In the Edo period, being an executioner was considered an unclean job and not a decent job.
Generally speaking, those who are responsible for killing people, disposing of corpses and other dirty work on the execution ground are untouchables who are not regarded as human beings... that is, filthy and inhuman.
In such an environment, the Yamada Asaemon clan appears to be particularly unusual - they are obviously a clan of executioners who specialize in killing people, but they enjoy a very high social status.
In fact, the main job of the Yamada Asaemon clan is not to kill people, but to test swords for the general. They are the royal sword testers of the shogunate.
For ordinary people who have no money and power, the most common method of testing knives is to chop wood and bamboo mats.
However, no matter how hard and thick wood or bamboo mats are, they cannot perfectly replicate the density and texture of the human body.
It's really boring to cut such vulgar things, and you can't test the true sharpness of the blade.
The only function of a sword is to kill.
Therefore, if you want to test the true sharpness of the blade, you have to cut people!
As a result, there are often some cruel perverts who, in order to test the sharpness of new knives, hide on the streets late at night, ambush passers-by, and test the knives by beheading them.
This behavior is called "Tsuji Slash".
Many innocent people died tragically at the hands of these beasts.
When important figures such as generals and daimyo want to test their swords, they will certainly not use wood or bamboo mats.
Most of them will use three methods of testing the knife: "test on a living person", "test on a dead person" or "test on a solid object".
The first two are easy to understand, they are to use living or dead people to test the knife.
As for the "hard object test", it involves chopping helmets, armor and other hard objects.
"Experimenting with strangers" is too cruel, so the government never adopts this method - at least not officially.
Therefore, the most mainstream official knife test method is still the "dead man test".
In the early Edo period, a swordsman named Yamano Kaemon was considered the earliest professional sword tester.
It is said that he beheaded more than 6,000 corpses in his lifetime.
His son, Kanjuro Yamano, inherited his mantle and became not only the royal sword tester of the shogunate, but also the royal executioner of the shogunate, responsible for executing death row prisoners.
Unfortunately, those who followed were not proficient in swordsmanship and were unable to undertake the work of sword testing and execution.
For this reason, the Yamano family's royal sword tester and royal executioner were relieved of their duties.
After that, several disciples of Kanjuro Yamano took on the role of trial beheading.
Initially it was Washiji Juroemon and Matsumoto Nagatao.
After the death of these two people, only one person remained - this person's name was Yamada Asaemon Sadake.
In the first year of Yuanwen (1736), Zhenwu submitted an application to the shogunate to allow his son Jitoki to succeed him.
In this way, the Yamada Asaemon family officially became the royal sword testers of the shogunate, and sword test became a profession monopolized by them.
The reason why the Yamada Asaemon clan was able to obtain this honor was, firstly, because of their superb swordsmanship, and secondly, because Sadatake was related to the Shogun's side chamber.
Since the fall of Sadake, the Yamada Asaemon family has inherited the position of "waist priest" and enjoys a salary of more than 1,000 koku.
As the name suggests, "wainwu" refers to the knife on the waist.
The main responsibility of the waist guard is to manage the swords of the general, the swords given to the daimyo, and the swords presented by the daimyo.
Of course, on the surface, they say they are keeping swords, but in fact, their main job is to help the general test swords.
Whenever the shogun got a new sword, he would order the Yamada Asaemon clan to try it out.
The corpses were pulled from the execution ground and the toughness and sharpness of the swords were tested by chopping various parts of the corpses.
In this way, the concept of "body beheading" is derived.
"Carcass cutting" is an important indicator to measure the quality of swords.
"One cut" means that one knife can cut off a human body.
You know, the human body is not that easy to cut.
The human body has both flexible skin and hard bones.
A knife that can cut off a body with one strike is considered a high-quality knife.
The "Three Body Slash" is a unique sword.
The current record is the "Seven Body Slashes" created by Yamano Kaemon.
At that time, Yamano Kaemon stood on the high platform with his famous sword Kanafusa, jumped down quickly, and chopped seven stacked corpses in half with just one sword blow.
After the Yamada Asaemon family tried their swords, they would carefully record the results, called "origami", and keep them carefully as a basis for evaluating the value of the swords.
Not only that, they will also engrave the sword's inspection results on the stem - such as how many body cuts they have completed - and then engrave their own names to prove that the sword was indeed made by the Yamada Asaemon clan.
Trial beheading completed.
The continuous accumulation of experience in sword testing, coupled with the noble status of "the royal sword tester of the shogunate", gave the Yamada Asaemon clan absolute authority in swords.
As long as a sword is approved by the Yamada Senemon clan, it is definitely a good sword - this concept is deeply rooted in people's hearts. And it is indeed true.
If a sword can be recognized and praised by the Yamada Asaemon clan, then the economic value and collection value of the sword will skyrocket!
As a result, the daimyo and dignitaries of the feudal kingdom often hired the descendants of the Yamada Senemon clan to help them test swords.
The Yamada Asaemon family is also happy to earn this extra money.
In the 9th year of Kansei (1797), the third generation Yamada Asaemon Yoshitsugi compiled an illustrated book called "Hoken Kaishaku" based on the knife test data left by his predecessors.
This illustrated book records the world's famous swords and divides them into four levels: "the most powerful thing", "the great thing", "the good thing" and "the thing".
With the release and publication of this book, the absolute authority of the Yamada Senemon family in the sword appraising world has been confirmed.
Although the main job of the Yamada Asaemon clan is to test swords, their other identity - executioners - is more famous than "sword testers"!
Because of their superb swordsmanship, they were also responsible for serving as executioners at the execution ground while testing swords.
Beheading is a technical job, and not just any cat or dog can do it - especially in the Edo period.
According to the regulations of the Edo period, the punishment of beheading was not just chopping off the head.
It is necessary to behead, but it cannot be completely beheaded.
After the head is chopped off, a layer of skin must remain between the head and the torso - this beheading method is called "head-holding".
If the head is chopped off and flew out, it is a very serious work error and will be punished.
If you want to cut off the head beautifully, the best place to cut is the gap between the third and fourth bones of the posterior cervical vertebrae.
In order to hone their sword skills, the Yamada Asaemon clan created a very unique practice method - stacking two tatami mats vertically, and then using a knife to split the gap between the two tatami mats.
The gap is only one or two millimeters wide, not much wider than the blade edge.
To get the blade to accurately penetrate this gap... you can imagine how difficult it is!
No matter how you swing the sword, as soon as you release it, the blade will be able to accurately cut into the gaps in the tatami - only when you achieve this can you be considered a master.
The deep family inheritance, coupled with the vast number of training opportunities, makes the children of the Yamada Asaemon clan all great swordsmen with strong swordsmanship!
Their sword skills are all terrifyingly fast and terrifyingly accurate! They have extremely precise control over their own power!
If I say I chop off your eyebrows, I will never chop off your eyes.
Over the years, how many people have the Yamada Asaemon family killed?
No one can count them.
Even if we are conservative, there are at least tens of thousands of people!
A family that has killed tens of thousands of people over the past hundred years... It is not an exaggeration to call them the "Executioner Family"!
In addition to the "Executioner Family", they also have names such as "Shou-Kiri Senemon" and "Hit-Zan Senemon".
Those who have made mistakes and have to commit seppuku will even hire the disciples of the Yamada Asaemon clan to explain their mistakes in order to make their death easier.
The current head of the Yamada Asaemon clan is named Yamada Asaemon Yoshiki.
When Aoshinobu was still a member of the northern town of Hokkaido, he had met this man several times.
According to the regulations of the shogunate, whenever a prisoner is to be executed, the person responsible for handling the case must go to the execution site to observe in person.
In this way, Aoto once saw Yamada Asemon's lucky face at close range at the execution ground.
To be continued...