When you were a child, you may have played with swords or special effects heroes with a longing for swords.
Even when walking around town, you may have seen foreign children waving umbrellas as if they were swords, and this interest in and admiration for swords is something that everyone has experienced at least once.
You may have some idea of how swords were used, but do you know how they were actually used?
In my previous column, I looked at the history and development of the Japanese sword, and in this column, I would like to look at how the sword was used in different situations.
Japanese Sword as a Weapon
When we think of situations in which Japanese swords are used, the first thing that comes to mind is probably “warfare.
In battles, various weapons such as bows and spears were used, but do you know in which situations Japanese swords were used?
And how were Japanese swords kept outside of battle?We would like to see how Japanese swords were used outside of weapons.
Japanese Swords in Battle
Due to the influence of historical dramas, one might imagine a samurai on horseback wielding a Japanese sword in a battle, but how was the sword used in actual battles?
I would like to take a look at the data of battle reports of battles around the 13th century.
First of all, the data on horse injuries show that 61% of the injuries were arrow wounds, 35% were sword wounds, and 4% were lance wounds.Among these, horses with sword wounds were often fatally wounded.
Looking at the data on soldiers, 73% of injuries were caused by projectile weapons such as arrows, 25% by swords, and 27% by spears.
It seems that bows were often used around the 13th century, and swords were used to a lesser extent.
The Change from Swords to Spears
In the 14th century, as battles became more intense, the Japanese sword was used less and less, and the spear became the primary weapon of infantrymen.
According to the data, 98% of wounds were caused by non-projectile weapons such as bows and arrows, and only 2% by swords.
This does not mean that the sword was forgotten. Warlords called encounters with enemy soldiers “tachiuchi,” and swords remained culturally and linguistically important even though they were no longer in use.
Our image of a battle is of warlords fighting one another and many soldiers fighting with swords, but in reality, projectile weapons such as bows and stones were the main weapons used, and spears were the main weapons held by infantrymen, and swords were not used very often.
Sword Wounds in Battles
Japanese swords were not often used in battles, but when they were used, how and under what circumstances were they used?
First of all, the Japanese sword is a hard blade, but it is also flexible, making it a sturdier blade than spears and other blades.
In those days, all infantrymen wore simple armor in battle, and some warriors protected their heads with helmets.No matter how strong the blade is, it will break if it strikes the helmet.Also, when a samurai cut an opponent, it was sometimes impossible for the sword to escape from the opponent’s body.
Therefore, it is thought that the sword was used as a stabbing sword, not as a slashing sword.
Record of Sword Scratches
Swords come in various sizes.
Not only swords made for cutting, but also heavy swords with non-sharp edges were made to strike the enemy’s helmet, and some swords were used to keep the enemy stunned so that even a follower could keep him at bay.Today, when you see swords from that period in museums, they do not seem to be able to withstand blows, but this may be because the blades have been sharpened many times from that time until they are preserved today, and the blades have become slimmer.
When looking at sword wounds on corpses from battles in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), it is said that many of them had wounds on the forehead and the top of the head.There were various skulls with parallel cuts and skulls that had been damaged by swords.These wounds indicate that the skull was struck several times with a sword in the area of the skull at that time.
There are also reports of a horse that survived seven slashes and a soldier who survived 13 slashes, so we can imagine that they were fighting at a distance where they could leave shallow wounds with the tip of their swords.
Considering these facts, we can imagine that swords were used to strike heavy blows to stunned or immobilized opponents, or from behind, when the opponent was unable to resist, or for emergency situations.
White Sheaths and Japanese Swords
Are you familiar with what is called a white scabbard?
The Japanese sword is often thought of as being in a black scabbard with the tsubasa between the hilt and the body of the sword.
On the other hand, the white scabbard is the one you might imagine used by yakuza in historical dramas.The white scabbard is a wooden hilt and scabbard only, and the exterior is made of white wood and fastened with Mekugi (nails).
When was this white scabbard used?
The white scabbard was used to control the humidity inside the scabbard and to prevent the blade from rusting or deteriorating because it was made of wood only.
The white scabbard often appears in chivalrous movies, but in reality the sword could not be used in its white scabbard state because the white scabbard was only glued together with glue made from rice grains kneaded into it.
The white scabbard was relatively new, appearing in the late Edo period, and only became popular after the sword abolition ordinance of the Meiji period.
Delivery of Japanese swords as votive offerings
Japanese swords are more rare than other weapons because there are more of them in existence.
The reason for this is that although swords were valuable, they were less expensive than other weapons and armor, and each sword was often named after a samurai, donated to other samurai, or dedicated to temples and shrines.
Because of their beauty and mystique, swords were sometimes used for religious purposes, and during the cholera epidemic of the Edo period, they were dedicated to exorcise the plague.
Samurai and Japanese Swords
The Japanese sword is often associated with the samurai, but when did the samurai come to be associated with the Japanese sword?
It was not until the Edo period (1603-1868) that a samurai was required to carry two swords, one large and one small.
Even before the Edo period, swords were still valued, but the prize in battles was not a sword but a spear.
Have you ever heard of the term “first spear”?
This term refers to the prize given to the warrior who first defeated the enemy in battle.
It was not until the Edo period (1603-1867) that the samurai and the Japanese sword became more closely connected. The status system was clarified and there were restrictions on the possession of swords by those who were not samurai.
Summary
The Japanese sword seems to have the strongest image as a weapon of the samurai.However, when we look into it, we find that it was not used much in battles, and even in many periods, it played only about a quarter of the role as a weapon that affected the war situation.
Even so, the fact that the Japanese sword survived the abolition of the sword and was still in existence after the war, even though it was restricted by GHQ, is evidence that the Japanese sword was treated as a very important item.
