Japanese Sword Art History

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    At the end of the 16th century, three great generals arose, each in succession, and all unifiedthe country under one leadership; Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, and IeyesuTokugawa. When Tokugawa overthrew his last upstart rival in the battle of Sekigahara inSeptember 1600, he unified the country under a government for the first time in 800 years.Because Ieyesu could claim Miyamoto blood, he also claimed the title of Shogun for himself

    and his heirs. His home was near Kamakura, and so he moved the center of government toEdo, today called Tokyo.

    For the next 268 years, the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the land in peace. And with peacecame the decline in the practice of the sword. however, small groups of traditionalists refusedto give up the old ways. The writings of these reclusive kenshi are still quoted today asexamples of great swordsmen. Miyamoto Musashi, Tsunemoto Yamamoto, and zzz are stillregarded as kensai (sword saints) in Japanese folklore. With the great peace, came theunemployed warrior or ronin (literally "wave man"). The Tokugawa tried to convert warriorsinto bureaucrats, to run the government. The Tokugawa may have ruled in peace, but theyheld an iron fist to do so. Part of their way to control the flow of Japanese society was toestablish a caste system. There were four classes of people in descending order, samurai(royalty), farmers, artisans, and merchants. Those who traditionally were farmer warriorscould no longer posess swords, only the samurai could wear the official badge of office, thesword. The Tokugawa also closed the shores of Japan to the outside world, executing alltrespassers and only allowing a single small island near Kagoshima in the south to be visitedonce a year by Portugese traders.

    This helped and hurt the sword, as the Japanese had been introduced to matchlocks by thePortugese in 1543. But with the closed borders, small enclaves still held the sword as theweapon of choice for duty, honor and Emperor; along side the bow and arrow. The saying,"kyu ba no michi" is usually translated as "the way of the warrior", but is literally "the way of the bow and the horse." In general, the sword and its practice continued to decline during thistime in a gradual manner.

    In 1854, American ships entered Tokyo Bay and demanded that Japan open trading with thewest. the technology that the west had compared to the Japanese was quite considerable. HadAmerica forced the issue, it would have easily destroyed Japan. Instead, Japan turned itself inside out culturally and technologically. The Tokugawa were terrified of the technologicalprowess the Americans displayed. Fortunately, the Americans had troubles at home and soonforgot the Japanese.

    But the Tokugawa were being pressured by internal forces to overturn their rule. The onlyway the Tokugawa could see to preserve any measure of limited control was to return powerto the Emperor. And so in 1868, the Tokugawa stepped down, returning power to the EmperorMeiji, beginning the Meiji Reformation. Japan had entered the industrial revolution.

    The samurai were officially disbanded by the Emperor Meiji. Later, they were stripped of theofficial badge of office, the wearing of the two swords in 1877. This gave rise to the last greatbattle of the swaor, the Satsuma Rebellion in December 1877 through January 1878. TheSatsuma refused to obey and fought the conscript government army (with modern weapons) atKagoshima in the south. The samurai were killed to a man, and their martyrdom has become apoignant symbol of the swordsman.

    The modern period of the sword has been charaterized by even greater decline. Samurai wereforced to give exhibitions in order to try to earn money. more and more of them left the art

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    behind, to learn new trades and skills with which they could live. Smiths began to fashionscissors and other metal implements. the old ways were fading away into history very fast,except amongst a small dedicated following...