Lower Mekugiana

[Darcy]

I think it's common enough that most to all of us have seen a shinto katana at some point with a mekugiana in a lower position, close to the bottom, as well as the upper. The position means it's really not likely a remount but it's associated with using two mekugi. 
 
I cannot remember ever having seen a koshirae that had two mekugi though... maybe I have and forgotten. I never gave it too much thought until starting to research a Hizento I just picked up.
 
Looking at the Juyo oshigata of katana only:
 
10 of 106 Tadayoshi (I) blades have lower mekugiana.
 
7 of 119 Omi Daijo Tadahiro have them
 
6 of 44 Mutsu no Kami have them
 
So it seems to be statistically relevant in the Hizen school at least. 
 
Does anyone have any examples of koshirae that made use of the second hole?
 
I'm also frequently seeing remount holes of these blades that have a second hole about 2cm below the first. I had an Omi Daijo like this and a friend of mine had an opinion that it was for tachi mounts so you could alternate them. It's hard to know now but the placement when looking at the oshigata is fairly regular over all these Hizen blades. It's not the willy-nilly placement and overpunching that we see with koto blades. 
 
I don't think there is enough info to draw a conclusion but they are looking interestingly uniform. 

 

[vajo]

Hmm very interesting.

From a point of a Nihonto rookie. Did the two near holes didn't weak the Tsuka to much? It would make more sense to have a bigger space between two mekugi.

Thats only a thought.

[Ray Singer]

Not a Hizen blade, but this handachi koshirae is for an Enju daito I own. It has a wari-ashikanamono, which separates and slides down the saya to convert the koshirae for use as a tachi. There are two menuki-ana in the tsuka, matching the two in the nakago. Unfortunately not clearly visible in the attached photo, but the second, lower mekugi-ana goes through the natural opening within the large shakudo dragon menuki.

[tokashikibob]

Wow!  That's a beauty Ray!

[Jussi Ekholm]

I don't have too many books on historical koshirae but I've got few historical examples.

 

In Uchigatana koshirae book, both are katate-uchi with shinobi-ana.

 

48. Sukesada blade 1524 with shinobi-ana, koshirae is dated to been made in 1598.

63. Kiyomitsu blade 1514 with shinobi-ana, koshirae is dated to been made around 1660 - 1700

 

In Koshirae Taikan there is one Bakumatsu era Niten-koshirae that has 2 mekugi.

 

Personally I am not sure about the need & functionality of this shinobi-ana. As many very large ōdachi from Nanbokuchō period survived perfectly well with only 1 mekugi that would indicate it is not necessary even for swords with massive blades and use during war times. However several ōdachi also have the shinobi-ana which is again reasonable given how large some of the swords are. I just checked the Futarasan-jinja ōdachi book that I have and shortest one with shinobi-ana had nagasa of 117,8 cm and longest one without shinobi-ana, nagasa is 133,8 cm (but the 1 ana is in lower portion of nakago) and 126,0 cm for more regular ana placement.

[Jim P]

Hi Darcy,I always thought that mekugiana in a lower position were an insurance policy from mekugi breakage  and not a kesho-ana  I have only seen one or two so its rare have a look at http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/18745-mekugi-ana/     

Jussi has  pics of the koshirae with  the 2 also look at this  Nagamitsu blade in Type 3 mounts from ohmura san's site http://www.ohmura-study.net/286.html