In the late Kamakura and Muromachi periods (thirteenth–fifteenth
centuries), the techniques of producing superior swords reached the height
of development, corresponding to the rise of the warrior class to a posi-
tion of power. Especially after the two major encounters with the Mongol
invading armies of the thirteenth century, warfare began to change in
Japan; massed armies with large numbers of foot soldiers began to replace
mounted warfare. The introduction of the gun in the mid-sixteenth cen-
tury revolutionized warfare and heightened the tendency toward massed
armies using bladed weapons. During the continuous battles of the so-
called Warring States Era (1477–1573), many great swordsmen emerged
to codify the techniques of use of the sword into specific schools (ryûha)
of swordsmanship.
Thus by the late sixteenth century, somewhat later than equestrian
skills, archery, and other forms of martial arts, swordsmanship began to be
organized, codified, written down in formal fashion, and transmitted from
teacher to pupil in the manner of other martial arts. The oldest schools
were Shintô-ryû, Kage-ryû, and Chûjô-ryû.Ryûha proliferated to well over
700 during the subsequent Tokugawa period (1600–1867).
An important transition in martial arts, including swordsmanship, oc-
curred in the Tokugawa era, when Japan entered a long period of peace and
the demand for battlefield training for warriors declined dramatically.
Among the factors affecting the learning, teaching, and practice of swords-
manship were peaceful conditions, rapid urbanization, widespread literacy,
and the professionalization of arts such as swordsmanship. Samurai were
less warriors than bureaucrats in the service of their lords or the Tokugawa
bakufu (alone).
The system of comprehensive martial skills broke down, and lance,
sword, archery, and other techniques became specialized into separate
schools. Professional teachers emerged, passing along the techniques within
families of instructors who dispensed certificates of mastery in return for
compensation. With the spread of Confucian and Zen Buddhist learning,
texts exploring the philosophical implications of techniques (waza) and
mental awareness (shin) proliferated, and swordsmanship became an im-
portant ingredient of samurai training and discipline. A number of impor-
tant texts explicating the techniques and spiritual discipline of swordsman-
ship were written from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, including such
well-known works as Yagû Munenori’s Heihô kadensho,Takuan’s Fudôchi
shimmyôroku,and Miyamoto Musashi’s Gorin no sho.
Under peaceful conditions, swordsmanship was practiced mainly
through the repetition of forms (kata) that often came far removed from
battlefield practicality. Sword practice was closed and secretive, and
matches between different schools were discouraged if not forbidden. Prac-250 Kendô