artesjaponica

Ok...thanks...those are all logical explanations. But why red? some auspicious meaning to that? I've asked some Japanese sellers and they are also unclear about this.

Greetings! This question may have been asked before, or maybe is common knowledge to Japanese sword collectors, but when asked recently I was unable to explain why sometimes a sword, or tanto, or sometimes a yari's 'hi' is painted (or lacquered?) red. Any ideas as to why this was sometimes done?