10/5/21, 8:45 AM Muramasa - Wikipedia

Muramasa
Muramasa (村正, born before 1501), commonly known as Sengo Muramasa (千子村正), was a
famous swordsmith who founded the Muramasa school and lived during the Muromachi period
(14th to 16th centuries) in Kuwana, Ise Province, Japan (current Kuwana, Mie).[1]

In spite of their original reputation as fine blades favored by the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu and his
vassals, the katana swords made by Muramasa gradually became a symbol of the anti-Tokugawa
movement.
Furthermore, in lore and popular culture from the 18th century, the swords have been
regarded as yōtō (妖刀, "wicked katana").

Contents
Work
Style
Notable works
In history
Origin
Relationship to the Tokugawa dynasty
Cultural significance
See also
References
Bibliography

Work

Style

Much like his unique reputation, Muramasa is known for some fairly unusual features in his work.
These attributes are often called by terms prefixed with "Muramasa".

Muramasa-ba (村正刃, "Muramasa-like edge")—The first particular characteristic of his is the

frequent use of a wave-shaped hamon. The hamon of Muramasa is categorized as gunome-
midare, that is, it forms randomized wave-like shapes. In particular, Muramasa's gunome-
midare has very long, shallow valleys between a cluster of gunome shapes.[2] Furtheremore,
the front pattern and the back one often coincide well.[2]
Muramasa-nakago (村正中心, "Muramasa-like tang")—The other easily identifiable feature one
will see on Muramasa blades is the fish-belly (tanagobara) shape of the nakago.[3][2] Hayashi
Shigehide (林重秀) in the 19th century often simulated this style.[2]

Notable works

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Although the school of Muramasa is extremely famous in popular culture, none of their swords is
designated as a National Treasure or an Important Cultural Property.

Myōhō Muramasa ( 妙 法 村 正 , "Muramasa of the

Sublime Dharma") is the only sword officially designated
as an Important Artwork.[4]
Katana, length 66.4  cm,
curvature 1.5  cm, bottom width 2.8  cm, shinogi-zukuri,
iori-mune, and chū-kissaki nobi [4] (see also Glossary of
Japanese swords).
The front side contains a sign of
Muramasa and a mantra sign myōhō renge kyō (妙法蓮華
経) (a mantra from Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō or the Lotus
Sutra of Nichiren Buddhism).[4]
The back side contains a
year sign 永正十年葵酉十月十三日 (13th day of the 10th
month of Eishō 10, that is, November 10, 1513).[4] It is
highly probable that the date was chosen because the high Nabeshima Katsushige
priest Nichiren died on the 13th day of the 10th month of
Kōan 5 (1282).[4]
Both sides contain
beautiful engravings of Kurikara
(Fudō Myō-ō's mythological sword
empowered by a burning dragon).[4]
The style of the engravings is similar Muramasa (勢州桑名住村正) from the Tokyo National Museum
to those of the swordsmith Heianjō
Nagayoshi, so some scholars suggest
Muramasa studied under Nagayoshi.[4]
It is also silver-damascened with characters Nabeshin (鍋
信), which suggests that the sword was once in possession of Nabeshima Katsushige (1580-1657),
the first daimyō lord of Saga Domain.[4]
Later this sword was given to Katsushige's son Nabeshima
Motoshige, the first lord of Ogi Domain, and has been inherited by his successors.[4]

Muramasa's students made excellent weapons too. Fujiwara Masazane, a disciple of Muramasa,
forged Tonbokiri,[5] one of the Three Great Spears of Japan.
Masazane also forged a sword called
Inoshishi-giri (猪切, "boar-slayer") whose name came from a legend that Sakai Tadatsugu killed
a wild boar with this sword when accompanying Ieyasu in hunting.[6]

In history

Origin

The exact origin of the Muramasa school is unknown.

The oldest extant sword equipped with both
a name sign Muramasa and a date sign shows the year Bunki 1 (1501).[4][7][8]
Scholars, however,
assert several swords signed with Muramasa (but without year signs) are slightly older than 1501
in light of their styles.[4][7]
It is generally thought that the school of Muramasa spanned at least
three generations.[4]
It is hardly clear when the school disappeared, but some Muramasa swords
contain the year sign Kanbun (1661-1673).[7]

Lores in the late Muromachi period (early 16th century–1573) stated that Muramasa I was a
student of Masamune (c. 1300), the greatest swordsmith in Japan's history, and the Hon'ami
family (family dynasty of swordpolishers and sword connoisseurs) commented that his floruit was
the Jōji era (1362–1368).[9] Scholars from the Azuchi–Momoyama period (1573–1600) to modern
days, however, have dismissed the relationship of Masamune and Muramasa as fantasy because all
of extant Muramasa swords are too new to support this theory.[9]
Another theory states that

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Muramasa I was a student of Heianjō Nagayoshi, a prominent Kyoto swordsmith known for spears
and engravings.[4][10]
The school of Masashige (正重), a notable branch of the Muramasa school,
records Masashige I died in 1456, so Muramasa I was active before 1456 if we believe the record.[7]

Sengo ( 千 子 ), the epithet of Muramasa, is also covered with myths.

A common belief states
Muramasa I was born in a place called Sengo, but there is no such a place near Kuwana in
reality.[7]
Another popular legend says the mother of Muramasa I worshipped the bodhisattva
Senju Kannon and thus he was called Sengo, a shortened form of Senju no ko (千手の子, "son of
Senju").[7]

Kanzan Sato claims that the starting year of Muramasa I was Entoku and Meiō (1489-1501), that of
Muramasa II was Tenbun (1532–1539), and that of Muramasa III was Tenshō (1573–1591).[4]
On
the other hand, Suiken Fukunaga considers the floruit of Muramasa I was around Shōchō (1428-
1429) and the 1501 sword was forged by Muramasa III.[7]

Relationship to the Tokugawa dynasty

Because of their exquisite sharpness, Muramasa swords were favored especially by the samurai of
Mikawa (led by Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, and his
ancestors).[11][5]
Naturally, when a misfortune happens in the Tokugawa clan, it is often related to
Muramasa, definitely not because they are "cursed," but simply because most Mikawa samurai
used these swords.[5]
Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, a grandfather of Ieyasu, was mistakenly killed by his
own vassal Abe Masatoyo with a Muramasa.[11]
Ieyasu's father Matsudaira Hirotada was also
stabbed with a Muramasa by Iwamatsu Hachiya, who lost his mind by excessive drinking.[11]
When Ieyasu's first son Matsudaira Nobuyasu was forced to commit suicide (seppuku), his
beheader (kaishakunin) Amagata Michitsuna used a Muramasa.[11]

In spite of these unfortunate incidents, Tokugawa Ieyasu and his generation seemed to greatly
appreciate Muramasa weapons.[5]
Ieyasu himself owned two swords forged by Muramasa and left
them to his family; as of 2013, the Owari-Tokugawa family still holds one of the two as an
heirloom.[5]
Honda Tadakatsu, one of the Four Greatest Generals under Ieyasu, wielded
Tonbogiri, a legendary spear forged by Fujiwara Masazane, who studied under the Muramasa
school.[5]
Sakai Tadatsugu, another of the Four, wielded Inoshishi-giri, a sword forged by
Masazane.[6]

Later generations in the shogunate, however, gradually came to think of Muramasa as sinister
items.
Arai Hakuseki, the official scholar-bureaucrat of the shogunate, commented "Muramasa is
associated with not a few sinister events."[5]
Even Tokugawa Jikki (1849), the official history book
published from the shogunate, cites Kashiwazaki Monogatari ( 柏 崎 物 語 , 1787), which tells a
legend that Ieyasu regarded Muramasa as cursed items and banned them from his family,[12]
although it is clearly a fabricated story considering the heirloom of the Owari-Tokugawa family.

In the Bakumatsu period (1853–1868), Muramasa was somehow considered to be a curse bringer
against the shogunate, and thus shishi (anti-Tokugawa activists) wished to acquire Muramasa
blades.[4]
Even though the school of Muramasa does not have an exalted or prestigious status to be
used by the imperial family in ordinary times, a Muramasa was wielded by Prince Arisugawa
Taruhito, the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Army against the Tokugawa shogunate during
the Boshin War (1868-1869).[5]
To satisfy growing demand, forgeries of Muramasa blades were
also often made in this period.[4]

Cultural significance

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In popular culture, Muramasa swords have been often

depicted as cursed swords with demonic powers. Oscar Ratti
and Adele Westbrook said that Muramasa "was a most skillful
smith but a violent and ill-balanced mind verging on madness,
that was supposed to have passed into his blades. They were
popularly believed to hunger for blood and to impel their
warrior to commit murder or suicide."[13]
It has also been told
that once drawn, a Muramasa blade has to draw blood before
it can be returned to its scabbard, even to the point of forcing
its wielder to wound himself or commit suicide.[14] Thus, it is A Tale of Sano Jirōzaemon,
thought of as a demonic cursed blade that creates bloodlust in Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1886. People
those who wield it. rumored that Jirōzaemon murdered
his lover with a cursed sword. The
These images date back to
kabuki dramas in the 18–19th kabuki drama Kago-tsurube Sato-
century such as
Katakiuchi Tenga Jaya Mura (敵討天下茶屋 no-Eizame (1888) claimed that his
聚 ) (1781),
Hachiman Matsuri Yomiya no Nigiwai (1860), sword was forged by Muramasa.
Konoma no Hoshi Hakone no Shikabue ( 木 間 星 箱 根 鹿 笛 )
(1880),
and Kago-tsurube Sato-no-Eizame'' (1888).[2]

When Matsudaira Geki was driven mad because of power harassment from his superiors and
killed them in Edo Castle in the 6th year of Bunsei (1823), townspeople rumored that Geki used a
Muramasa, although actually the sword had no sign and there was no evidence to support the
rumor.[2]
This incident shows how great the influence of kabuki dramas upon common people
was.[2]

See also
Masamune

References
1. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, pp. 166–167.
2. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, p. 169.
3. [1] (http://www.muramasa.us/features.html) www.Muramasa.us/features
4. Sato, 1990. pp. 209-212.
5. "「尾張徳川家の至宝」展　妖刀　伝説から史実へ" (http://www.nishinippon.co.jp/feature/kyuh
aku/article/53703) [An Exhibition of the Great Treasures of the Owari-Tokugawa Family:
Cursed Sword—From Legend to History]. Nishinippon Shimbun (in Japanese). 2013-11-21.
Retrieved 2018-08-22.
6. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 1, pp. 107–108.
7. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, p. 167.
8. "ISE - SENGO MURAMASA School" (http://www.sho-shin.com/tokai2.htm). www.sho-
shin.com.
9. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, p. 166.
10. "Muramasa" (http://www.shibuiswords.com/muramasa.htm). www.shibuiswords.com. Retrieved
2017-07-08.
11. Fukunaga, 1993. vol. 5, p. 168.
12. 『徳川実紀』東照宮御実紀附録巻三 ([2] (http://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/772965), p. 162)
13. Ratti, Oscar and Adele Westbrook (1991). Secrets of the Samurai: The Martial Arts of Feudal
Japan. Tuttle Publishing. p. 263. ISBN 978-0-8048-1684-7.

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14. Stone, George Cameron (1999). A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration, and Use of Arms
and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. Dover Publications, Inc. p. 460. ISBN 978-0-486-
40726-5.

Bibliography
Sato, Kanzan (1990) (in Japanese) New Selection of 100 Noteworthy Japanese Swords (新・
日本名刀100選, Shin Nihon Meitō Hyakusen). Akita Shoten. ISBN 4-253-90009-7.
Fukunaga, Suiken (1993) (in Japanese) Encyclopedia of Japanese Swords (日本刀大百科事
典, Nihontō Daihyakka Jiten). Yūzankaku. ISBN 4-639-01202-0.

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