 1222-1282). When he returned from a bakufu- imposed exile to the island of Sado (佐渡) to Kamakura in Bun´ei six (文永, 1274), he was invited by Nanbu Sanenaga (南部実長, 1222- 1297) to the district of Hakii (波木井) in Kai province who was under his control. Sanenaga allowed him that he build up his hermitage on the local Mount Minobu (身延山). Later this hermitage was upgraded to the Kuon-ji (久遠寺, present-day Yamanashi Prefecture) on whose grounds also Nichiren´s grave is located. Sanenaga was one of the most important patron of Nichiren and the later Kuon-ji and so he presented Nichiren with a sword of Tsunetsugu for his protection. For Nichiren this sword was merely a symbol for the „destroying of inquinity and establishing righteousness“ (hajakenshō no tsurugi, 破邪顕正の剣), and so he hung a Buddhist rosary (juzu, 数珠) over its hilt which gave him the name „Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu“. This story about the history of the sword is already found in the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ but it is also noted that the three most important relics of Nichiren – his stole (kesa, 袈裟), his ceremonial fan (chūkei, 中啓), and the Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu – were already no longer preserved in the Kuon-ji at the time the meibutsu-chō was compiled, this in the Kyōhō era (享保, 1716-1736). About twohundred years later, in October 1920, the blade was rediscovered by those Sugihara Shōzō (杉原祥造) who wrote down also the legend to the Yamauba-Kunihiro (see chapter 18). Sugihara was then among others responsible for the blades of the Imperial Household Agency (-shō, 宮内省), that means he was a renowned expert on swords. He found the blade among items of a certain aristocrat who put off parts of his collection for auction. He placed a huge bid at the upcoming auction because he feared that the sword could leave Japan forever at a highest bid from

– 124 – abroad. Sugihara caused a further stir in the then sword world when he invidted all newspapers to write about his rediscovering of the Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu. One year later it was designated as national treasure. Sugihara actually tried to return the sword to its place where it belongs, i.e. the Kuon-ji, but the negotiations failed because the temple was not able to raise the funds to buy it from him. After tough negotiation a common ground was established and the sword was given to the Honkō-ji (本興寺), a temple near Sugihara´s hometown Amagasaki (尼崎) in . As precious supporter for the temple acted the as religious as rich Ōsaka paper wholesaler Kitakaze Kumashichi (北風熊七). The Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu is still preserved in the Honkō-ji and is designated as jūyō-bunkazai.

Picture 43: jūyō-bunkazai Juzumaru-Tsunesugu, mei: „Tsunetsugu“, nagasa 81,0 cm, sori 3,0 cm, deep koshizori, funbari, chū-kissaki, ubu-nakago

There is an uncertainty about the smith Tsunetsugu or rather which Tsunetsugu made the blade. Traditionally, the Ko-Aoe school (古青江) smith Tsunetsugu who worked around the Shōgen era (承元, 1207- 1211) is considered as maker. But the blade of the Juzumaru shows some differences to the workmanship and way of signing of this school. That means it does not have the Aoe-typical „chirimen“ (縮緬)*77 forging structure, and smiths of the Ko-Aoe school signed on the haki- ura side (佩裏) of the tang, the side which faces the wearer when mounting the blade as tachi edge down from the belt. However, the signature of the Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu is on the haki-omote (佩表) side. And so some say it might be a work of the Ko-Bizen smith (古備前) Tsunetsugu who worked around (元暦, 1184-1185).

*77 Lit. „silk crepe“. A forging structue which is evenly „threaded through“ with chikei (地景), darker, continuous partikles of martensite (nie, 沸).

– 125 – But let´s stay at the tenka-goken for a while. Sometimes the sword „Ichigo-Hitofuri“ (一期一振) is wrongly listed as one of the „Five Great Swords“ instead of the Onimaru-Kunitsuna. The blade is a work of Awataguchi Yoshimitsu from chapter 9 and originally came from the possessions of the Asakura family (朝倉) of Echizen province. When the family was destroyed in the course of Oda Nobunaga´s seizure of power in the first year of Tenshō (1573), it was handed-over to the Mōri family, and later it was presented by Mōri Terumoto (毛利輝元, 1553-1625) to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. As Hideyoshi was rather on the short side, he had the blade shortened from 2 shaku 8 sun 3 bu (~ 85,7 cm) to 2 shaku 2 sun 7 bu (~ 68,8 cm) but ensured that the original signature of Yoshimitsu was set into the new tang as so-called „gaku- mei“ (額銘, see picture 44). Also the nickname of the sword goes back to Hideyoshi whereas there are two theories about it. The first says that he had until the last no opportunity to ever use the sword and so he called it „one sword stroke (hitofuri, 一振) in a lifetime (ichigo, 一期)“. The second theory says that it was the one and only tachi made by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, who was famous for his tantō as we have learned in chapter 9. Because furi (振り) is a Japanese word for counting blades: „one blade in a lifetime“.

Picture 44: gaku-mei „Yoshimitsu“ of the Ichigo-Hitofuri

After the death of Hideyoshi the sword remained in family property but suffered a fire damage when Ōsaka Castle was lost in 1615. The new owner Ieyasu ordered the smith Yasutsugu (康継) to apply a new tempering which turned out to be very excellent. The sword remained subsequently in the possession of the Owari branch of the Tokugawa until the then head Tokugawa Mochinaga (徳川茂徳, 1831-1884)

– 126 – presented it to Emperor Kōmei (孝明天皇, 1831-1866, r. 1846-1866) in Bunkyū three (文久, 1863), and it is still a gyobutsu (御物), i.e. an Imperial treasure. There are two other blades, both of them designated as jūyō- bunkazai, which bear a nickname very similar to the Ichigo-Hitorifu, namely „Ichigo-Hitokoshi“ (一期 一腰). „Koshi“ is like „furi“ and „kuchi“ (口) a suffix for counting swords whereas koshi and furi is used for mounted, and kuchi for unmounted blades. This nomenclature comes from the fact that the former two are „ready for use“, that means they can be mounted at the waist (koshi, 腰) or they can be used for a strike (furi, 振り). But in the context of the Ichigo-Hitokoshi, the name refers to the best masterwork a smith ever made in his entire life (thus this could also be applied to the Ichigo-Hitorifu). The first blade (picture 44) dates to the late Muromachi period and bears the detailed signature „Bizen no Kuni-jū Osafune Jirō´emon no Jō Katsumitsu, shi Jirōbei no Jō Harumitsu – Ichigo-Hitokoshi no saku – Sasaki Iyo no Kami“ (備前国住長船次郎右衛門尉勝光 子次郎兵衛尉治光 一期一腰作之 佐々木伊予守). That means it is the best joint masterwork of Katsumitsu and his son Harumitsu from the Bizen-Osafune school, made for Amago Tsunehisa (尼子経久, 1458-1541) who was once a retainer of the Sasaki family and beared the honorary title „Iyo no Kami“. Around the 18th year of Bunmei (文明, 1486) Tsunehisa was able to successively gain control over the provinces Iwami, Oki, Bizen, Bitchū, Bingo, Haruma, Mimasama, Inaba, and Hōki, and this was the opportunity how he came to Bizen to have him forged this sword. Others say that Tsunehisa wanted to entrust his live to this blade – quasi the „sword of his life“ – and that he had engraved this on the tang as „Ichigo-Hitokoshi“. Nowadays the blade is preserved in the Nogi-jinja (乃木神社) in Tōkyō where general Nogi Maresuke (乃木希典, 1849-1912) and seine Frau Shizuko (静子, 1859-1912) are worshipped. The Nogi are a branch family of the Amago.

– 127 –

Picture 44: jūyō-bunkazai, katana, mei: see above, nagasa 64,5 cm, shinogi-zukuri, chū-kissaki, relative short ubu-nakago for a single-handed use (katate-uchi, 片手打ち)

The second blade called „Ichigo-Hitokoshi“ is a wakizashi of Nobukuni (信国) from Yamashiro province. The entire signature reads „Tatematsuru Fuji-Hongū – Minamoto Shikibu no Jō Nobukuni – Ichigo-Hitokoshi – Ōei nijūyon-nen nigatsu-hi“ (奉富士本宮 源式部丞信国 一期一腰 応永廿四 年二月日) which translates as „offered to the Fuji main shrine – Minamoto Shikibu no Jō Nobukuni – the best masterwork of his life – on a day of the second month in the 24th year of (1417)“. With the „Fuji main shrine“ the Fujisan-Hongū- Sengen-taisha (富士山本宮 浅間大社, Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture) is meant. Therefore the blade bears also the nickname „Sengen-maru“ (浅間丸) or „Asama-maru“ respectively („Asama“ is the Japanese reading of the characters „Sengen“). For unknown reasons the sword went out of the shrine later but was rediscovered and offered once again to the same shrine by Takeda Shingen in the 16th year of Tenbun (天文, 1547).

– 128 – 22. Detective work on the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune

There is a sword from the former possession of the Satake family (佐竹) – since the beginning of the Edo period daimyō of the Akita fief (秋田藩, present-day Akita Prefecture – called „Tenkyūwari- Kunimune“ (典厩割り国宗, lit. „Tenkyū Cutter/Slayer/Splitter Kuni- mune“) about which the records are divided and contradictory since the en of the Sengoku period. Quite late – unfortunately there are no details known but it was surely after the Meiji Restoration – a Satake daughter of the married and the sword went as dowry to another family. It was rediscovered in 1982 when it was submitted to the NBTHK for a designation as „jūyō“*78 which was granted. The earliest modern mentioning of the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune goes back to baron Matsudaira Yorihira (松平頼平) who published the backgrounds of the sword in 1904 in issue 47 of the sword magazine „Tōkenkai-shi“ (刀剣会誌) as follows: „When Uesugi Kenshin fought in the third month of Eiroku seven (永禄, 1564) against Hōjō Ujiyasu, Satake Yoshishige (佐竹義重, 1547-1612) came for his help. Out of gratitude he granted him with a 3 shaku 3 sun (~ 100 cm) measuring tachi of Bizen Saburō Kunimune (備前三郎国宗) with which he had once killed Tenkyū Nobushige (典厩信繁) at the Battle of Kawanakajima. This was the background of the nickname ´Tenkyūwari´. But the blade was shortened to 2 shaku 3 sun (~ 69,8 cm) and was later mounted into a tachi-koshirae with golden fittings.“

*78 The „Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords“ (Nippon-Bijutsu-Tōken-Hozon-Kyōkai, short NBTHK, 日本美術刀剣保存協会) issues authentifications on sword blades which are divided into four grades: worthy of preservation (hozon, 保存), especially worthy of preservation (tokubetsu-hozon, 特別保存), important (jūyō, 重要), and very important (tokubetsu-jūyō, 特別重要).

– 129 – When the armor expert and present-day head of the Ii Museum (Ii- Bijutsukan, 井伊美術館), Tatsuo (中村達夫),*79 dealt with the entire report of Yorihira, he stumbled across some inconsistencies. This chapter now bases on the award-winning article published by Nakamura in 1993 after he finished his investigations.*80 But what about the historical background to Yorihira´s note? In the fourth year of Eiroku (1561), Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen faced the fourth and next to last time at the Battle of Kawanakajima (川中島). In this battle, Shingen´s younger brother Takeda Nobushige (武田信繁, 1525-1561) lost his life. „Tenkyū“ (典厩, head groom) is the Chinese equivalent to Nobushige´s honorary title (左馬助, head groom to the left). So far so consistent but what differs are the records about Nobushige´s death. The war chronicle to the five Battles of Kawanakajima („Kawanaka-jima-gokado-kassen-ki“, 河中島五箇度合 戦記) which was published in the tenth year of Keichō (慶長, 1605) says that Kenshin had pushed away Nobushige towards the riverbank of the Chikumagawa (千曲川), attacking him with a sword of Nagamitsu (長光). Nobushige was not able parry and Kenshin severed his left leg at the thigh, whereupon he felt from his horse and broke his neck. The chronicle „Hokuetsu-gundan“ (北越軍談) written in Genroku eleven (元禄, 1698) by Mashima Akitake (槙島昭武) on the other hand notes that Kenshin attacked from his horse an unmounted Nobushige whose helmet was split whereas the sword got its nickname „Tenkyū Splitter“. By the way, the „Hokuetsu-gundan“ is the only historical source which draws a cnnection between Nobushige´s death and the name „Tenkyūwari“

*79 He was adopted in 2005 by the then head of the Ii family and bears today the name Ii Tatsuo. *80 „Meibutsu-tōken ni okeru denshō no hakkutsu to kōsatsu – Tenkyūwari-Kunimune no baai“ (名物刀剣における伝承の発掘と考察 典厩割国宗の場合, „Discoveries and Considerations on the History of Famous Swords Demonstrated on the Concrete Example of the Tenkyūwari- Kunimune“)

– 130 – The works „Uesugi Kenshin mōshi-jō“ (上杉謙信申状, „Speeches of Uesugi Kenshin“), „Ansai-zuihitsu“ (安斎随筆),*81 and „Bu´in- sōwa“ (武隠叢話)*82 say that Kenshin´s retainer Murakami Yoshikiyo (村上義清, 1501-1573) was the one who killed Takeda Nobushige. Allow me now to jump to the records of the Satake family: Tomura Yoshikuni (戸村義国, 1591-1670), a retainer of Satake Yoshinobu, drew up a report on the provenance of the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune called „Tenkyūwari go-yuisho“ (典厩割御由緒). This report dates earlier than the earliest references of the Uesugi family to this subject. Interestingly, it is written again that Kenshin faces the Takeda at the fourth Battle of Kawanakajima, but that it was not Kenshin himself who killed Nobushige but that he destroyed his army, and that the sword he wore at that time was a blade by Bizen Saburō Kunimune. And further, the nickname of this sword „Tenkyū Destroyer“ originating from this victory must not to be taken in literal sense.*83 This entry does not preclude that Murakami Yoshikiyo had killed Takeda Nobushige. The cause for many misunderstandings or rather for confusion about the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune is mainly Matsudaira Yorihisa´s article from the Meiji period, because there were no fightings between Kenshin and Hōjō Ujiyasu in the seventh year of Eiroku. And when the latter went into battle against Satomi Yoshihiro (里見義弘, 1530-1578) at Konōdai (国府台) in Shimotsuke province in that year, Satake Yoshishige was not participating. That means he must had received the blade of Kunimune at another point in time.

*81 „Literary Notes of Ansai“. „Ansai“ (安斎) was the pseudonym of Ise Sadatake (1717-1784), an expert for military-aristocratic etiquette (buke-kojitsu, 武家故実). *82 A work of Kunieda Seiken (国枝清軒) about different military activities and anecdotes of Sengoku-period bushi. It covers the time from the first year Daiei (大永, 1521) the the 14th year of (天正, 1586). *83 The verb „waru“ (割る) means not only „split, divide“ but also „destroy“.

– 131 – But we can also explain the entry about the Nagamitsu blade because chronicles on the Battles of Kawanakajima prove that Kenshin had changed his sword several times. Thus he wore in a chronological order a 3 shaku (~ 90,9 cm) measuring blade of Naminohira Yukiyasu, a 2 shaku 7 sun (~ 81,8 cm) long blade of the Yamato smith Kaneyuki (包行), and the Nagamitsu, which had a nagasa of 2 shaku 5 sun (~ 75,5 cm), according to the transmission. To sum up: Uesugi Kenshin wore at the fourth Battle of Kawanaka- jima among others a blade of Bizen Saburō Kunimune, namely at the time when he destroyed the troops of Takeda Shingen´s younger brother Tenkyū Nobushige. One of the chroniclers to the „Kawanakajima-gokado-kassen-ki“ mixed that up with a blade by Nagamitsu and took the „destruction“ of Nobushige literal and attributed it to Kenshin instead of Murakami Yoshikiyo. The „Hokuetsu-gundan“ which was published more then ninety years later played some Chinese-whisper and modified this description to the story that Kenshin splittet Nobushige´s helmet with the blade and that it got its nickname from that incident. However, it is unknown when the blade went from Kenshin to Satake Yoshishige. Well, an oshigata in Hon´ami Kōetsu´s „Hon´ami Kōetsu-oshigata“ (本阿弥光悦押形, see picture 45) from the eighth year of Keichō (1603) caused confusion too. The explanation and the signature of the depicted blade reads as follows:

Tenkyū-wari – Uesugi-dono yori (てんくう己里 上杉とのより) Hasebe Kunishige (長谷部国重) Eiroku gannen jūnigatsu itsuka – Uesugi Nyūdō Kenshin shoji (永禄元年十二月五日 上杉入道謙信所持)

Tenkyū-Splitter – [from the possession] of Lord Uesugi Hasebe Kunishige Fifth day of the twelfth month Eiroku 1 (1558) – owner Uesugi Nyūdō Kenshin

– 132 –

Picture 45: Depiction from the „Hon´ami Kōetsu-oshigata“

The length of the blade is not given. It shows magnificent carvings in the form of a broad groove with a so-called „ukibori“ (浮き彫り) relief which is flat with the blade, two additional, parallel grooves called „gomabashi“ (護摩箸) and a Sanskrit character (bonji, 梵字). On the backside we see carvings of a stylized dragon winding around a sword (kenmaki-ryū, 剣巻き龍). The blade itself is on one side in shinogi-zukuri and on the other side in kiriba-zukuri. „Problematic“ is the signature because Uesugi Kenshin adopted the priest name „Kenshin“ only in the twelfth month of the first year of Genki (元亀, 1570).*81 That means the signature mentioning the first year of Genroku is obviously a forgery.

*81 His actual name was „Kagetora“ (景虎).

– 133 – Yoshishige´s son Yoshinobu, , and Uesugi Kagekatsu once participated in a tea ceremony held by the Tokugawa- shōgun Hidetada on the 14th day of the tenth month Genna seven (元和, 1621) in Edo. It was talked about this and that before and after the ceremony but Kagekatsu and Yoshinobu got into an argument about which family own the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune. The last battle, the Siege of Ōsaka, took place not long ago but nobody knew that this – except the Shimabara Rebellion*82 – should be the last bigger action for two- hundred years. That means the ownership of a certain sword could stand at that time for the legitimacy of a succession, the proof for the existence of an alliance or family allegiance, and so none of the two was able to wave aside this dispute so easily. But could it be that just Hon´ami Kōetsu mixed up the blade, calling a Hasebe Kunishige with a fake signature of provenance „Tenkyūwari“, with the result that Kagekatsu – owning this sword – thought later that must be THE Tenkyūwari? Incidentally, in the official family register of the bakufu („Kansei-chōshū-shokafu“, 寛政重修諸家譜) which was already introduced in chapter 16, we find at the later part of the genealogy of the Satake family an entry which might allude to the dispute about the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune. The entry in question reads: „Cause for the grudge against the family of Kagekatsu is a false claim which is clearly an offence.“ Questions upon questions. However, the Hasebe Kunishige was later until Word War II in the possession of the viscount family Ōseki (大関), the former lords of the Kurobane fief (黒羽藩) in Shimotsuke province. Thereafter the tracks of the sword are lost. But there is another anecdote known about the Tenkyūwari- Kunimune. Satake Yoshishige was made lord of Hitachi´s Ōta Castle (太田城) ten years before the Battle of Sekigahara. On a humid summer evening he decided to sleep in a watchtower of the castle which was close to a pond and therefore a little cooler.

*82 Shimabara no ran (島原の乱, 1637-1638). An uprising of local peasants against the high tax burden of the region of Shimabara (Kyūshū).

– 134 – He set up his „night lodging“ in the second floor whereas his servants slept one story below. Around the witching hour they were awakened by a loud scream and rushed to the second floor to check that everything is in order. They asked: „Mylord, what was that?“, but Yoshishige was still sleeping and had to be waken up. „We heard a loud scream“, they explained, but Yoshishige replied: „Oh, that must had been me! I dreamed that a giant snake came crawling from the pond trying to get me, and so I drew my Kunimune and chased her away.“ When they looked at the sword they jumped with fright because it leaned fully drawn at the window aperture. On this incident the Tenkyūwari got its second nickname „Yumegiri-Kunimune“ (夢切り国宗, lit. „Dream Cutter Kunimune“). One of the servants, Kataoka Sanuki (片岡讃岐), told this story his son Shishirō (七郎), and when Shishirō´s younger brother Nasojirō (七十二郎) heard of it, he reported it to the Satake retainer Kurozawa Fuboku Motoshige (黒沢浮木元重), who wrote it down in his book „Fuboku-oboegaki“ (浮木覚書, „Fuboku´s Notes“). Later when the Tenkyūwari-Kunimune was handed-down from Satake Yoshishige to Yoshinobu, it was shortened to the present-day 2 shaku 3 sun (~ 69,8 cm) by the latter without consulting his father. When Yoshishige asked to look at the sword some time later, the shortening came to light and he sayed to his son that now the soul of the sword is lost…

Picture 46: Tenkyūwari-Kunimune, mumei, nagasa 69,8 cm, sori 1,9 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori- mune, ō-suriage, chū-kissaki

– 135 – 23. The Heshikiri-Hasebe

One of the swords of the last chapter was a Hasebe Kunishige. The swordsmith Kunishige was active around the Kenmu era (建武, 1334- 1338) and came originally from Yamato province but went to Kamakura to study under Shintōgo Kunimitsu and Masamune. As we have learned in chapter ten, he became then one of the „Ten Students of Masamune“, and eventually settled in Inokuma (猪熊) in Kyōto. His most famous and best work is the kokuhō blade „Heshikiri-Hasebe“ (圧し切り長谷部), once the favorite sword of Oda Nobunaga. One day Kannai (観内), his page for the tea ceremony (cha-bōzu, 茶坊主), insulted him and Nobunaga attempted to kill him with his sword. Kannai tried to escape and hid under a cupboard. His lord drew the sword in question and cut completely through the board without raising his arm, just with the weight (heshi, 圧し) of the blade itself. Thereupon he called it „Heshikiri-Hasebe“ which means about „the powerful cutter Hasebe“. According to the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“, the blade went then from Nobunaga to Hideyoshi and from the latter to Kuroda Nagamasa (黒田長政, 1568-1623), but this history of the sword is wrong. In the chronicles of the Kuroda family we read that Nobunaga imprisoned the traitor (荒木村重, 1535-1586) in Tenshō seven (天正, 1579), and mistakenly assumed, that also his Nagamasa´s father (黒田孝高, 1546-1604) was involved. He took hostage Yoshitaka´s son Nagamasa – then called Kichibei (吉兵衛) – and ordered his execution. The complot could be clarified and Nagamasa escaped the execution by a hair´s breadth. As compensation for the „mistake“, Nobunaga presented the Heshikiri-Hasebe to Kuroda Yoshitaka. That means Hideyoshi was not involved as it was stated by the „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“.

– 136 – This blade too was later shortened and bears now a gold-inlayed attribution of Hon´ami Kōtoku (本阿弥光徳, 1553-1619) which reads: „Hasebe Kunishige Hon´a [kaō] – Kuroda Chikuzen no Kami“ (長谷部国重 本阿 黒田筑前守). That means, this kinzōgan-mei must had been added after the Battle of Sekigahara because Yoshitaka beared before the title „Kai no Kami“ (甲斐守).*83

Picture 46: kokuhō Heshikiri-Hasebe, kinzōgan-mei: „Hasebe Kunishige Hon´a [kaō] – Kuroda Chikuzen no Kami“, nagasa 64,8 cm, sori 0,9 cm, shinogi-zukuri, iori-mune, broad mihaba, shallow sori, ō-kissaki, thin kasane, ō-suriage

Noteworthy is also the mounting of the Heshikiri-Hasebe (see picture 47). The scabbard (saya, 鞘) is covered on the lower two thirds with a very evenly noduled, gilded rayskin (same, 鮫), an interpretation which is called „kin-arare“ (金霰, lit. „gold hail“). The hilt is covered with a red lacquered same and wrapped with brown leather. The pommel (kashira, 頭) is of gold and shows carvings of waves. The iron tsuba is a work of one of the most famous tsuba artists ever, Nobuie (信家), and bears his signature. The hilt collar (fuchi, 縁) bears the signature Ichijōsai Mōri Mitsunori“ (一乗斉毛利光則). Mitsunori was active around Bunka (文化, 1804-1818) and (文政, 1818-1830), and this is also the production time of the entire mounting.

*83 Yoshitaka is often only referred to with his priest name „Josui“ (如水). He once convered around Tenshō eleven and thirteen (1583-1585) to Christianity. His Christian name was „Don Simeão“ (jap. Don Shimeon, ドン・シメオン). When Hideyoshi ordered shortly later in Tenshō 15 (1587) the expulsion of all missionaries and ordered all his samurai renounce their new belief, Yoshitaka entered Buddhist priesthood and called himself „Josui“.

– 137 – Interestingly, this koshirae is an exact copy of another mounting which was also in the possession of Kuroda Yoshitaka (see picture 47). The mounting belongs to a blade called „Ataki-kiri“ (安宅切) with which Yoshitaka killed Ataki Takayasu (安宅貴康, ?-1581) in the course of Hideyoshi´s attack an Yura Castle (由良城) on the island of Awaji (淡路) in Tenshō nine (1581). The blade itself (see picture 48) is not a masterwork but comes from the manufactory of Bizen Sukesada (祐定) which produced blades in great quantities (so-called „kazuuchi- mono“, 数打ち物) during the unstable Sengoku period. That means it was a sheer war sword for Yoshitaka, the splendid mounting was made only after the glorious victory over. That the mounting was made later than the actual battle is also confirmed by the signature of the blade collar (habaki, 鎺) which reads „Koban Myōju“ (小判明寿). The signature namely goes back to the famous swordsmith and tsuba artist Umetada Myōju (埋忠明寿, 1558-1631), who used the name „Myōju“ not before the third year of Keichō (1598). Before he was called „Muneyoshi“ (宗吉). The mounting and the blade are designated jūyō- bunkazai.

Picture 47: Mounting of the Ataki-kiri above, those of the Heshikiri-Hasebe at the bottom. Except for the tsuba, the copy is very close to the original.

Picture 47: meibutsu Ataki-kiri, mei: siehe Text, nagasa 61,2 cm, sori 2,4 cm, shinogi-zukuri, maru-mune, strong sakizori, chū-kissaki, ubu-nakago

– 138 – The signature of the blade reads „Bishū Osafune Sukesada – Eishō yonnen hachigatsu-hi“ (備州長船祐定 永正二二年八月日, „a day in the eighth month of the fourth year of Eishō [1524]“). The nickname and the way Yoshitaka killed Takayasu were later added in gold: „Ataki-kiri wakige otoshi“ (あたき切脇毛落, „Ataki-kiri – straight through the armpit“). Both swords, the Heshikiri-Hasebe and the Ataki- kiri, are today preserved in the Fukuoka Municipal Museum. Let´s go back briefly to the Heshikiri-Hasebe, because the blade is a good example about the influence of Masamune on his students and later generations of swordsmiths. Picture 48 shows three blades, atop the Heshikiri-Hasebe, in the middle a work of Masamune, and at the bottom a blade of Horikawa Kunihiro (堀川国広). The upper two blades were largely shortened (ō-suriage). The Heshikiri-Hasebe measures in its nagasa 64,8 cm, the Masamune only 57,5 cm, and the blade of Kunihiro 65,8 cm. Please note the large tip which is typical for the Nanbokuchō period, along with a thin kasane, a broad cutting plane in comparison to the overall width (mihaba), only a little tapering, and a shallow sori. Simply stated, this robust blade shape developed after the second invasion of the Mongols in 1288 and the changes in warfare. Most of the original blades measures more than 75 cm but were later shortened to katana length. It is of interest that swordsmiths of the late Momoyama period copied these Nanbokuchō-period swords, but in their already shortened condition.

Picture 48: Three blades compared to each other.

– 139 – This is related to the fact that many of the Momoyama- and early Edo-period daimyō and sword owners ordered a shorting, at the one hand to correspond to the then „sword fashion“, and at the other hand to meet the requirements of the newly issued length specifications for swords. Most of those ō-suriage shortenings were carried out throughout the Keichō era (慶長, 1596-1615) by the families of the Hon´ami or Umetada – at least when it comes to first-class blades. As mentioned in footnote 65 (chapter 18), this period meant also the transition from the „Old Sword“ (kotō, 古刀) to the „New Sword“. And smiths like Kunihiro tended to follow the then market condition: In demand were broad blades in Nanbokuchō style with a moderate length to mount them as katana.

24. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak...

Towards the end of chapter 3 we have lerned that the Seki master- smith Kanesada (兼定) was famous for his excellent copies. The most outstanding representative of the Kanesada family or school respectively was the second generation who worked around Eishō (永正, 1504-1521), beared the honorary title „Izumi no Kami“ (和泉守), and who signed the lower part of the character for „Sada“ (定) like the character for „No“ (之) on the basis of which he is referred to as „No-Sada“. The third generation Kanesada, who worked in the Tenbun era (天文, 1532-1555), beared also the honorary title „Izumi no Kami“, but he signed the lower part of „Sada“ like the character for „Hiki“ (疋) so that he is known as „Hiki-Sada“.

– 140 – Hiki-Sada, who was selected as the successor of the Seki-Kanesada lineage, was the adopted son of No-Sada. No-Sada´s bodily son Magoshirō Kanesada (孫四郎兼定) was a swordsmith too and this chapter deals now with him. No-Sada was a deeply religious man who even published a sutra at his own expense, but more about that later. Magoshirō worshipped Akashagarbha (jap. Kokūzō, 虚空蔵), the Bodhisattva of „boundless space treasure“, because his blessing and wisdom is as unlimited as the universe. Some depict him with a sword in his right hand, quite like Bodhisattva Monju from chapter 5. In Japan the so-called „jūsan-mairi“ (十三参り, lit. „temple visit of the thirteen“) was practiced at the 13th day of the third lunar month.*84 At this visit, Kokūzō is asked for wisdom, luck, and prosperity for all children having reached the age of 13. Now we can speculate that such a jūsan-mairi – or maybe the sword in the hand of a Kokūzō statue – had such an impression on Magoshirō Kanesada that he devoted his life as a smith to this deity. However, Magoshirō went around the country as a pilgrim, to pray at the temples which are dedicated to Kokūzō or where a statue of Kokūzō was erected. One day he came to the village of Yanaizu (柳津, present-day Ibaraki Prefecture) close to Kurokawa Castle (黒川城)*85 in northern Mutsu province. People said that the „Yanaizu-Kokūzō“ statue had caused some miracles in the past. Lord of the castle and the adjacent lands was Ashina Moriuji (蘆名盛氏, 1521-1580) who was a clever strategist but who had the problem that not a single swordsmith lived in the lands controlled by him. Desperately he forwarded an order to each and every hostel: „It must be reported without delay if there is a swordsmith among the travellers!“ Of course Kanesada didn´t know anything of this order when he entered the hostel at Bange (坂下) about twelve kilometres away from Kurokawa Castle one evening .

*84 Nowadays this ritual or festival is held on April 13th. *85 The later Aizu-Wakamatsu Castle (会津若松城).

– 141 – The landlord asked Kanesada: „Please give me your name and your address.“ After doing so the landlord asked him again: „Oh, you are from Seki! There are many swordsmiths in Seki, aren´t they?“, and Kanesada replied: „Yes, and I am one of them…“ At the next morning Kanesada put on new straw sandals to visit the Yanaizu-Kokūzō. The temple complex of the Enzō-ji (円蔵寺) to which the statue hall belonged covered a range of hills at the bluff of River Tadami (只見川). According to legend, the temple was erected in the second year of Jahr Daidō (大同, 807) by the famous monk Mönch Kūkai (空海, 774-835),*86 and also the 54,5 cm high statue of Kokūzō is attributed to him. Large parts of the complex were destroyed by a flood in the third year of Genna (元和, 1617) and the buildings extant today go back to a rebuilding of the Rinzai sct in Kan´ei four (寛永, 1627). After his prayers in front of the statue and a tour of the temple complex, Kanesada returned to Bange two days later. It was already evening and so the smith relaxed with a cup of tea in the bathroom of the hostel. Shortly later the landlord came in and made an important announcement: „Mr. Magoshirō, unfortunately I am not allowed to let you depart tomorrow because my Lord´s envoy comes from the castle to talk to you. So I apologize and ask you to stay until he arrives.“ That means the landlord had made his report as was ordered by him whilst Kanesada was visiting the temple. Well, Kanesada was not in a hurry but after asking the landlord about the backgrounds, he told him that he didn´t plan to settle down in this area of harsh winters and masses of snow as high as a house. Ashina Moriuji´s envoy came the next day and submitted him an offer but Kanesada rejected. „If this is the case, I ask you to stay once more a little longer as long as I have forwarded your answer to my Lord“, he said and returned to Kurokawa Castle. But Moriuji secretly looked forward to a cooperation with the smith from the famous Kanesada lineage and so he sent his envoy day after day.

*86 Better known under his posthumous title „Kōbō Daishi“ (弘法大師). He was the founder of Japanese Shingon school of Buddhism.

– 142 – This back and forth developed into a kind of ordeal and so Moriuji had the idea to send his most beautiful lady-in-waiting instead of the envoy, to convince the smith with her „arguments“. Sooner said than done a sedan arrived at the hostel and a gorgeous young woman went to the room of Magoshirō Kanesada. He listened to her speech and because he never saw such a beautiful woman in his home country Mino, he was swept away and finally agreed. And so it came that a branch of the Seki-Kanesada lineage worked for over 13 generations and under different lords in the distant province of Mutsu (the later Iwashiro, 岩代) until the end of the Edo period. So when one come across a sword which is not signed „Nōshū Seki-jū Kanesada“ (濃州関住兼定, „Kanesada, resident of Seki in Mino province) as usual but „Ōshū-jū Kanesada“ (奥州住兼定, „Kanesada, resident in Mutsu province“), he should remember this small anecdote and the backgrounds of Kanesada´s moving to the north of Japan. As mentioned at the beginning, Magoshirō´s father No-Sada once published a sutra. Unfortunately it is not handed down which generation initiated this publishing but on the basis of the inscription „Nōshū Seki Kanesada“ (濃州関兼定) and the date „Eishō-gan kinoe- ne kugatsu-hi“ (永正元甲子九月日, „a day in the ninth month of the first year of Eishō [1504], year of the rat“, see picture 46 at the right and left side of the ornamental box to the left, marked with three dots each), it is likely that it goes back to No-Sada. The sutra itself is the so- called „Kannon-Sutra“ (観音経),*87 or rather actually the 25th chapter of the Lotos-Sutra (Hokke-kyō, 法華経 or Myōhōrenge-kyō, 妙法蓮華経). Several such sutra were published in 15th century Mino because book printing flourished under the economic upturn of the reign of the Toki (土岐) and Saitō (斎藤) families. They were used at Buddhist funeral masses but only very few are extant of which also the exact circumstances of their publication are known.

*87 This chapter, with full name „Kanze´on-bosatsu fumon-bon“ (観世音菩薩普門品), deals with the various transformations and miraculous powers of Avalōkiteshvara (jap. Kannon, 観音 or Kanze´on, 観世音), the Bodhisattva of mercy.

– 143 – For example we know a Lotos-Sutra printed in the ninth year of Meiō (明応, 1500) on the occasion of the funeral mass to the 57th day after the death of a certain Ji´un (慈雲),*88 or the „Hokke-jūryō-hon“ (法華寿量品, the 16th chapter of the Lotos-Sutra) printed in Eishō eight (1511) for the funeral service of Saitō Toshitsune (斎藤利常). So it is very likely that Kanesada´s publication of a sutra was preceded by a certain death. When we bear in mind that swordsmith of that time – of course exception of a few – led a life in poor conditions, a publication of such a voluminous and elaborately sutra is quite astonishing. Well, after receiving the honorary title of „Izumi no Kami“ in the early Eishō era Kanesada was of course in a better financial situation, and it is even transmitted that he was then called „Senryō-Kanesada“ (千両兼定), „the Kanesada with the 1.000 ryō“.

Picture 49: Last page of Kanesada´s Kannon-Sutra.

*88 This is a Buddhist name for a dead person (inden-gō, 院殿号). Because there were several persons who received the name „Ji´un“ as their posthumous name we can´t say for whom this sutra was printed.

– 144 –

Picture 50: The text of this sutra is decorated with gorgeous illustrations.

But we can assume that the sutra in question was published before that time because after receiving the title, it would surely be mentioned in the box in picture 49. When we now allow our imagination to run free, we could assume that the sutra was published on the death of No- Sada´s adoptive father, the first generation Kanesada, who worked in the Bunmei era (文明, 1469-1487). The sutra of Kanesada is nowadays preserved in the British Library. It was once brought along by the diplomat Ernest Mason Satow (1843- 1929) who made important contributions to the British-Japanese relationship during the Meiji era. Satow spoke Japanese, worked as translator and interpreter, and owned a library of classical Japanese literatiry containing more than 2.600 books. 320 of these books went later in the possession of the British Library – among Kanesada´s sutra – and 380 to the university library of Cambridge.

– 145 – 25. The legendary sharpness of Kotetsu´s blades

In chapter 19 we have learned that Magoroku Kanemoto´s blades are rated as saijō-ō-wazamono, that means they were extremely sharp. In the same category are blades by No-Sada*89 from the last chapter. Another saijō-ō-wazamono smith was Nagasone Okisato (長曽祢 興里), better known under his Buddhist priest name „Kotetsu“ (虎徹, 1605~1678). Throughout his career he used different characters for the name „Kotetsu“, the earliest of which were (古鉄) – lit. „old iron“ – because he was very skillful in processing old iron for his steel. Later, around the second or third year of (万治, 1659-60), he changed the writing to a combination of the characters for „tiger“ (ko, 虎 or 乕) and „piercing, penetrating“ (tetsu, 徹). This writing goes back to a Chinese legend where once the mother of a man called Lî Gûang (李廣, jap. Ri Kō, ?-119 BC) was killed by a tiger. Lî Gûang wanted to revenge his mother and set out to the forests and mountains armed with bow and arrow. He was eventually able to catch sight of the tiger, drew his bow, and shot with confidence. But when he slowly creeped up to a few metres he realized that the tiger „had vanished“ and that he pierced (tetsu, 徹) a large rock with his arrow. The moral of the story is that Kotetsu was inspired by this legend, choosing the above mentioned characters because he was convinced that you can achieve anything if you try with all your heart and soul. Kotetsu was actually an armourer (katchū-shi, 甲冑師) from (福井) in Echizen province but went at the mature age of fifty to Edo to begin an apprenticeship as swordsmith under Kazusa no Suke Kaneshige (上総介兼重). The exact backgrounds for this are unknown but it is assumed that he had to change his profession because the demand for strongly declined in the peaceful Edo period. But maybe he was just looking for a new challenge in life in the boomtown Edo.

*89 In some copies of the „Kaihō-kenshaku“ he is „only“ ranked ō-wazamono.

– 146 – However, with his experience as an armourer and in the treatment of iron and steel, he made great strides as a swordsmith and soon his blades enjoyed a good reputation as being very sharp, even far beyond Edo´s borders. Towards the end of his career – adverstising was not longer necessary of course – he was visited by the young hatamoto Kugai Masakata (久貝正方, 1651-1719) in his forge. At that time, it is the Kanbun era (寛文, 1661-1673), very straight and hardly tapering blades with small tip were in fashion. The young Masakata had seen illustrious samurai walking through the streets of Edo with such swords and so he wanted to emulate them and have him a so-called „Kanbun- Shintō“ sword (寛文新刀) forged. Kotetsu accepted the order and went some time later to the Kugai residence in Edo´s Ichigaya-Kaga district (市谷加賀) to deliver the sword. Masakata drew the blade slow and carefully and examined it a with stretched out right arm as it was the sword etiquette. Fashion or not, he was totally unpleased with the shape and was concerned if such a blade could cut effectively at all. The young hatamoto was not embarassed and asked Kotetsu bluntly if the sword it sharp. The old smith was visibly annoyed that somebody dared to doubt the sharpness of his blades and so he grabbed the sword and left the house trampingly. He stopped in front of an old pine and raised the sword to an overhead position (daijōdan no kamae, 大上段の構え). With a loud combat cry he cutted down on a very thick branch of the pine. The branch was severed neatly and felt down on the ground, accompanied by a heavy noise. This noise was one half of the upper- most part of a ishidōrō stone lantern which was chopped by the sword too! „Gosh!“, said Masakata who hurried after Kotetsu to the garden. Somewhat sheepish he said: „This should be my main sword for all time.“ Kotetsu replied sarcastically whilst returning the sword: „Well, I can´t deliver you a sword of whose sharpness I am not convinced…“ Some see in this story another proof for the stubbornness of Kotetsu who was described as „being difficult“, but other see in this anecdote a try Masakata´s to subsequently haggle the cost down by criticizing the shape or the sharpness of the blade.

– 147 – The blade in question came late into the possession of the Hosokawa family who had it slightly shortened from 2 shaku 3 sun (~ 69,7 cm) to the present-day 2 shaku 1 sun 2 bu (~ 64,2 cm). On this occasion, also the nickname of the blade – „Ishidōrō-kiri“ (石灯籠切, lit. „Stone Lantern Cutter/Splitter“) – was engraved on the tang (see picture 51).

Abb.51: Tang of the Ishidōrō-kiri, mei: „Nagasone Okisato Nyūdō Kotetsu – Ishidōrō-kiri“ (長曽祢 興里入道乕徹 石灯籠切).

One way to ascertain the sharpness of a blade are the often mentioned cutting tests, the so-called „“ (試し斬り). At such a tameshigiri, one or more bodies of executed criminals – sometimes it was carried out also on living, death sentenced criminals – were placed to special standardized position to get „objective“ results under standardized conditions. The result of such a cutting test was often inlayed in gold on the tang of the sword. Such an inlay is called „tameshi-mei“ (試し銘) or „saidan-mei“ (裁断銘, lit. „cutting signature“). Tameshigiri were performed on different places and under different conditions and so also the tameshi-mei could be quite varied. But there was an official sword-testing department set up by the bakufu which was mostly held by the families of the Yamada (山田) and Yamano (山野). Regarding Kotetsu, there was a close relationship between him, his then „employer“, the Nukada fief (額田藩, Hitachi province), and the Yamano sword testers Ka´emon Nagahisa (山野加右衛門永久, 1597- 1667), Kanjūrō Narihisa (勘十郎成久, and Kanjūrō Hisahide (勘十郎久英, 1604-1694). Accordingly we find many tameshi-mei on

– 148 – blades of Kotetsu from that time, i.e. the Kanbun era. Although a smith of course benefited from such an „official evidence“ of the sharpness or cutting ability of his blades, they were mostly performed not by order on the smith himself but by the owner of the blade. In addition, the entire whole procedure of a cutting test including a gold-inlayed tameshi-giri was not cheap and costed about 10 ryō. For comparison, the smith Inoue Shinkai (井上真改) took 11 ¼ ryō for a , Tsuda Sukehiro (津田助広) took 7 ½ ryō, etc., that means the price of the cutting test was about as high as the price of the blade itself!

26. Sword prices and income samurai

In the final chapter I want to take a closer look to the financial value of a sword compared to the income of a samurai. To understand the financial situation of a samurai during the Edo period, we first have to go into the contemporary salary, i.e., the form of his income, and the precise circumstances with which he was confronted. The following discussion is based on data for a samurai with the function and rank of hatamoto (旗本) the so-called „bannermen“, because it is for this group that the most detailed records exist. The adminstration of the Tokugawa bakufu consisted basically of three ranks of hereditary vassals to the Tokugawa family : the high- ranking fudai (普代), the above-mentioned hatamoto, and the group known as (御家人), the so-called „housemen“ of the shōgun. The fudai were strictly speaking daimyō (hence also the term fudai- daimyō, 普代大名) who had been on the side of Tokugawa Ieyasu before the Battle of Sekigahara, and who therefore received strategically important fiefs as well as high political posts. The gokenin carried out most of the basic adminstrative functions of the bakufu and

– 149 – also formed the base of the standing army. The hatamoto ranked somewhere in between, depending on their income and the importance of their family origin, and held managerial posts and controlling functions. The income of a hatamoto consisted of his „basic salary“ (hondaka 本高 or kokudaka, 石高) plus an increase (yakudaka, 役高) depending on his office or rank. The basic salary was received either through the grant of a fief (chigyō, 知行). From those rice yields he had to pay a tax of 65 koku per 100 koku to the bakufu – or through an indirect payment of rice (kirimai, 切米). Mostly, additional stipends (fuchi, 扶持) were paid, which were equivalent to maintenance costs for one or more obligatory retainers.*90 By definition the office hatamoto meant a financial scale of 100 to 10.000 koku income a year. The great majority were somewhere between 500 and 1.000 koku.*91 Those figures are rather meaningless for the real income of a hatamoto, because his entire salary, and in most cases more, was used up on his duties within the military government. That is he had to buy and maintain men at arms, horses, equipment.*92 The real income, that is what the samurai or hatamoto had at the end of the day, depended constantly on the prevailing price of rice. Essentially he received his basic salary in rice, whether through the grant of a fief or as a direct payment in rice from the bakufu.

*90 One fuchi was equivalent to 1,8 koku of rice because the basis of this figure constituted the assumption that an average person needed five portions of rice per day. One rice portion was equivalent to one gō (合, 0,18 l = 1/10 koku), so 360 * 5 = 1.800 gō = 1,8 koku. *91 We know from status records of direct vassals („Gokenin-bungen-chō“, 御家人分限帳) of the second year of (宝永, 1705) that at the beginning of the 18th century, about 5.000 samurai held the rank of hatamoto. Those documents reveal further that of those 5.000 hatamoto, over two thirds had an income of under 400 koku and only about 100 earned 5.000 koku or more. *92 This was strictly regulated and depended on the basic income in koku. For example a hatamoto with 500 koku had 7 permanent non-samurai servants, 2 sword-men, 1 lancer, and 1 archer on standby. That means that when we incorporate the calculations of footnote 1, just 20 koku (1,8 koku * 11 men) were used up for their rations.

– 150 – However, 50 years after the establishment of the Tokugawa bakufu, the government had already transferred the payments almost entirely into cash rather than rice, because in any case the recipient had to pay for the necessities of life in money rather than in rice. As a basis for payment in cash, the bakufu used its own conversion, termed the „posted price“ (harigami-nedan, 張紙値段) which differed from the actual market price. Those hatamoto who earned their income from a fief also had to exchange rice into cash at the „posted price“. Their profit or loss therefore depended strongly on the divergence of the posted from the market price of rice.*93 More money was used up in paying exchange fees to the rice brokers, the fudasashi (札差 ; literally „note exhanger“). All those factors contributed in the end to the bankruptcy of the samurai and the prosperity of the merchants. More money was used up in paying exchange fees to the rice brokers, the fudasashi (札差, literally „note exhanger“). All those factors contributed in the end to the bankruptcy of the samurai and the prosperity of the merchants. In earlier years, the harvested rice was stored in the storage houses of the fiefs (the kura, 蔵, 倉, or 庫) and transported to its final destination along the main roads. Because Japan´s roads were as everybody knows rather bad, it was of course impractical to transport huge amounts of rice all the time from A to B. Therefore, intermediate rice stores emerged along those main roads and soon, rice was transferred between those stores by paperwork. In cities like Ōsaka rice brokers (the aforementioned fudasashi) developed who offered to store rice temporarily in return for a certain amount of money. They issued papers to the samurai which noted the amount of rice which he had stored at the fudasashi´s.

*93 The posted harigami-nedan was posted three times a year, and salaries were also paid three times a year. At first, the bakufu´s posted price was higher than the market price but the more the government was confronted with difficulties, the worse the conversion became, and the less the actual amount payed out to the recipient.

– 151 – The rice brokers on the other hand made use of the old intermediate stores, and soon paper money-like notes circulated. The merchants accepted these notes from the samurai because they could be sure of re- changing them into rice at the broker´s. Basically it can be said that the problem of shortage of money because of the obligatory duties to the bakufu was rife among all classes of samurai. High-ranking hatamoto with an income of from 1.000 to 3.000 koku were the worst affected, because top earners had certain reserves, and on the other hand the duties of the lowest ranks could be neglected. This becomes clear from the records of a samurai of the Chōshū fief (長州) with a basic income of 100 koku. After subtracting the cost of rice for feeding his family and seven obligatory retainers, he was able to change the remaining 17 koku and 4 shō*94 of rice for 915 silver monme.*95 From this amount, 120 monme was used for the rent of his house in Hagi (萩, capital city of the Chōshū fief), 250 for a cook and a man, and the remaining 545 for food and clothes for a half year. If he could not cover the money for the other half through an officially approved second job, he had to borrow. A further example of a higher-paid hatamoto was the Master of Court Nagasawa Motochika. After taxes to the bakufu from his basic income of 1.960 koku and changing the rest of rice into cash, 483 ryō*96 remained. After spending this money for his obligatory duties he had to borrow a further 373 ryō to cover all the expenses of the first year of Shōtoku (正徳, 1711). The first real difficulties faced by the bakufu arose during the Kyōhō period (享保, 1716-1736). At the end of the 17th century, the coin reserves of the bakufu were running short, because the major gold and silver mines were exhausted.

*94 1 shō (升) is 1/10 koku, so 1,8 litres of rice. *95 1 monme (匁) is 3,75 g. *96 1 ryō (両) was the unit for a gold piece of 16,5 g and further, 1 ryō was about equivalent to 1 koku of rice.

– 152 – Added to that, there was a short period of abundance during the Genroku period (元禄, 1688-1704) caused by unusually high prices for rice, and steady prices for consumer goods. This was the administrative outcome of the preceding periods, and it left the hatamoto with a new taste for the finer things of life, but with the same income. As a direct result, the government debased the gold coinage, to increase the amount of money in circulation. During the Edo period, the amount of gold, and later silver, coin was adjusted eight times by recoinage. The first of those recoinages felt exactly within the Genroku period, in the year 1695, and the gold content was lowered from 86% during the early Tokugawa era to 57%. To control the resulting inflation, the gold content was gradually raised at the next and next-but-one recoinages of the Shōtoku and Kyōhō periods in 1714 and 1716 to 84%, and later 86%. Only the fifth recoinage during the Genbun period (元文) in the year 1736 gave some stability to the currency in circulation, although precious metal was rated so highly that its export was strictly forbidden. The next problem of coinage and increased rice production in the course of the bakufu´s economic measures was the now dropping rice price. In order to increase the circulation of more coins, (田沼意次 1719-1788) – rōjū (老中) elder of the tenth Tokugawa shōgun Ieharu (家治 1737-1786, r. 1760-1786) – minted silver in the late 18th century. Initially this was circulated only as small lumps, calculated on the basis of their weight in monme. All the reforms and acute measures taken by the bakufu such as reversion of samurai loans were of no avail. Lenders responded with usurious interest and arbitrary fees, and by the beginning of the Tenpō (天保) period in 1830, Japan´s ruling class was bankrupt. As we have seen, a hatamoto saw himself confronted with obligatory duties which he had to pay for out of his basic income, and which kept him on a short . A fundamental obligation and a mark of his very occupation was the Sword which he carried. I would now like to compare the prices of Swords at the time with the average income of a gokenin or lower ranking retainer of one of the fiefs (hanshi, 藩士), because here, the obligatory duties could be left out.

– 153 – This basic income was about 3 ryō plus a stipend of one fuchi. By the way of illustration, prices are given in terms of copper coins (mon, 文). 1 ryō was equivalent to 4 coin strings (kan, 貫), of which one counted 1.000 copper coins. Therefore the average income was about 12.000 copper coins per year so 1.000 per month. As mentioned in the last chapter, the swordsmith Inoue Shinkai took 11 ¼ ryō, converted into mon, this make 45.000 copper coins – about four times the amount of an average hanshi´s annual basic income! By way of further illustration, I would like to quote some prices of daily life during the Edo period. An overnight stay with board at one of the hostels run by the bakufu cost 200 mon. A simple stay in a private inn ranged from 30 coins in very best cockroach-quality to 70~100 coins for so-to-speak starred hotels. One litre of sake cost about 15 to 20 coins, a river-crossing by ferry about 15 coins, new straw- sandals 25 coins, a massage 50 coins, and a prostitute working in one of the above-mentioned inns from 500 to 600 coins – ie., equivalent to about the half of a monthly wage. Another example: in the fifth year of Genna (元和, 1619) Tamiya Heibei Shigemasa (田宮平兵衛重正), the founder of the Tamiya school of (Tamiya-ryū, 田宮流), ordered a blade by Hizen Tadayoshi (肥前忠吉) who charged the very high amount of 100 kan, so 100.000 copper coins. Thereupon Heibei resigned his post with the Ikeda family (池田) and had to change his employer two to three times. He ended up finally with the wealthy Owari-Tokugawa family. It took him fully four years to raise the sum for his blade! As today, in ordering one could of course made compromises in the raw materials for a Sword (i.e. the amount of tamahagane for the blade construction), as well as in the polishing, or the mountings. But we can safely say that the vast majority of simple hanshi and gokenin wore off- the-peg kazuuchi-mono (数打ち物) and higher-paid hatamoto and daimyō orderd individual chūmon-uchi (注文打ち).

– 154 – To ascertain the financial value of a sword at all, the system of the already mentioned origami (折り紙)*97 was introduced. Already during the times of the Muromachi bakufu the Hon´ami family acted as sword appraisers and polishers for the Ashikaga family, but any judgments or declarations of value which might be issued were rather un- standardized, and in addition were not restricted to the Hon´ami family. Only when Tokugawa Ieyasu created the „Centre for Sword Appraisal“ (tōken-kiwamedokoro 刀剣極所) in the second year of Genna (1616) under the supervision of Kōtoku (光徳), of the ninth generation of the Hon´ami family, which was granted the monopoly to issue Sword appraisals. Generally, appraisals of the first 14 generations may be regarded as reliable, whereas those of the 15th generation Kōjun (光純) fell into the time affeceted by the financial crises of Tanuma Okitsugu, and as a result his origami are also known as „Tanuma origami“ and have to be taken with a grain of salt. Appraisals from this time onwards drifted away from the original sense of declaring a specific value for a blade and were rather made with a focus on business factors. In general the issuing of origami was arranged as follows : every 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 17th, 20th, 24th and last day of the month, the heads of the several Hon´ami branch-families gathered in the mansion of the main family, which was the tōken-kiwamedokoro. Blades were brought and appraised and every third of a month, origami were issued under the supervision of the head of the Hon´ami main family. If there was disagreement over a blade, three further opportunities were given on the third day of the second, seventh, and eleventh month of the year for a re-submittal. This system continued unchanged until the Meiji period.

*97 Literally „folded oru ; 折る paper kami, 紙. Origami were originally urgent notes written on one side of paper which was just folded twice. Later, this form of writing was used for informal letters and communications. Because the Hon´ami as well as the Gotō families wrote their judgments, incorporating declarations of value (kantei-sho 鑑定書, or kiwame, 極め), on such papers, the term „origami“ was applied to their documents.

– 155 – On the origami of the Hon´ami family we find a declaration of value in the form of „dai-kinsu X-mai“ (代金子 X 枚), which means „value, so and so much pieces of kinsu“, whereas one kinsu was equivalent to one ōban (大判). 1 ōban on the other hand was worth – according to inflation – 10 to 7 smaller koban (小判) which had the value of 1 ryō (16,5 g gold). For example an origami with the declaration of 20 kinsu gold-pieces means 200 in terms of ryō which is further 800.000 copper coins. If we call to mind, the average gross income of a hatamoto was about 500 to 1.000 koku, which makes net about 150 to 300 ryō. Hon´ami as well as Gotō origami had a standardized form (see picture 52) which stated on the right outside – at the beginning of the origami – the nominal attribution to a maker, followed by the confirmation of authenticity (shōshin, 正真). Under it came a short description of the blade, then the declaration of value, the date as well as the signature, and the kaō of the appraiser. On the reverse of the origami at the point where the kaō is located, an ink seal (see picture 53) was stamped with the character „Hon“ (本) for „Hon´ami“. The small brass seal which is still in the family was granted to them by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

Picture 52: Hon´ami-origami

Picture 53: ink stamp (koku-in, 黒印) of the Hon´ami family

– 156 – The layout of the Hon´ami origami from picture 52 (from right to left ):

Yamato-Shizu (大和志津) shōshin (正真) nagasa ni-shaku yon-sun ichi-bu-han (長サ貮尺四寸壱分半), „length 2 shaku 4 sun 1,5 bu“ tadashi suriage mumei nari (但磨上無銘也), „shortened and without signature“ dai-kinsu sanjū-mai (代金子参拾枚), „value 30 kinsu“ Kyōhō roku-nen ushi (享保六年丑), „6th year of Kyōhō [1721], year of the ox“ roku-gatsu mikka (六月三日), „3rd day of the sixth month“ Hon´a (本阿) plus kaō

According to the date and the kaō, this origami can be attributed to the 13th generation Hon´ami Kōchū (光忠), who was the head of the Hon´ami main family from the tenth year of Genroku (元禄, 1697) to the tenth year of Kyōhō (享保, 1725).

– 157 – Map of the old provinces

– 158 – Glossary ashigaru (足軽), lit. „lightfeet“; lightly armed footsoldiers bu (分 or 歩), unit, 3,03 mm chū (中), prefix for „middle“ funbari (踏張り), describes a broadening of a blade towards its base gimei (偽銘), fake signature gō (号), „name, nickname, pseudonym“ gyobutsu (御物), Imperial treasure haba (幅 or 巾), width of the blade whereas we differentiate between the width at the base (motohaba, 元幅) and the width at the tip (sakihaba, 先幅) habaki (鎺), blade collar which keeps the sword from falling out of the saya habaki-moto (鎺元), base of the blade, area in front of the habaki hamon (刃文), lit. „blade pattern“, visual effect created on the blade by the hardening process hataraki (働き), activities along or within the hamon determined by the composition of the steel and by how the hardening is carried out ikubi-kissaki (猪首鋒), stocky tip whose length is shorter than the width of the yokote iori-mune (庵棟), pointed back ridge itomaki-tachi (糸巻太刀), tachi whose hilt and upper area of the saya are wrapped jū (住), suffix with the meaning „resident of…“ jūnin (住人), suffix with the meaning „resident of…“ jūyō-bijutsuhin (重要美術品), Important Work of Fine Arts jūyō-bunkazai (重要文化財), Important Cultural Property kaō (花押), seal in the form of a short or stylized signature kasane (重ね), thickness of the blade kawa-zutsumi (皮包み), leather cover or leather wrapping kiji-momo (雉股), lit. „pheasant´s thigh“, tang shape where the blade side dips halfway and remains narrow to the tip of the tang kiri, voiced giri (切 or 斬), lit. „to cut“, in the wider sense also „to kill“ kiriba-zukuri (切刃造), blade shape where the central ridge line is very close to the cutting edge kissaki (鋒 or 切先), tip of a blade ko (小), prefix for „small“

– 159 – kojiri (鐺 or 小尻), butt end of the saya kokuhō (国宝), National Treasure koma-sabi (胡麻錆), pointed rust (see chapter 1) koshirae (拵), generic term for “mounting“ koshizori (腰反), curve with the deepest point towards the base of the blade machi (区), notch which divides the blade from the tang, the noth on the blade side is called ha-machi (刃区) and that on the back side mune-machi (棟区) mamori-gatana (守刀), lit. „protective sword“ (in the sense of a lucky charm) mei (銘), signature meikan (銘鑑), list of swords smiths (and their signatures), compiled according to the focus of the publication mihaba (身幅), see haba mitsu-mune (三ツ棟), three-surfaced mune (棟), back or a blade nagasa (長さ), length of a blade nakago (茎 or 中心), tang niji-mei (二字銘), lit. „two character signature“, signature which consists only of the name of the smith, e.g. „Masamune“ (正宗) nodachi (野太刀), overlong, lit. „field sword“ which was used as distance weapon or for stopping horses ō (大), prefix for „large“ ō-dachi (大太刀), over 3 shaku (~ 90,9 cm) measuring blade oshigata (押形), drawing of a blade where – as good as possible – all of the hataraki, the hamon, the tang, and the signature are captured; such oshigata are used to study the workmanship of swordsmiths and to catalogue blades ō-suriage (大磨上げ), shortening of a blade where all the original tang is lost rin (厘), unit, 0,303 mm sai-ha (再刃), newly applied hardening sakizori (先反), curve with the deepest point towards the tip of the blade saya (鞘), scabbard sayagaki (鞘書), inscription on a shirasaya shaku (尺), unit, 30,3 cm shinogi-zukuri (鎬造り), the most common shape of a blade showing a central ridge line (shinogi, 鎬) and a shinogi-ji plane (鎬地) towards the back

– 160 – shirasaya (白鞘), undecorated storage scabbard made from unlacquered but slightly sealed magnolia wood sori (反り), curve of a blade sun (寸), unit 3,03 cm suriage (磨上げ), shortening of a blade where some parts of the original tang are preserved teire (手入れ), generic term for the maintenance of a blade, that means to remove old oil and dirt and apply new oil; at teire, also the removing of some superficial flash rust by using the uchiko (very fine powder from a polishing stone) can be meant toriizori (鳥居反), even curve of a blade with the deepest point towards the center of the blade ubu-nakago (生ぶ茎), unshortened tang in its original condition uchizori (内反), negative curve utsushi-mono (写し物), copy of an existing blade, not to be meant as forgery yake-mi (焼け身), blade which has lost its original hardening due to a fire damage yakiba (焼刃), hardened part of the edge yaki-naoshi (焼直し), newly applied hardening yokote (横手), the line lying at a right angle to the cutting edge and dividing the kissaki from the rest of the blade

– 161 – References

• Cambridge University Press (Hrsg.) Kozo Yamamura (ed.); „The Cambridge History of Japan – Volume 3 Medieval Japan“, Cambridge University Press 2003 • Honma Junji (本間順治): „Nihon-kotō-shi“ (日本古刀史), Kōgei-Shuppan 1959 • Fukunaga Suiken (福永酔剣); „Nihontō-meikōden“ (日本刀名工伝), Yūzankaku 1996 • Fukunaga Suiken (福永酔剣); „Nihontō-omoshirobanashi“ (日本刀おもしろ話), Yūzankaku 1988 • Fukunaga Suiken (福永酔剣); „Nihontō-yomoyamabanashi“ (日本刀よもやま話), Yūzankaku 1989 • Fukunaga Suiken (福永酔剣); „Tōkō-iseki-meguri 330-sen“ (刀工遺跡めぐり 三三○選), Yūzankaku 1994 • Gifu City Museum of History (岐阜市歴史博物館); „Kanesada to Kanemoto – Sengoku-jidai no Mino-tō“ (兼定と兼元・戦国時代の美濃刀), 2008 • Hall, John Whitney; „Fischer Weltgeschichte 20 – Das Japanische Kaiserreich“, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag 1997 • Hiroi, Yūichi (広井雄一); “Nihon no Bijutsu 4 – Nihontō” (日本の美術４-日本刀), Shibundō 2002 • Honma, Kunzan + Satō, Kanzan (本間薫山、佐藤寒山); “Nihontō Kōza” (日本刀講座), Yūzankaku 1997 • Kondō, Yoshikazu (近藤好和); "Yumiya to tōken – chūsei-kassen no jitsuzō" (弓矢と刀剣・中世合戦の実像), Yoshikawa Kōbunkan 2004 • Masaki, Tokuzō (正木篤三): “Hon´ami-gyōjō-ki to Kōetsu” (本阿弥行状記 と光悦), Chūō Kōrin Bijutsu Shuppan 1981 • Nagayama Kokan; „The Connoisseur´s Book of Japanese Swords“, Kodansha 1997 • Nakajima, Shigeo (中嶋繁雄); “Daimyō no nihon-chizu” (大名の日本地図), Bunshun Shinsho 2003 • Ogasawara, Nobuo (小笠原信夫); “Nihon no Bijutsu 1 – Nihontō no koshirae” (日本の美術１- 日本刀の拵), Shibundō 1994 • Ogasawara, Nobuo (小笠原信夫); "Nihontō no kanshō giso-chishiki" (日本刀の 観賞基礎知識), Shibundō 2000

– 162 – • Okada, Takao (岡田孝夫); "Kōshū-tōkō no kenkyū" (江州刀工の研究), Sunrise 2006 • Rekishi-gunzō series (歴史群像シリーズ); "Zusetsu: Nihontō-taizen II – Meitō, koshirae, tōsōgu sōran" (図説 日本刀大全二 名刀・拵・刀装具総覧), Gakken 2007 • Sano Bijutsukan (佐野美術館); „Bizen-Ichimonji – Hanayaka na nihontō“ (備前一文字 華やかな日本刀), Sano Bijutsukan 2008 • Sano Bijutsukan (佐野美術館); „Masamune – Nihontō no tensai to sono keifu“ (正宗 日本刀の天才とその系譜), Sano Bijutsukan 2002 • Satō, Kanzan (佐藤寒山); „Nihontō-kikō“ (日本刀紀行), Sei´un Shoin 1976 • Satō, Kanzan (佐藤寒山); „Shin-Nihon-meitō 100-sen“ (新・日本名刀１００選), Akita Shoten 1990 • Satō Kanzan (佐藤寒山); „The Japanese Sword – A Comprehensive Guide“, Kodansha 1983 • City of Seki; „Seki-kaji no kigen o saguru“ (関鍛冶の起源 をさぐる), City of Seki 1995 • Tokugawa Bijutsukan (徳川美術館); "Tōken – Tōsōgu" (刀剣 刀装具), Tokugawa Bijutsukan 1998 • Tokunō, Kazuo (得能一男); “Nihontō-zukan” (日本刀図鑑), Kōgei-Shuppan 2004 • Tokunō, Kazuo (得能一男); “Tōkō-taikan” (刀工大鑑), Kōgei-Shuppan 2003 • Tōkyō National Museum; „Uchigatana-goshirae“ (打刀拵), Tōkyō Nationalmuseum 1987 • -ken Suiboku-Bijutsukan; “Daimyō-ke hizō no meitō” (大名家秘蔵の名刀), Toyama-ken Suiboku-Bijutsukan 2009 • Toyoda Takeshi (豊田武); “” (家系), Tōkyōdō Shuppan 1999 • Yamamura, Kozo; „A Study of Samurai Income and Entrepreneurship“, Harvard University Press 1974

– 163 – Index

Abu-yama 124 aikuchi 97 Aizu-Wakamatsu (Burg) 63 Akimoto-Familie 85 Akimoto Nagatomo 85 Akita-Lehen 144 Akugenta Yoshihira 111 Amagasaki 140 Amago Tsunehisa 142f Amiya-Familie 97 „Amiya-oshigata“ 97 Anegawa (Schlacht von) 66 „Ansai-zuihitsu“ 146 Aonuma Mitsuo 105 Arai Hakuseki 12 Araki Murashige 152 Arikuni 57 Asakura-Familie 140 Asama-maru (s. Sengen-maru) Asano Nagamasa 53,103 ashigaru 117 Aso-Familie 86,91 Aso Korenao 91 Aso Korezumi 91f Aso-Schrein 92 Aso Tsunemaru 92 Ashikaga (Burg) 118 Ashikaga-gakkō 116 Ashikaga Tadayoshi 89 Ashikaga Takauji 24,35,86,88ff,91,112 Ashikaga Yasuuji 71 Ashikaga Yoshiakira 112 Ashikaga Yoshiteru 12,35,62,66,137 Ashina Moriuji 158 Ataki-kiri 154 Ataki Takayasu 154 Atsumi Heihachirō 123 Atsuta-jingū 31 Awataguchi-Schule 23,68

– 164 – Bange 158f Bishamonten 69 Bonten (=Brahmā) 50 „Bu´in-sōwa“ 146 cha-bōzu 152 Chaya Kiyotsugu 27 Chihaya-hime 74 chiisagatana-koshirae 110 chiken 42 Chikugo-Fluss 87 Chikumagawa 145 Chinzei-bugyō 86 Chinzei-tandai 86,88 chirimen 140 Chōgi 78,119 Chōkei (s. Miyoshi Nagayoshi) Chōkōji 104 Chōkōji (Burg) 104 Chōshū-Lehen 170 chūmon-uchi 173 chūnagon 134 Chūō-tōken-kai 121 Daihannya-kei 68 Daihannya-Nagamitsu 60ff daijō-daijin 137 daishō 85 Dazaifu 86 Deyama 18 Dōjigiri-Yasutsuna 9ff,79 Echigo-sōdō (Echigo-Aufruhr) 14 Echizen-Matsudaira-Familie 79 Eiroku-Zwischenfall 138 Ekan 41 Enju-Schule 90 Enzō-ji 159 Eryō 137 „Fuboku-oboegaki“ 151 fudai 167 Fudōyama (Burg) 112 Fugen (Bodhisattva) 44 Fujisan-Hungū-Sengen-taisha 143 Fujishima Tomoshige 108f 137

– 165 – Fujiwara no Kanenaga 134 Fujiwara no Kintō 109 Fujiwara no Michinori (s. Shinzei) Fujiwara no Moronaga 134 Fujiwara no Sanekane 135 Fujiwara no Yorinaga 134 Fukuhara Nagataka 56 Fukuhara Naotaka 56,58 Fukushima (Burg) 24 Fukushima Masanori 54 Furihime 63 Fushimi (Schloss) 35,54 Fushimi-Inari-Schrein 132 Futsunomitama no tsurugi 136 Gamō Katahide 63 Gamō Tadasato 63 Gamō Ujisato 63 Genpei-Krieg 34 Gō (Tochter von Maeda Toshiie) 37 goban-kaji 51 go-bugyō 53f Go-Daigo 72, 86ff,91 gohei 132 gokenin 167 Gosannen-Krieg 20 go-tairō 37,54 Gotoba (Kaiser) 51 Gō Yoshihiro 68,77ff Go-Yōsei (Kaiser) 52 gyobutsu 76,141 Gyōki 46 gyōsho 50 Hachijōnomiya (Prinz, s. Toshihito) Hachiman 18,21,46 Hachiman (Berg) 102 Hachimangū 136 Hagiwara 14 Hakata 88,91 Hakken-gū 31 ha-kobore 92 Hakone-Paß 89,91 Hannya-ji 41 hanshi 55

– 166 – Harumitsu (Bizen-Osafune) 142 Hasegawa Hidekazu 111 Hashiba 99 Hashiba-jijū 100 Hatakeyama-Familie 57 hatamoto 130,167f hatozoe 82 „Heike-monogatari“ 18,130 Heshikiri-Hasebe 152ff Higekiri 18ff Hiki-Sada 157 Hikone 122 Hikosaka Mitsumasa 28 Himegawa 112 Himezuru-Ichimonji 96ff Hino (Burg) 63 Hirano Dōsetsu 76 Hirano-Tōshirō 76 Hiromitsu (Sōshū) 109ff Hirokōji 15 Hisakuni 57 hizakiri 19 Hizamaru 18ff Hōchō-Masamune 75 Hōchō-Tōshirō 75f hoemaru 21 Hōgen-Rebellion 134 Hōjō-Familie 106,117f Hōjō Hidetoki 88 Hōjō Takatoki 23 Hōjō Tokiyori 23 Hōjō Ujikatsu 117 Hōjō Ujinao 118 Hōjō Ujitada 117 Hōjō Ujiyasu 117,144,147 Hokke-kyō (s. Lotos-Sūtra) „Hōkō-kakugo no ki“ 57 „Hokuetsu-gundan“ 146 Hokurikudō 112 Hon´ami (Familie) 64,78,80,96,102,173 Hon´ami Jūrōzaemon 40 Hon´ami Kisoji 40 Hon´ami Kōchū 16,175

– 167 – Hon´ami Kōetsu 80,149 „Hon´ami Kōetsu-oshigata“ 64,149f Hon´ami Kōho 39,80 Hon´ami Kōjun 174 Hon´ami Kōsa 80 Hon´ami Kōtoku 12,59,105,153,173 Honda Masanobu 27 Honda Masazumi 27 Honkō-ji 140 Horikawa-Schule 116 Hosokawa-Familie 57 Hosokawa Harumoto 66 Hosokawa Morihiro 52 Hosokawa Moritatsu 52 Hosokawa Yūsai 47f,51f Hosoya 96 hotaru 92 Hotarumaru 92 „Hyakkai-zukan“ 107 Hyakusai-Tempel 62 hyōgo-gusari tachi-koshirae 115 Hyūga-Masamune 59 Ibarakidōji 19 Ibukiyama 60 Ichigo-Hitokoshi 142f Ichigo-Hitorifu Yoshimitsu 138f Ichijō (Kaiser) 132 Ichijō-modoribashi 19 Ichimonji-Schule 95 Ichinohara 70 Ii-Familie 122 Ii-Museum 145 Ii Naomasa 123 Ii Tatsuo 145 Ikeda-Familie 173 Imadegawa-Familie 32 Imagawa-Familie 33 Imagawa Yoshimoto 33 Inaba-Gō 80 Inaba Kan´emon no Jō Shigemichi 78f Inari-Myōjin 132 Inokuma 152 Inoue Shinkai 167,172

– 168 – Ise Sadatake 146 Ishida-Masamune 16,55,60,79 Ishida Mitsunari 51,53ff,71,79,101,121 ishidōrō 102,165 Ishidōrō-kiri 166 Ishiguro Kuro 17 Ishihara Jinzaemon 121 Ishikawa Kazumasa 106 Ishiyama-Honganji 131 Isonokami-jingū 136 Isshiki-Familie 71 Itō-Familie 116 Itoigawa 112 Itō Miyoji 67 Itō Morimasa 58 Izumi no Kami Kanesada (s. Kanesada) jakiri-maru 127 Jaōji-Schlucht 126 Jiang Zōng 9 Jinsoku 57 Ji´un 161 Jizō 103 jō (Ehrentitel) 100 Jōkei´in 33 Josui (s. Kuroda Yoshitaka) „Jōzan-kidan“ 103 jūban-zōnae 103 jūsan-mairi 157f Juzumaru-Tsunetsugu 16,138f Kagawa Mitsukage 124 Kagawa Katsutaka 124 „Kagekatsu-kō o-te-erabi sanjūgo-koshi“ 97,109,111 Kagetora 149 kage-uchi 136 Kaibara Ekiken 9 „Kaihō-kenshaku“ 128 kaisho 50 Kakemi Iezumi 58 Kametsuru 38,64 Kamewari-yama 104 Kanbe Morimoto 63 Kanda 15 Kanehira (Bizen) 32,57

– 169 – Kanemaru 128 Kanemitsu (Bizen) 78 Kanemoto (Magoroku) 33,128 Kanenaga (Prinz) 86f Kanenaga (Tegai) 41ff Kanesada (Izumi no Kami, No-Sada) 33,157ff,163 Kaneuji (Shizu Saburō) 78 Kaneyuki (Yamato) 147 Kannagiri-Nagamitsu 60ff Kannai 152 kan no mushi 14 Kannonji (Burg) 61,63 Kannon-Sūtra 161 kanpaku 35,53,134 kanrei 66 „Kansei-chōshū-shokafu“ 109,150 Karasumaru Mitsuhiro 52 karasu tomarazu no kura 39 kasha 106ff Kashakiri-Tomoshige 108ff „Kashakiri-tō no ki“ 110 Kasugamyō-jinja 135 Katada Hirosumi 60 Katada-Masamune 59f Katada Matagorō 60ff katana-dansu 95 Kataoka Nasojirō 151 Kataoka Sanuki 151 Kataoka Shichirō 151 katchū-shi 164 Katō Kiyomasa 36f,54 Katsuhime 13 Katsumitsu (Bizen-Osafune) 142 Katsurayama Nobusada 30 Katsurayama Ujimoto 33 Kawanakajima (Schlacht von) 145 kazuuchi-mono 154,173 „Kentō-hihō“ 11 Kii-Tokugawa-Familie 59,76 Kiku-Ichimonji 57 Kikuchi 86ff Kikuchi Kan 90 Kikuchi-senbon-yari 89f

– 170 – Kikuchi Takemitsu 87 Kikuchi Takeshige 88,91 Kikuchi Taketoki 88,91 kikuchi-yari 90 Kikuhime 111 Kimura Shigekore 76 kin-arare 153 Kinjū 78 kin-zōgan 78f,153 Kirikomi-Masamune 55 Kishin Dayū 48,51 Kitakaze Kumashichi 140 Kitamura 123 Kitano-Tenmangū 22 kitsune-tsuki 14 Ko-Aoe 140 Ko-Bizen 95 Kōbō Daishi (s. Kūkai) Kōdai´in 138 Kōfukuji 69 Kōga 62f,103 kogarasu 21 Kogitsune-maru 131ff Kokaji (s. Munechika) kokin-denju 52 Kokindenju-Yukihira 52f „Kokin-waka-shū“ 52 Kokūzō (Bodhisattva) 157ff Komaki und Nagakute (Schlacht von) 79 koma-sabi 14 Koma Tango no Kami 103 Kōmei (Kaiser) 141 Komoro 121 Kongōdayū 131 Konoe (Kaiser) 130 Konoe-Familie 53 Konoe Sakihisa 137 konote-gashiwa 47f,64 Konrenji 72 koshigatana 84,97f,110 Kōshin 71 Kotenta 35 Kotetsu 163ff

– 171 – kotō 116,156 Kōtoku (Kaiser) 41 „Kōtoku-katana-ezu“ 13 Kugai Masakata 164 Kujō-Familie 134ff Kujō Kanezane 134 Kujō Tanemichi 137 Kujō Tsunenori 135 Kūkai 159 Kumagai Naomori 58 Kumano 21 kumokiri-maru 20 Kumokiri-Tōshirō 71 kunai-shō 139 Kunieda Seiken 146 Kunihiro (Horikawa) 116ff,155 Kunimune (Bizen Saburō) 144ff Kunisaki 48 Kunishige (Hasebe) 78,148ff,152ff Kunitomo 57 Kunitoshi (Rai) 91,93,108 Kunitsugu (Rai) 57,78 Kunitsuna 22ff,57,68 Kuniyoshi (Awataguchi) 57,82ff Kuniyuki (Taima) 64 Kunōzan 27 Kuon-ji 138 Kurama-Tempel 69f Kurobane-Lehen 150 Kuroda Nagamasa 36,81,152 Kuroda Yoshitaka 152 Kurokawa (Burg) 158 Kurozawa Motoshige 151 Kusunoki Masashige 72ff,91 Kuze Shigeyuki 135 Kyōgoku-Familie 61,101,103 Kyōgoku Takanaga 105 Kyōgoku Takatsugu 105 „Kyōhō-meibutsu-chō“ 16,34,35,37,55,59.68,76,80,102,139,152 Kyōsan 70 Lî Gūang 164 Lín Feng 45 Lotos-Sūtra 161

– 172 – Machida Chōdayū 15 Maeda Gen´i 53 Maeda Harunaga 40 Maeda Shigekatsu 51 Maeda Toshiie 36,54 Maeda Toshinaga 38,77 Maeda Toshitsune 38,64,77 Magoshirō Kanesada 157ff makuragami 19 mamori-gatana 13 „Man´yō-shū“ 32,47 -maru (Suffix) 92 Marugame (Stadt, Distrikt) 105 Mashita Nagamori 53 Masakuni (Senjūin) 114 Masamune 53ff,68,71,155 Masamune no jūttetsu 77f,119,152 Masatsune 57 Mashima Akitake 146 Mataza 37 Matsudaira Chikamasa 106,109 Matsudaira Hideyasu 13,54f,79 Matsudaira Mitsunaga 11 Matsudaira Narishige 109 Matsudaira Nobutomi 15 Matsudaira Norimoto 106 Matsudaira Sadanobu 92 Matsudaira Tadamasa (s. Okudaira Tadamasa) Matsudaira Tadanao 13 Matsudaira Yasuharu 16 Matsudaira Yorihira 144 Matsukura-gō 77 Matsunaga Hisahide 129,137 Matsuo Keio 90 Matsuyama 14 Mattō-Lehen 100 Meiji (Kaiser) 77,130 meitō 40 Mii 123 Miidera 70 Mikasa 18 Mikazuki-Munechika 16,137f mikkyō 32

– 173 – Minamoto Hachimantarō Yoshiie 20ff Minamoto no Mitsunaka 18 Minamoto no Tameyoshi 20ff Minamoto no Yorimasa 130 Minamoto no Yorimitsu 10,19,20 Minamoto no Yorinobu 20 Minamoto no Yoritomo 21 Minamoto no Yoriyoshi 20 Minamoto no Yoshihira (s. Akugenta Yoshihira) Minamoto no Yoshimitsu 30,110 Minamoto no Yoshitomo 21 Minamoto no Yoshitsune 21 Minatogawa (Schlacht von) 72 Minobu (Berg) 138 Minogasaka-Paß 127 Mino no mamushi 130 Mino-shugo 129 Mishuku-Familie 30,33 Mishuku Genzaemon Sadatomo 30 Mishuku Masatomo 30 Mishuku Tomotsuna 30 Mito-Tokugawa-Familie 47,64 Mitsuhiro-jinja 126 Mitsui Memorial Museum 59 Mitsushiro (Hata) 81 Mitsuyo 30ff,34ff Miyoshi-Familie 137 Miyoshi Masayasu 138 Miyoshi Nagayoshi 66 Miyoshi Yoshiharu 66 Mizuno Katsunari 59 Mōfusa 18 Mogami-Familie 24 Momonoi-Familie 77 Monju (Bodhisattva) 42ff Monjushirō 45 Mōri-Familie 140 Mōri Mitsunori (Ichijōsai) 154 Mori Nagatsugu 64 Morinji 117 Morioka-Hachimangū 127 Mori Tadahiro 64 Mori Tadamasa 64

– 174 – Moritaka (Kongobyōe) 78 Mōri Terumoto 54f,140 Mōri Wakasa no Kami 55 Munechika 18,38,57,68,131ff Muneyoshi (s. Umetada Myōju) Murakami Yoshikiyo 146 Murayama Kanji 17 musha-dokoro 89 Myōhōrenge-kyō (s. Lotos-Sūtra) Nagakute (s. Komaki und Nagakute) Nagamitsu (Bizen) 60,145,147 Nagao Akinaga 117 Nagasawa Motochika 171 Nagashino (Burg) 66.68 Nagashino (Schlacht von) 66,110 Nagasone Okisato (s. Kotetsu) Nagoya (Burg) 79 Nakajima Kiyoichi 17 Nakajima Kuridayū 102 Nakajima Shūridayū 102 Nakamura Tatsuo (s. Ii Tatsuo) Nakanoin Michikatsu 52 Nakayama Takamaro 52 Nakigitsune-Kuniyoshi 84f Namazue (Burg) 62 Namazue Yoshiharu 62 Naminohira-Schule 114 Nanbu Sanenaga 138 Naotsuna (Sekishū) 78 Natsuka Masaie 53 NBTHK 144 Nechi (Burg) 112 Nene 138 Nichiren 138 Nijō-Palast 137 Nikkari-Aoe 99ff Nikkō 27 Nikkō-Tōshōgu 28 Nitta Yoshisada 12,23f,89,91 Niwa Nagahide 63,99 Niwa Nagashige 100 „Nōami-hon mei-zukushi“ 11 Nōami Shinnō 11

– 175 – Nobufusa 57 Nobuie 153 Nobukuni 143 Nogi-jinja 143 Nogi Maresuke 143 Nogi Shizuko 143 Norikuni 57 Norimune 35 Norishige 78,108 No-Sada (s. Kanesada) Nozoki 127 nue 130 nyūdō 150 ō-dachi 89,125,136 Oda Nobunaga 12,66,79,99,104,110,131,140,152 Odawara (Burg) 117 Odawara-Hōjō 117 Odawara-Konferenz 118 „Ōeyama-ekotoba“ 9 Ogachi Tarō 127 Ōgaki (Burg) 58 Ogyū-Matsudaira-Zweig 106 Ōhara-Familie 61 Okudaira Nobumasa 66,68 Okudaira Sadamasa 66 Okudaira Tadamasa 67 Ōmori Morinaga 72 Ōmura Kaboku 11 onari 56ff Oni-Hōchō 81 onikiri 12 onikiri-maru 25 Onimaru-Kunitsuna 16, 18ff, 35,39,140 Ōnin-Krieg 60 on-koshimono 96 Onoki Shigekatsu 51 origami 64,67,173ff orochi 124 Osafune-Schule 95 Ōsaka (Schloss, Burg) 54,121,141,149 Ōseki-Familie 150 Oshi-Lehen 67 Ōshū-kanrei bzw. Ōshū-tandai 24

– 176 – Ōta (Burg) 121,150 Ōtenta-Mitsuyo 31,34ff,64 Ōuchi-Familie 57 „Ōuchi-mondō“ 57 ō-wakizashi 99 Owari-Tokugawa-Familie 81f,141,173 Raikō (s. Minamoto no Yorimitsu) Rai Magotarō 93 Rai San´yō 87 Rashōmon 19f Rokkaku-Familie 61 Rokkaku Sadayori 62,129 Rokkaku Ujitsuna 61 Rokkaku Yoshikata 62,104 rōnin 101,122 Ryūka´in (Friedhof) 62 Sadamune (Sōshū) 63,68 saidan-mei 166 sai-ha 16 Saitō Dōsan 129 Saitō-Familie 161 Saitō Toshikuni 32 Saitō Toshinaga 129 Saitō Toshitsune 161 Sakakibara Kiyohisa 28 Sakanoue Tamuramaro 11,31 Sakata no Kintoki 10 Samidare-Gō 80ff Samonji (Chikuzen) 78 Sanage-jinja 115 Sanchōmo-Ichimonji 97 Sanekage (Kaga) 108 Sanemori 57 Sanjōnishi Saneeda 52 sanjūrokkasen 109 san-kanrei 57 Sannohe 127 Sannokura-Lehen 106 sansaku 68 san-shoku (s. san-kanrei) sarugaku-Spiel 72 Sasaki-Familie 61,103,142 sashizoe 97f

– 177 – Satake-Familie 144,146 Satake Yoshinobu 121 Satake Yoshishige 144 Satomi Yoshihiro 147 Satow, Sir Ernest Mason 163 Sawaki Sōshi 107 Sawayama 54,79 sayagaki 81 seisei-taishōgun 86 Seki 157f Sekigahara 27,53,79,101,106,121f,130,150,167 Sengen-maru 143 Senjūin-Schule 114 Senryō-Kanesada 161 seppuku 58,72,84,104,110,121 shaka-sanzon 44 Shiba-Familie 57 Shiba Iekane 24 Shiba Kaneyori 24 Shiba Tadamochi 24 Shibata Katsuie 99 Shiba Takatsune 24 Shibata Katsutoshi 104 Shimabara-Rebellion 29,149 shimenawa 38,43,132 Shinkage-ryū 81 shintai 29 shintō 116,156 Shinzei 135 shishi no ko 21 Shishiō 130 shitennō 10,19 Shizugatake (Schlacht von) 104 Shizuka-gosen 38 Shizu-Schule 38 Shōki 124 „Shokoku-kaji-daisuke no koto“ 67 Shōni Yorinao 87 Shōsō´in 41 shugo 32 shūkō (Teeschale) 63 „Shūko-jūshu“ 92,94 Shutendōji 9ff

– 178 – Soga Gorō Tokimune 111 Soga no Himuka 41 Sōgin 117 „Sōgō-ōzō-shi“ 58 sōhei 69 sohaya no tsuruki 28ff Sūden 27 sugata 93 Sugihara Shōzō 121,123,139 Sukehiro (Tsuda) 167 Sukesada (Bizen-Osafune) 154 Sukeyoshi (Yoshioka-Ichimonji) 125 Sumiyoshi-Schrein 83 sun-nashi 19 Susanoo no mikoto 136 Suwa (Burg) 108 Suwa Yorimizu 108 Suwa Yorio 108 Suwa Yorioto 109 Suwa Yorisato 108f Suzuka-Bergkette 103 Tachibana no Michinari 132 Tachiarai 88 Tachiarai-gawa 88 Tada Kyūzō 110 Tadami (Fluss) 159 Tada Mitsuyori 110 Tadayoshi (Hizen) 173 Taga Takatada 75,80 „Taiheiki“ 72 Takada-Schule 51 Takahashi-Familie 128 Takashima-Familie 61 Takashina no Tsunetoshi 135 Takeda Katsuyori 110f Takeda Nobuo 144f Takeda Nobutora 110 Takeda Shingen 30,33,110,112,143f tamahagane 43,173 Tamahime 64,77 Tamari Sannosuke 17 Tamayama-Familie 127 tameshigiri 166

– 179 – tameshi-mei 166 Tamiya Shigemasa 173 Tanabe (Burg) 51f Tanaka Kintarō 116 Tanuma Okitsugu 172 Tanuma-origami 174 Tatara 91 Tatebayashi (Burg) 117 Tatebayashi-Lehen 85 Tegai-Schule 45f Tegai-Tor 46 Teishitsu-hakubutsukan 67 teire 40 tengū 125 tenka-goken 16,137 Tenkai 27 „Tenkyūwari go-yuisho“ 146 Tenkyūwari-Kunimune 144ff „Tenshō-bon mei-zukushi“ 108 Teruhisa 29 Tōdaiji 41,69 togi-shi 95 „Tōkenkai-shi“ 144 tōken-kiwamedokoro 173 „Tōken-shutsunyū-chō“ 81 Toki-Familie 161 Toki Masafusa 129 Toki Yorinari 129 Toki Yoritsugu 128f Tokugawa Hidetada 13,28,38,76f,138,149 Tokugawa Ieharu 172 Tokugawa Iemasa 65 Tokugawa Iemitsu 63,81 Tokugawa Ietsuna 64 Tokugawa Ieyasu 12,27ff,51,54,63,66f,76,79,106,108,130,167,173 Tokugawa Kuniyuki 65 Tokugawa Mitsutomo 81 Tokugawa Mochinaga 141 Tokugawa-Museum 121 Tokugawa Tsunanari 82 Tokugawa Tsunashige 108 108 Tokugawa Yorinobu 76

– 180 – Tokugawa Yoshimune 16,102,135 tomokiri 19 Tomonari 57 Tomoshige (s. Fujishima Tomoshige) Tomura Yoshikuni 146 Toshihito (Prinz) 52 Tōshō-Daigongen 28 Tōshōgū (s. Nikkō-Tōshōgū) Toyotomi Hidetsugu 35 54,105 Toyotomi Hideyoshi 12,25,35f,53,58,60,63,76f,79,99f,103,105f,118,129f, 137f,140f,154,175 tsuchikumo 20 „Tsuguhira-oshigata“ 47 Tsunetsugu (Ko-Aoe) 138f Tsunetsugu (Ko-Bizen) 140 Tsuru 96f Tsuzuki Kagetada 28 uchigatana 84,97,110 uchigatana-koshirae 97 Uesugi-Familie 85,112 Uesugi Kagekatsu 54,76,97,109,111 Uesugi Kenshin 95ff,112,144f „Uesugi Kenshin mōshi-jō“ 146 Uesugi Noriaki 110,112 Ukita Hideie 37,54f uma-mawari-shū 79,129 Umetada Myōju 154 Urabe no Suetake 10 Ushū-tandai 24 Usui Sadamitsu 10 usu-midori 22 utsushi-mono 33,118ff wakizashi 85,110,128,143 warabite-tō 31 Watanabe no Tsuna 10,19 Watanabe Saburō 17 wazamono 128,163 Yagyū Ren´yasai Yoshikane 81 yake-mi 16,47,64 yaki-naoshi 16 Yamada Asa´emon Yoshimune 128 Yamada Asa´emon Yoshimutsu 39f

– 181 – Yamada-Familie 166 Yamanba (s. Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro) Yamano-Familie 166f Yamano Ka´emon Nagahisa 167 Yamano Kanjūrō Hisahide 167 Yamano Kanjūrō Narihisa 167 Yamato no orochi 136 Yamatorige-Ichimonji 97f Yamato-Shizu 175 Yamaubagiri-Kunihiro 116ff Yanaizu 158 Yanaka 15 yari 89,118 yari-kanna 61 Yasukuni-Schrein 114 Yasutsugu 141 Yasutsuna 11,13,22 Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum 97 Yoshifusa (Fukuoka-Ichimonji) 125 Yoshihiro (s. Gō Yoshihiro) Yoshihiro (Sōshū) 118 Yoshimitsu (Awataguchi) 57,68ff,140 Yoshimoto 125 Yuasa Jōzan 103 Yūki Harutomo 13 Yūki Hideyasu (s. Matsudaira Hideyasu) Yukihira 48ff,57f,63,68 Yukiyasu (Naminohira) 114ff,147 Yumegiri-Kunimune 151 Yura (Burg) 154 Yūshū-kan 114 Zenkei 42 Zenshun 42

– 182 –