天保改革期

Mizuno Tadakuni's Tenpō Reforms (1841–43), launched against the backdrop of the catastrophic Tenpō Famines (1833–39) and deepening shogunal fiscal crisis, enacted the most severe sumptuary legislation of the Edo period. The dissolution of kabu-nakama (merchant guilds) shattered existing distribution networks for swords and fittings, flooding the market with fakes and destroying quality-control mechanisms. The luxury prohibitions specifically targeted ornate sword fittings, putting prominent metalworkers out of business. Yet this same period witnessed the simultaneous flowering of the Shinshintō movement's greatest masters. Minamoto Kiyomaro (1813–1854), nicknamed 'the Masamune of the late Edo period,' was achieving perfect reconstruction of the Sōshū tradition's powerful nie-based hamon — his tantō and katana with violent nie-deki showing intense kinsuji and sunagashi command the highest prices among Edo-period swords in the modern market. Taikei Naotane (1768–1844), working until his final years, was completing his life's work of Bizen-tradition revival, forging tachi with pale utsuri and gorgeous chōji-midare as the capstone of the classical revival movement. The Tenpō period was simultaneously shaped by the rising sonnō-jōi (revere the emperor, expel the barbarians) ideology emanating from the Mito School, which fused with the sword-revival movement to produce a powerful ideological complex: Japanese swords as embodiments of the national spirit that must be restored to functional perfection to defend the country from foreign encroachment. This spiritual elevation of the sword, ironically intensified by the social pressure of sumptuary laws and political instability, set the passionate tone of Bakumatsu sword culture. The reform's failure with Mizuno's dismissal in 1843 merely accelerated the political disintegration that would culminate in Perry's arrival a decade later.