Hishisaku Uchigatana (Unsigned)

Hishizukuri Uchigatana: A National Treasure That Named an Era of Swords

In the forested precincts of Kasuga Taisha in Nara, the great shrine of the Fujiwara clan, there rests a short sword of deceptively quiet appearance. Its scabbard, black-lacquered and scattered with gilt diamond-flower crests, measures barely over seventy centimeters from end to end. Yet within this slender, elegant fitting sleeps one of the most important objects in the entire history of the Japanese sword. The National Treasure known as the Hishizukuri Uchigatana — literally, "the uchigatana with diamond-pattern fittings" — carries on its accompanying box the oldest secure written occurrence of the word uchigatana itself. In other words, this is the sword that gave its name to the weapon class that would come to define the samurai.

Dedicated to the shrine on the twenty-second day of the first month of Shitoku 2 (1385) by the former court councillor Hamuro Nagamune, the blade and its fittings preserve, almost intact, the moment when Japanese swordsmanship began its transformation from the long curved tachi of mounted warriors to the shorter, edge-up blade of foot combat. For overseas visitors to Nara with an interest in samurai culture, this is a quietly spectacular object that rewards every minute spent before it.

Historical Background

Kasuga Taisha was founded in 768 as the tutelary shrine of the powerful Fujiwara clan, enshrining four deities including Takemikazuchi-no-mikoto, a kami associated with martial virtue and said to have descended upon Mount Mikasa riding on a white deer. From the Heian period onward, members of the imperial family, the nobility, and the samurai class offered treasures to Kasuga in astonishing quantity, so much so that the shrine's collection is sometimes called the "Shōsōin of the Heian age." Swords, armor, mirrors, lacquerware, and musical instruments accumulated over the centuries, and today Kasuga holds one of the largest assemblages of National Treasure arms and armor in Japan.

Why It Was Designated a National Treasure

The Hishizukuri Uchigatana was designated an Important Cultural Property and elevated to National Treasure status on the same day, June 28, 1956. The designation rests on three pillars that together make this one small sword irreplaceable.

First is its documentary importance. The inscription inside the lid of the cedar storage box — "菱作打刀" — is the earliest dated, secure written use of the term uchigatana in Japanese. Swords of this emerging class had existed for some time, but scholars had no way to confirm what contemporaries called them until this box inscription placed the name on paper in 1385. The sword is therefore the linguistic anchor for a pivotal concept in Japanese material culture.

Second is its position as a forerunner of the Muromachi-period mainstream. From the fifteenth century onward, the uchigatana — worn edge-up through the sash for rapid drawing — overtook the older tachi as the standard sidearm of the warrior class, eventually evolving into what the world now calls the katana. This shrine sword stands at the very beginning of that lineage.

Third is the exceptional quality of craftsmanship in the koshirae (mounting). The fittings combine black lacquer, gold inlay, silver edging, and intricate openwork with a level of refinement rarely preserved intact from the fourteenth century. The cedar box itself, bearing the dedicatory inscription, is jointly included in the National Treasure designation — a relatively uncommon honor for a container.

Artistic Highlights

Visitor Information

The Hishizukuri Uchigatana is held at the Kasuga Taisha Kokuhōden (National Treasure Museum), a modern museum building within the shrine precincts that opened in its current form in 2016. Because museum pieces are fragile, displays rotate and no single object is always on view, but this sword is among the more frequently exhibited works in the shrine's sword collection, particularly during winter and spring special exhibitions devoted to arms and armor.

The museum is a short walk from the main worship hall of Kasuga Taisha and can be reached easily from central Nara. Admission to the museum is separate from shrine entry and supports the continuing conservation of objects like this sword. Before traveling specifically to see this work, visitors are strongly encouraged to check the current exhibition schedule on the shrine's official website, as the sword is not permanently on display.

Photography policies, seasonal hours, and special exhibition surcharges may vary, and information about current displays is posted in both Japanese and English on the official site.

Surrounding Attractions

A visit to the Hishizukuri Uchigatana combines naturally with a wider tour of Nara Park and its world heritage sites. The path leading to Kasuga Taisha is lined with some three thousand stone lanterns offered over nine centuries, and the park itself is famous for the freely roaming sacred deer that have lived around the shrine since its founding.

Within walking distance lie Tōdai-ji with its colossal Great Buddha, the former Fujiwara family temple of Kōfuku-ji with its five-story pagoda, and the Nara National Museum, which regularly stages major exhibitions of Buddhist art and occasionally displays works on loan from Kasuga. Mount Wakakusa rises behind the park and offers wide views back over the ancient capital, while the quieter side-path to Wakamiya Shrine leads through some of the most atmospheric cedar groves in the region. A full day, ideally longer, allows visitors to experience not just this single sword but the entire cultural and natural landscape that preserved it.