江雪左文字

The siege of Odawara in 1590 was one of the defining events of the Sengoku period: Toyotomi Hideyoshi brought an army of a hundred thousand to reduce the last major independent power in eastern Japan. After three months, the Hōjō submitted. Before surrendering, Hōjō Ujimasa shaved his head, took the monastic name Kōsetsu-sai (River Snow Hermit), and named his beloved sword after his new religious identity. Then he died by his own hand. The sword that bore his name passed to Tokugawa Ieyasu — who kept it, kept its name, kept faith with the history encoded in that name. Kōsetsu Samonji thus carries within it two men: the warrior who named it in his final moments, and the conqueror who chose to honor that name. To hold the name 'River Snow' in mind while looking at its bold, wave-like hamon is to feel the strange peace of a warrior who chose monasticism and death over surrender.