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The Japanese word samurai means 'one who serves'. The first samurai were warriors fighting for the emperor against the tribes of northern Japan in the late eighth century. From the tenth century the central government in Kyoto lost interest in governing the provinces, and samurai began to seize land and wealth and form private armies. Their leaders demanded absolute loyalty from their followers. Eventually, two clans, the Minamoto and the Heike faced each other in the Gempei Wars (1180-85). The victorious Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-99) set up his military government in Kamakura and was made Shogun in 1192. The samurai ethic emphasized austerity, self-control and a constant readiness for death, and the warriors favoured the rigorous Zen Buddhist sect.

The title Shogun, or seii taishôgun meaning 'Great Barbarian-Quelling General', was first used in the eighth century for the emperor's generals fighting in the north. However, from 1185, the title was given to the military dictators who controlled the whole country, including the emperor. However, shoguns in theory still owed their authority to the emperors who reigned as successors to Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess. The three shogunates were the Kamakura Shogunate (1185-1333) the Ashikaga or Muromachi Shogunate (1338-1573) and the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868).

During the period of Warring States (1477-1568) even the shoguns had little control over lawless warlords who built castles and attacked their neighbours. However, from 1568 a succession of three military leaders, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu unified the country. In his sword-hunt of 1588, Hideyoshi disarmed farmers and forced samurai to move to towns where they were easier to control. Ieyasu became Shogun in 1603.

During the comparatively peaceful Edo period, the samurai headed the strict class system. Since there were no wars to fight, Yamaga Sokô wrote The Way of the Warrior to remind samurai of their traditional role and way of life. However, with the abolition of the shogunate at the Meiji Restoration, the samurai class too lost their status.

Length: 32.1 cm

Mino school, Japan
16th century AD

This dagger blade is signed by the swordsmith Kanefusa I. The hamon, the crystalline pattern on the edge of the blade, is in the hako gunome (box-shaped) style which Kanefusa developed.

The Mino school was one of the three leading groups of swordsmiths in Japan from the second half of the fifteenth century, but sword production considerably decreased therein the late sixteenth century, shortly before the country was unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.

Length: 112.5 cm

Sword travelling-case with grapevine design

From Japan
Momoyama period, late 16th or early 17th century AD

Daimyô, provincial governors, and other high-ranking samurai carried swords mounted either as katana or tachi types. However, they were not able to wear these long swords when travelling in a palanquin (covered litter), when their swords accompanied them in cases carried by attendants.

This sword case is made of lacquered wood with gold makie and shell inlay with an all-over design of a grapevine. The outer leather case has the mon (family crest) of the owner in gold leaf.

Length: 97.2 cm

Sword mounting in itamaki tachi style

From Japan
Edo period, 18th century AD

There were two ways of carrying Japanese swords: tachi-type swords were worn suspended by cords with armour and uchigatana-type swords were worn thrust through the belt. They both had scabbards of lacquered magnolia wood. Hilts were covered with the hardened skin of the rayfish and bound, usually with silk braid, to give a good grip. Itomaki means 'bound with cords'.

This is an elaborate tachi-style sword-mounting from the Edo period (1600-1868). At this time the country was at peace, but daimyô and other high-ranking samurai would have required such ornate pieces for wear when travelling in procession to and from the capital Edo (modern Tokyo). The mounting is decorated with a motif known as the triple paving-stone or triple chequer, the mon or family crest of the Tsuchiya family.

The blade is signed by Sukesada, a sixteenth-century swordsmith from Bizen Province.

Length: 7.1 cm

Tsuba (sword guard)

From Mino Province, Japan
Edo period, 17th century AD

This tsuba is made of shakudô with gold and silver inlay on an nanako ground. It has a lively design of seasonal flowers and grasses and deer. It was possibly made by a member of the Gotô family who developed the use of shakudô and were the official metalworkers working for the Ashikaga (1338-1573) and later the Tokugawa shoguns (1600-1868).

Diameter: 8.6 cm

Iron tsuba (sword guard)

From Japan
Muromachi period, 15th-16th century AD

This tsuba (sword guard) has a sombre appearance compared to many, though the plain iron disc is decorated, with circular bands of evenly spaced inlaid sentoku (brass) dots around a central ring. Tsuba like this were are thought to have been fisrt made in the Ônin era (1457-69) when a civil war ravaged Kyoto, but no signed pieces survive, so we know nothing of the makers.