Sword (unsigned, with Sanskrit Characters and Seven Stars

A Straight Blade Written Over with Stars and Sanskrit

At Uesugi Shrine in Yonezawa, in the snow country of Yamagata Prefecture, sits a sword that was never built to cut. It measures only about 41.5 centimeters, and both faces of the blade are crowded with gold and silver. On the front, seven small stars sit above a line of forty-six Sanskrit characters set into the steel in gold. Turn it over and sixty-three more characters run down the back, inlaid in gold and silver together. This is a ken, a straight, double-edged blade, not the long curved katana most people picture when they think of a Japanese sword.

The piece is unsigned, and its smith left no date. Specialists place it in the Muromachi period (1336 to 1573). Its full registered name describes exactly what makes it unusual: a sword, unsigned, bearing gold and silver inlay of Sanskrit letters and the seven stars on the body.

The seven stars are the Big Dipper. In the star lore that reached Japan from China, the Dipper governed fate, lifespan, and the fortunes of war, and warriors prayed to it for protection. The Sanskrit letters are bonji, seed syllables written in the Siddham script, each one standing for a Buddhist deity. A blade carrying both is an object of prayer first and a weapon second, if at all.

Why It Matters

Swords inlaid with the seven stars are rare in Japan. Only a handful survive. The most celebrated is the National Treasure known as the Shichiseiken at Shitenno-ji in Osaka, a straight blade of the Asuka period traditionally linked to Prince Shotoku, with stars and auspicious clouds set in gold. A few others remain among the treasures of the Shosoin repository and the objects donated from Horyu-ji. The Yonezawa sword belongs to this small group, which is why it was recognized so early.

It was first designated under Japan's prewar protection system in 1917. When the present Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties took effect on August 29, 1950, the sword carried over as a national Important Cultural Property, the rank it holds today. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records that 1950 date; the prefecture's own register notes the earlier 1917 recognition. Both refer to the same blade at different moments in the country's heritage law.

The blade itself withholds part of its story. Its surface is coated in lacquer, so the grain of the steel and the temper line that a sword scholar would normally read are hidden from view. What can be seen is the tang, which is unaltered, tapering to a point, pierced by a single peg hole. The inlay does the talking instead, and the count of the characters, forty-six on one side and sixty-three on the other, suggests a deliberate program of invocation rather than decoration.

What to Look For

By tradition the sword belonged to Uesugi Kenshin, the sixteenth-century warlord of Echigo whom later generations called a god of war. Kenshin was devoted to Bishamonten, the Buddhist guardian of warriors, and flew a banner bearing the single character for that deity. The sword is remembered as his basai no tsurugi. Basai was the rite of honoring the war deity at the place where an army made camp, so the name points to ritual use on campaign rather than to fighting. The attribution is traditional, and the blade carries no inscription to confirm it, but the symbolism fits a commander known for binding faith and warfare together.

The sword comes with its own scabbard, listed as an attached property in the designation. The lacquerer worked it in gold nashiji, a ground flecked with gold particles, and laid the twelve animals of the zodiac across it in maki-e, six on each face. Time has taken the hilt and the small cord knob, the kurikata, that once sat on the scabbard's side. Even incomplete, the scabbard shows how far the makers went to dress a blade meant for the gods.

The sword lives in the Keishoden, the treasure hall of Uesugi Shrine. It is not on permanent display. The hall rotates its exhibits, drawing on a collection of roughly three hundred objects that includes more than a hundred national Important Cultural Properties, so seeing this particular blade depends on the season and the program. Checking the hall's schedule before a visit is worth the effort.

Around the Shrine

Uesugi Shrine stands on the site of Yonezawa Castle, inside Matsugasaki Park, and honors Kenshin himself. The grounds are open year round and free to enter, with a moat, stone walls, and rows of pines and cherry trees that mark the old castle plan. The Keishoden treasure hall is a short walk inside the grounds; the building, designed by the architect Ito Chuta and completed in 1923, is itself a registered cultural property.

About four minutes on foot brings you to the Yonezawa City Uesugi Museum, which holds the Uesugi family documents and the Uesugi version of the Rakuchu Rakugai folding screens, both National Treasures. The adjoining Matsumine Shrine honors Uesugi Yozan, the reforming lord of the eighteenth century. Yonezawa is also famous for its beef, and several restaurants near the park serve it.