Dōjigiri (童子切, "Slayer of Shuten-dōji") is a ''

tachi A is a type of traditionally made Japanese sword (''nihonto'') worn by the samurai class of feudal Japan. ''Tachi'' and ''katana'' generally differ in length, degree of curvature, and how they were worn when sheathed, the latter depending on t ...

''-type

Japanese sword A is one of several types of traditionally made swords from Japan. Bronze swords were made as early as the Yayoi period (1000 BC – 300 AD), though most people generally refer to the curved blades made from the Heian period (794 – 1185) to the ...

that has been identified as a

National Treasure of Japan Some of the National Treasures of Japan A is the most precious of Japan's Tangible Cultural Properties, as determined and designated by the Agency for Cultural Affairs (a special body of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scien ...

. This sword is one of the "Five Swords Under Heaven" (天下五剣 Tenka-Goken). Dōjigiri is sometimes called "the

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers (''rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the on ...

of all Japanese swords" along with Ōkanehira ( :ja:大包平) because of its perfection; it is of great historical value as one of the oldest extant

katana A is a Japanese sword characterized by a curved, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands. Developed later than the ''tachi'', it was used by samurai in feudal Japan and worn with the edge fa ...

-type weapons. The quality and the artistic value of the blade is exquisite, it has been kept in good preservation, and the legend tied to the sword is notable.

Anatomy

The present mounts of the Dojigiri are fine examples of Momoyama-period work in itomaki no tachi style, in which the typical wrapping of the hilt continues along part of the scabbard. The scabbard is decorated in gold nashiji (gold flakes suspended in transparent lacquer) and the metal fittings are of shakudo (a blue-black alloy of copper with a small percentage of gold) worked with a nanako (granulated) ground and bearing the imperial paulownia mon (family badge or crest) in gilt. It is perhaps the most celebrated of all Japanese swords. Tachi Sword - Dojikiri Yasutsuna 2

History

Dōjigiri was presented to

Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese ''daimyō'' and one of the leading figures of the Sengoku period. He is regarded as the first "Great Unifier" of Japan. Nobunaga was head of the very powerful Oda clan, and launched a war against other ''daimyō'' to unify ...

, the leading late sixteenth century general (1534-82), by the Ashikaga family. Subsequently it was the property, in turn, of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations that Changed the Cour ...

and

Tokugawa Ieyasu was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, which ruled Japan from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was one of the three "Great Unifiers" of Japan, along with his former lord Oda Nobunaga and fellow ...

. The second Tokugawa shogun,

Hidetada was the second ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa dynasty, who ruled from 1605 until his abdication in 1623. He was the third son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate. Early life (1579–1593) Tokugawa Hidetada was bo ...

, bestowed it on the daimyo

Matsudaira Tadanao was a Sengoku to early Edo period Japanese samurai, and the 2nd ''daimyō'' of Fukui Domain in Echizen Province. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005)"Matsudaira Tadanao"in ''Japan Encyclopedia'', p. 617] Biography Tadanao was born in Settsu P ...

(1595-1650) of Echizen Province, Echizen. After the disgrace and dispossession of the Echizen Matsudaira occasioned by some irregular conduct on the part of Tadanao, the blade passed to the Tsuyama branch of the family.

Legends

The '' Kyōhō Era Handbook of Famous Works'' (Japanese: ''Kyōhō meibutsuchō'') records the legend that this sword was used by the great warrior

Minamoto Yorimitsu was one of the surnames bestowed by the Emperors of Japan upon members of the Imperial House of Japan, imperial family who were excluded from the line of succession and demoted into the ranks of the nobility from 1192 to 1333. The practice was m ...

to bring down the monstrous Shuten Dōji of Mt. Ôe in Tanba, thus earning the epithet of "Dôji-slaying Yasutsuna" (Japanese: ''Dôjigiri Yasutsuna''). The legend of the Shuten Dôji — either a demon or a highwayman — is thought to date to the Muromachi period (1392–1573).

References

{{reflist __FORCETOC__ National Treasures of Japan

Anatomy

History

Legends

See also

References