Now many people say that the spirit of Japanese craftsmen, feel that they strive for excellence, there is a pursuit of the product to the extreme; in fact, this spirit of Japanese craftsmen, at the beginning, appeared in the craftsmen who made weapons and armor, of which the knife smith was the most. In ancient Japan, a well-forged knife can definitely sell for a sky-high price; and the knife maker is also a knife maker who pays attention to inheritance, cherishes the reputation, and the better the reputation, the better the business.
Moreover, the reason why the samurai at that time paid a large price for the sword, in addition to symbolizing the status and family wealth, more importantly, in order to save their lives on the battlefield, once they found that the knife they bought was an inferior product, the knife maker must not be able to run away, and the knife maker family must also be finished; in short, under the interaction of various benefits and constraints, the knife makers must be refined for forging knives, forging the sword to the extreme, a good knife, can be passed down as an heirloom.
At that time, the Muramasa family living in Ise-san was probably one of the most famous forging sword families; it is said that there were three generations of Muramasa, and at least 3 or 4 people in each generation used Muramasa as a sword inscription at the same time, that is to say, a total of about ten swordsmiths used "Muramasa" as a sword inscription, and the Muramasa sword not only had a gorgeous pattern decoration, but also was extremely sharp, and it was a real famous sword that countless samurai dreamed of; but why was such a famous sword called a demon sword, and even a forbidden sword in the Edo period?
In fact, this has to be talked about with Tokugawa Ieyasu, and I don't know whether it is the fixed number in the underworld, or the reason for other unclear mysteries, in short, this village masaki seems to be born into the Tokugawa family, and is the highest status person, such as the family governor or the heir of the family governor. It is recorded that Tokugawa Ieyasu's grandfather Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was killed by Muramasa, the seventh generation of the Matsudaira clan (Tokugawa), a genius-level general who was both wise and courageous.
Matsudaira Kiyonyasu became the head of the Matsudaira family at the age of 13, and it was his father Matsudaira Nobunaga who abdicated on his own initiative; and it turned out that Matsudaira Nobunaga did not look away, Matsudaira Kiyonyasu occupied the entire Mikawa Kingdom in the blink of an eye, and attacked Owari Kingdom from the north, Oda Nobunaga's father Oda Nobunaga, although also a genius-level general, was still suppressed by Matsudaira Kiyonaga and had no power to fight back. However, just as Matsudaira Kiyoyasu was preparing to annex Owari Kingdom in one fell swoop, he was killed by his subordinate Masahiro Abe, who was only 25 years old, and Abe Masatoshi used the Murasaki sword.
Later, it was Tokugawa Ieyasu's father, Matsudaira Hirotada, and although after Matsudaira Kiyoyasu's death, his younger brother Matsudaira Nobunaga suppressed this branch of the family with all his might, but Matsudaira Hirutaka was also extraordinary; at that time, Oda Nobunaga of the Owari Kingdom, in order to avenge the civil unrest of the Matsudaira clan of the Mikawa Kingdom, marched south in an attempt to annex the Mikawa Kingdom in one fell swoop; Matsudaira Hiroshi, at the suggestion of his courtiers, allied with the Imagawa clan to jointly resist the Oda clan's attack, and after two arduous battles (the Battle of Odosaka), finally defeated Oda Nobuhide.
At this time, Matsudaira Nobunaga died, which was a great opportunity for Matsudaira Hirotaku to reorganize the Mikawa Kingdom, but at this time, Matsudaira Hirotata died mysteriously, at the age of 24; it is said that when he was on a hunting tour, he was cut in the thigh by Iwama Hachiya, a courtier of the Sakuma clan on the Oda side, with a knife, and the result was that the blood flowed non-stop, and this Iwamatsu Yatsumi used the Murasaki sword; Matsudaira Hirotaku's death once again deprived the Matsudaira family of the opportunity to unify the Three Rivers Kingdom.
After the death of Matsudaira Hiroshi, Matsudaira Ieyasu (Tokugawa Ieyasu), who was a hostage at Imakawa Yoshimoto, was sent back and through the various operations of Tokugawa Ieyasu (if you remember a little, I will not write Matsudaira Ieyasu), especially after allying with Oda Nobunaga, the Mikawa Kingdom finally rose, Oda Nobunaga did not say that he was not defeated, but he was definitely victorious and defeated, especially when the first Time Nobunaga surrounded the net, Oda Nobunaga encountered a major crisis, fortunately, the Tokugawa Army broke the Asakura Army and joined forces to attack the Asai Army, and finally defeated the combined forces of Asai and Asakura, helping Oda Nobunaga to win.
Therefore, Oda Nobunaga was quite good to Tokugawa Ieyasu, at least at the time of the Honnoji Temple, Tokugawa Ieyasu was already a super daimyo who ruled Mikawa, Tone, Suruga, Kai, and Shinano. However, although Oda Nobunaga was kind to Tokugawa Ieyasu, one thing that made Tokugawa Ieyasu heartbroken, Tokugawa Ieyasu's eldest son was called Matsudaira Nobuyasu (Tokugawa Nobuyasu), who was very capable and famous, and was the future heir of Tokugawa Ieyasu and many of the Tokugawa family's courtiers, and his wife was Oda Nobunaga's daughter Tokuhime.
However, Tokuhime and her mother-in-law, Lady Chikuyama, have a very bad relationship, and they are in the same situation; this Lady Chikuyama is not an ordinary person, she is the niece of Yoshimoto Imagawa. Once, after suffering a loss, Tokuhime ran to her father Oda Nobunaga to cry about how her mother-in-law had bullied her, and also reported that Lady Chikuyama had secretly had contacts with the Takeda clan of Kaifi; Oda Nobunaga felt that this information was a bit serious, so he sent someone to investigate the matter, and the report was: Lady Chikuyama did indeed secretly communicate with the Takeda clan and prepared to force Ieyasu to abdicate, and let his heir Son Nobuyasu inherit the Tokugawa family.
This frightened Oda Nobunaga, because Tokugawa Ieyasu was one of his most trusted helpers, and Mikawa was next to Owari, and if the Tokugawa family really allied with the Takeda clan, it would be miserable for him, so he forced Tokugawa Ieyasu to execute Matsudaira Nobunaga; Tokugawa Ieyasu, the old turtle, was really able to endure, even if there were a thousand and ten thousand unwilling in his heart, in the end he could only refuse the request of his courtiers, let Matsudaira Nobuyasu commit suicide, I don't know if it was a coincidence or how, the knife that Matsudaira Nobuyasu used to kill himself was also the Muramasa knife...
After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu began to seize the world, in which in the crucial Battle of Sekigahara, Tokugawa Ieyasu was cut off by the Muramasa sword; thinking of the coincidences of his own family and the Murasaki, his grandfather Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, his father Matsudaira Hirotada, and his eldest son Matsudaira Nobuyasu all died under the Murasaki sword, and he was injured by the Murasaki sword, where in the world is there such a coincidence? Therefore, he felt that this Muramasa sword and his own family were "offending", and after he unified Japan, he ordered that the Muramasa sword be listed as a forbidden knife, and no one should hide it privately, but must destroy it.
After Tokugawa Ieyasu banned the sword, the term "demon knife" was generalized, almost all muramasa were called "demon knives", and during the reign of the Edo shogunate (Tokugawa shogunate), many people also made up many strange and bizarre stories for the Murasaki, in order to make the world afraid of the muramasa. But what I didn't expect was that there were still people who risked the risk of hiding the Murasaki sword secretly, and by the end of the shogunate, those who had fallen behind the shogun were proud to have the Murasaki sword, so there were a large number of Murasaki swords on the market, but most of them were fakes...