, equally known as Sanchōmō by its

Sino-Japanese reading are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are still used, along with the subsequen ...

, 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 ...

'' ( Japanese greatsword) forged during the middle

Kamakura period The is a period of Japanese history that marks the governance by the Kamakura shogunate, officially established in 1192 in Kamakura by the first ''shōgun'' Minamoto no Yoritomo after the conclusion of the Genpei War, which saw the struggle bet ...

(13th century). The set of the blade and its ''

koshirae Japanese sword mountings are the various housings and associated fittings ('' tosogu'') that hold the blade of a Japanese sword when it is being worn or stored. refers to the ornate mountings of a Japanese sword (e.g. ''katana'') used when the ...

'' (mountings) is 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 ...

. It was wielded by

Uesugi Kagekatsu was a Japanese samurai ''daimyō'' during the Sengoku and Edo periods. He was the adopted son of Uesugi Kenshin and Uesugi Kagetora’s brother in law. Early life and rise Kagekatsu was the son of Nagao Masakage, the head of the Ueda Nagao c ...

(1556–1623), a powerful warlord in the

Sengoku period The was a period in History of Japan, Japanese history of near-constant civil war and social upheaval from 1467 to 1615. The Sengoku period was initiated by the Ōnin War in 1467 which collapsed the Feudalism, feudal system of Japan under the ...

, and had been inherited by his clan.

History

Yamatorige was forged during the middle

(13th century). According to Kanzan Sato, a ''nihontō'' (

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 ...

) appraiser and researcher, it was named so in order to honor the beauty of the ''tachi'' by likening it to the feather of a

copper pheasant The copper pheasant or Soemmerring's pheasant (''Syrmaticus soemmerringii'') is endemic to Japan. The scientific name commemorates the German scientist Samuel Thomas von Sömmerring. Description It is a large pheasant with a rich coppery chestn ...

or the landscape of sunset mountains. In addition, Suiken Fukunaga, another ''nihontō'' appraiser/researcher, cites a theory written in that the name came from the landscape of a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

. Fukunaga himself, however, remarks the wildfire theory is utterly dubious. The ''tachi'' is one of the 35 swords favored by the warlord

(1556–1623), an adopted son and the successor of the "God of War"

Uesugi Kenshin , later known as was a Japanese ''daimyō''. He was born in Nagao clan, and after adoption into the Uesugi clan, ruled Echigo Province in the Sengoku period of Japan. He was one of the most powerful ''daimyō'' of the Sengoku period. Known as ...

. Later it had been inherited as one of the greatest heirlooms of the Yonezawa-Uesugi clan, the head of the Uesugi clans. On March 29, 1952, the ''tachi'' was designated a

.日本国、昭和27年10月16日文化財保護委員会告示第21号。Date accepted is March 29. Its ''

'' (mountings) are a part of the designation as accessories to the blade. In 2020, Setouchi City purchased ''yamatorige'' from an individual, which was then housed in the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum. The purchase cost was about 500 million yen (About $5 million).

List of name variations

The official full name for the blade and its mountings designated by the

Agency for Cultural Affairs The is a special body of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). It was set up in 1968 to promote Japanese arts and culture. The agency's budget for FY 2018 rose to ¥107.7 billion. Overview The ag ...

is . Markus Sesko, a researcher on Japanese swords, calls the sword . Due to both its ambiguous origin and the highly complex reading system for ''kanji'' characters, the sword has a wide variety of associated names. * Yamatorige - ''kun'yomi'' (native reading) for the ''kanji'' characters * Yamadorige - a variant of native reading * Sanchōmō - ''on'yomi'' (Sino-Japanese reading) for the same characters * Sanshōmō - by characters written on a wooden plate co-inherited with this ''tachi'' * Yamashōmō

References

Bibliography

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yamatorige Individual Japanese swords National Treasures of Japan Uesugi clan

History

List of name variations

See also

References

Bibliography