Kantei
Colour print: a nobleman in court robes strikes a blade on the anvil with a hammer, while a smith holds it with tongs by the fire; behind them, a seated lady.

Emperor, poet and patron of forging · early Kamakura

Gotoba-in (後鳥羽院)

The retired emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239), whom tradition makes a swordsmith and the patron of the rotating smiths: what is documented, the tradition, the chrysanthemum tachi and his sources

Gotoba-in (後鳥羽院, Gotoba-in) is the retired emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239), the 82nd emperor of Japan. He is not a documented swordsmith: tradition credits him with gathering smiths from several provinces in monthly rotations, the 御番鍛冶 (goban-kaji), and with tempering blades himself, marked with a chrysanthemum, the 菊御作 (kiku gosaku). Here what is documented is separated from what is tradition.

歌川国芳 (Utagawa Kuniyoshi), Library of Congress, via Wikimedia Commons

1180
Born
1183–1198
Reign
12
Rotating smiths in 1208, according to tradition
1239
Dies in exile on Oki
On this page
  1. Quick profile
  2. In short

Quick profile

Name
Gotoba-in, the retired emperor Go-Toba; personal name 尊成 (Takahira or Takanari). In 1239 he received the posthumous name Kentoku-in, which was changed to Gotoba-in in 1242 HD
Kanji and reading
後鳥羽院 (Gotoba-in) · 後鳥羽天皇 (Go-Toba tennō) HD
Period
End of the Heian and beginning of the Kamakura; he reigned from 1183 to 1198 and went on ruling as retired emperor until 1221 HD
Where
The court of Kyoto and his palace at 水無瀬 (Minase); from 1221, in exile at Nakanoshima, today Ama, in the Oki islands HD
School
None: he was not a smith by trade. The smiths on his list came from Bizen (Ichimonji), from Bitchū (Aoe) and from Awataguchi, in Kyoto AT
Masters
According to tradition, he learned the craft from Awataguchi Hisakuni and from Bizen Nobufusa AT
Documented fact and tradition
Documented: his reign, the rebellion of 1221 and the exile. Tradition: that he tempered blades and gathered the rotating smiths; the treatises that tell it date from centuries later. AT

In short

What we know. Go-Toba reigned from 1183 to 1198, then ruled as retired emperor, rose against the Kamakura regent in 1221, lost and died in exile in the Oki islands in 1239. The Kyoto National Museum holds a tachi with a chrysanthemum on the tang, the 菊御作 (kiku gosaku), an Important Cultural Property since 1950.

How we know it. The forging comes from much later sword treatises: the list of the twelve rotating smiths is in the treatise Kanchi'in-bon Meizukushi, whose oldest copy dates from the 30th year of Ōei, 1423, almost two centuries after his death.

What we do not know. No document from his time proves that he tempered blades with his own hands, nor that the Kyoto tachi is his work: the museum presents it as his by tradition.

Sections

  1. Kusanagi no tsurugi · Minase · Jōkyū · Oki Life and times An emperor without the sacred sword, the rotating smiths of Minase, the rebellion of 1221 and the exile.
  2. Kiku gosaku · kiku-ichimonji Work and style What is called kiku gosaku, what the only tachi with an official record is like and why attributions are not made by the legend.
  3. Important Cultural Property · treasures of Minase Famous works The tachi of the Kyoto National Museum, the National Treasures of Minase and the sword of the Sakurai legend.
  4. Outreach Videos An interview about Go-Toba and the rotating smiths and a short video of a tachi with a chrysanthemum.
  5. Bibliography and credits Sources The sources consulted on 4 October 2026, with their link, and the credit for each image.