寛政改革期

The Kansei Reforms (1787–93), driven by Rōjū Matsudaira Sadanobu in reaction to the corrupt opulence of the Tanuma era and the devastation of the Tenmei Famines, imposed comprehensive sumptuary austerity across all social classes. For the sword world, this meant concrete restrictions on ornate sword fittings: elaborately chased tsuba, menuki, kozuka, and kōgai — which had reached new heights of extravagance under Tanuma's patronage — were curtailed. The celebrated Gotō metalworking lineage and other prominent fittings craftsmen felt the economic impact acutely. Yet paradoxically, the restrictions catalyzed a new aesthetic of 'refinement within simplicity,' shifting appreciation from ostentatious display toward intrinsic artistic quality — a sensibility that would mature into the superb fittings culture of the Bunka-Bunsei era. The most historically significant sword-world event of the Kansei period, however, was the systematic formulation of Suishinshi Masahide's (1750–1825) classical revival doctrine. Working as a leading Edo smith, Masahide was developing his penetrating critique of contemporary Shintō swordmaking — its thin hardening, off-center hi, and departure from classical standards — and articulating in works such as 'Tōken Bengi' the conviction that Heian-Kamakura kotō represented the true ideal of Japanese swordmaking. This intellectual framework became the founding ideology of the Shinshintō movement. Simultaneously, the era opened with Russia's Laxman mission to Ezo (1792), inaugurating the 'foreign pressure' (gaikoku no appaku) era that would eventually transform sword culture by reconnecting it to martial necessity. Masahide's classical revival and the emerging awareness of external threat formed a resonant chord that would amplify through Bunka-Bunsei and culminate in the Bakumatsu-era Shinshintō masters' passionate pursuit of swords capable of actual use in national defense.