The Sword Abolishment Edict (廃刀令, Haitōrei) was an edict issued by the Meiji government of Japan on March 28, 1876, which prohibited people, with the exception of former lords (daimyōs), the military, and law enforcement officials, from carrying weapons in public; seen as an embodiment of a sword hunt.
In 1871, the government issued the Danpatsurei Edict, allowing samurai to cut their top-knots and wear their hair in the Western manner.
The hereditary stipends provided to the samurai by their formal feudal lords (and assumed by the central government in 1871) were likewise abolished in 1873.
The prohibition on wearing swords was controversial with the Meiji oligarchy but the argument, that it was an anachronism not in keeping with the westernization of Japan, won out.
[7][11] Also as a result of the Haitōrei, swords lost their utilitarian role, and many swordsmiths were forced to turn to the production of farming implements and kitchen cutlery to survive.