Zen masters, however, did not themselves teach the physical details of
fencing; instead they laid their stress on correct moral attitude. When the
swordsman unfetters his mind in combat he will not watch his enemy’s
blade, as such an action would be fatal in itself, causing his reflexes to be
slow. Instead he must make his mind fluid and free of all stops; then his
sword will become fully alive and give him the victory. In short, Zen pro-
vided an ideological framework ideally suited to the emerging samurai.
During the year 1574, Oda Nobunaga, a minor daimyo in central
Japan, marched to the capital, ostensibly as the champion of a rival
claimant to the title of shôgun, and proceeded to establish himself as an
“advisor” to a virtually puppet shôgun. This was the beginning of the
Azuchi-Momoyama period, and mass warfare was employed with the goal
of unifying Japan. His two successors, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, of peasant
birth, elevated to a general through his ability, and Tokugawa Ieyasu, a
daimyo of medium wealth and power in western Japan (whose claims to
descent from the Minamoto clan have been discredited by modern histori-
ans), fulfilled his dream—but only after fielding hundreds of thousands of
sword- and matchlock-wielding foot soldiers against their enemies. Even-
tually, all opposition (including the remnants of the Toyotomi clan) was
decimated by the Tokugawa, and peace descended upon the land.
During the peaceful times known variously as the Edo or Tokugawa
period, massed battle between provincial lords ended, and the time of wan-
dering swordsmen was ushered in. These itinerant stalwarts would journey
from province to province, seeking to improve their knowledge by chal-
lenging the local master. Sword blades shrunk to about 26 1/2 inches with
a shallow tori-zori (greatest curve in the center) in order to facilitate a
quick draw, and the art of iaijutsucame into being.
Swordsmanship had developed all the way from being a technique uti-
lized as a secondary measure on the battlefield into the primary method of
combat. The shape along with the length of the sword changed to accom-
modate the changed function.
The Japanese sword evolved from the delicate tachi with its blade of
28 or more inches in the Heian period to the wide, bold blades of 34 or
more inches in the Yoshino-Nambokucho period, and eventually arrived at
a standard length of about 26 1/2 inches during the late Muromachi pe-
riod, a standard maintained well into the Edo, Gendaitô, and Shinsakutô
periods. Combat techniques ran the gamut from mounted individual com-
bat, to massed melees of infantry battles, and back into individual combat
on foot sans armor and horse. Combat training finally made a transition
into “fencing,” in which practitioners, using bamboo and hardwood
“blades,” honed their skills against others, while reserving the honorable
heirlooms for cutting pseudo-bodies manufactured of rice-straw. Finally,
Sword, Japanese 569