Tachi Sword (inscription Made by Sane Asaku on June 1st, 3rd

A 700-Year-Old Tachi Forged in the Year a Shogunate Fell: The Jitsua Sword at Atsuta Jingu

At Atsuta Jingu in Nagoya, the great shrine that enshrines one of the three sacred imperial treasures of Japan, a single tachi (long sword) carries within its blade two distinct moments in history. Its tang bears the inscription "Made by Jitsua on the first day of the sixth month, third year of Genkō" — the very year, 1333, when the Kamakura shogunate fell. More than two centuries later, in 1595, a samurai named Matsushita Koichirō Morikatsu had a second inscription engraved on the ridge of the same blade, dedicating it to the great deity of Atsuta. Designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan, this sword is a rare surviving work by the Chikuzen master swordsmith Jitsua, and one of the most historically resonant blades in the shrine's vast collection of more than 450 sacred swords.

Historical Background

To understand this sword, one must understand two periods at once. It was forged in early summer of 1333 in Chikuzen Province (present-day Fukuoka Prefecture), where a brilliant lineage of swordsmiths had emerged in the wake of the Mongol invasions of the late thirteenth century. After the second invasion of 1281, the Kamakura shogunate strengthened the defenses of northern Kyushu, and a community of skilled craftsmen gathered at the Hakata Dangisho, an institution under the patronage of Buddhist authorities. From this milieu rose the lineage of Ryōsai, Sairen Kuniyoshi, and Jitsua — the master who forged this tachi — whose family would culminate one generation later in Samonji, counted among the famed Ten Disciples of Masamune.

Why This Sword Was Designated an Important Cultural Property

The tachi was registered as a national Important Cultural Property because it satisfies several rare conditions at once. First, it is a securely dated work by a master whose authentic blades survive in only small numbers. Second, the tang remains in its original ubu (unaltered) state, with the original signature and date intact. Third, it is unusually well preserved, retaining its strong original curvature of about 3.7 centimeters across a blade length of 83.7 centimeters — proportions that allow scholars to study the precise aesthetic of late Kamakura Chikuzen sword-making at first hand.

Equally important is the second inscription on the blade. Carved on the shinogi-ji, the narrow ridge surface of the sword, is a dedication recording that on an auspicious day in the fifth month of Bunroku 4 (1595), Matsushita Koichirō Morikatsu offered the sword to the great deity of Atsuta with prayers for the fulfillment of all his wishes. This kind of "added inscription" — known as kiritsuke-mei in Japanese — is itself a distinctive tradition at Atsuta Jingu, where many dedicated blades bear later engravings recording the act of donation. A single sword therefore preserves the work of a fourteenth-century craftsman, the prayer of a sixteenth-century warrior, and the unbroken devotion of a shrine that has received offerings of swords for well over a thousand years.

Highlights and Things to Appreciate

Visiting the Sword

The sword is held in the collection of Atsuta Jingu and is shown periodically at the shrine's dedicated Sword Pavilion, the Tsurugi-no-Hōko Kusanagi-kan, which opened in October 2021. The pavilion was built specifically to display the shrine's swords, with each blade presented in its own glass case so that visitors can study both faces of the weapon — including the "kiritsuke-mei" dedication inscriptions that are an Atsuta speciality. Important Cultural Property blades like the Jitsua tachi rotate in and out of display alongside other treasures, so visitors interested in seeing this particular sword are encouraged to check the current exhibition list before traveling.

Atsuta Jingu itself is one of the most important Shinto shrines in Japan. Its main object of worship is the Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi, the Grass-Cutting Sword, which is one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. Because of this, swords have been offered to the shrine for centuries by emperors, warriors, and ordinary devotees alike. Today the collection numbers more than 450 blades, including roughly twenty designated as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties.

Around the Shrine

A visit to see the sword pairs naturally with exploration of the wider shrine grounds. Within the wooded precincts stand the Nobunaga-bei, a great earthen wall donated by Oda Nobunaga in thanks for victory at the Battle of Okehazama in 1560, and a thousand-year-old camphor tree said to have been planted by the Buddhist priest Kūkai. The Kokoro-no-Komichi, a quiet path through the inner forest, leads past smaller subsidiary shrines including the Ichi-no-Misaki Jinja, which enshrines an aspect of the sun goddess Amaterasu.

For food, the area around the shrine is famous for hitsumabushi, a Nagoya specialty in which grilled freshwater eel is served over rice and eaten in three different ways. The historic restaurant Atsuta Hōraiken, just minutes from the shrine, is among the most celebrated places to try the dish. Slightly further afield, central Nagoya offers Nagoya Castle, the gleaming Tokugawa Art Museum, and the lively Ōsu shopping district.