What Side Fitting In A Katana Saya?

parfaitelumiere · January 20, 2018

I just purchased something I wanted for a while, I mean a katana saya, with a room for a accessory knife.
But I don't know what kind of knife or accessory goes inside.
It's on kurigata side, what knife or accessory can it be?

Christophe · January 20, 2018

Kozuka

Chtistophe

Bazza · January 20, 2018

Ah, no, sorry. On the kurikata side its a kogai. Some katana only had kogai and no kozuka.

BaZZa.

EDIT: Or another type of fitting called warikogai (split kogai, like chopsticks), or umabari aka bashin, so-called horse-bleeding needle.

parfaitelumiere · January 20, 2018

umabari this is what I was thinking about, thanks a lot.
In fact I was thinking about kogatana kogai on wakizashi and, another item in katana,
I remember I have seen a daisho with kogatana kogai in waki, and in katana, kind of symetrical knife and last was a saw.

I wanted to make a katana, with oder fashion, even maybe a koto mounting, if I can find genuine koto fittings.

what will be hard to find will be the seppa pair, with flat on wrong side, especially if I want a kinkise pair...

After examination it seems the chronoly is like this:
-kogatana, and then, kogai, on uchigatana

-birth of daisho, uchigatana and?! tachi, tanto, other sword

-standart daisho, with kogatana kogai on wakizashi or often, kogatana only on wakizashi (one hitsu ana on tsuba), but what is in the katana sheat?
-1776 (?) law, with no accessory anymore in katana sheat and tsuba size limitation.

Pete Klein · January 20, 2018

This is a very good article on koshirae: http://www.nihonto.com/uchigatana-koshirae/

PS: if your saya is early and is for katana the 'omote' or outside slot would be for a kogai, Kogai pre-dated kozuka/kogatana as koshirae implements. Accessory knives were carried in their own side pouch early on. The dai-sho koshirae was really more of a late Muromachi/Momoyama to Edo invention. Guido Schiller is the go to guy on this field of study.