戦後刀狩り期

Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945, triggered a crisis for Japanese sword culture of unprecedented severity. GHQ occupation authorities ordered the confiscation of all swords as part of Japan's disarmament—a directive that made no distinction between battlefield military swords and centuries-old artistic masterpieces. Millions of blades were surrendered, and vast numbers were destroyed, melted, or shipped overseas as war trophies. The scale of potential cultural loss galvanized Japan's sword scholarly community into emergency action. Hon'ami Kōson and fellow sword connoisseurs mounted an urgent campaign to have Japanese swords reclassified from 'weapons' to 'art objects and cultural properties,' arguing to GHQ authorities that the finest examples were artistic achievements equivalent to European old master paintings. By 1948, GHQ accepted the 'bijutsu tōken' (art sword) designation, exempting authenticated cultural swords from confiscation orders—a recognition with profound and lasting implications. In 1948, this victory was institutionalized in the founding of the Society for the Preservation of Japanese Art Swords (NBTHK), which established systematic authentication standards still recognized globally today. GHQ officers who personally fell under the sword's aesthetic spell also played an unexpected role: some purchased or preserved outstanding blades that might otherwise have been destroyed, and some of these eventually returned to Japan. The 1958 Firearms and Swords Control Law formalized sword registration under prefectural boards of education, legally codifying swords as cultural properties rather than weapons. This period—from catastrophic threat through emergency preservation to legal protection—constitutes the most dramatic survival story in Japanese sword history.