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Something in Tsuka?


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All,

 

I was cleaning a tsuka today and noticed something rather odd. When shaking the tsuka there is a rattle/sliding sound. I looked in the handle and I see nothing. Everything is tight, so it is not the fuki making noise. I took a neodymium magnet to it and didn't get a pull. What the heck could this be?

 

Best,

James

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A paper with the location of the Honjo Masamune (three pace from the large pine...)?
 

I remember a Pawn Stars where MY showed a saya with a hidden compartment to put some coins. Could there be something like that in a tsuka? Try removing the Fuchi.

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James,

these are probably cheap mass-produced EBI MENUKI, made from thin copper sheet; I had a similar pair. It is indeed possible that one of the little soldered studs inside came lose and is now causing the noise.

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James, Markus Sesko wrote an excellent book on tameshigiri. Her's one of the articles on his site (highly recommended reading, all the articles!) about a waki used in tameshigiri. in it you'll see the kind of tsuka used by the Yamada family:

 

https://markussesko.com/2019/05/03/tameshigiri-with-a-ko-wakizashi/

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From what I've read adding a rather unusually heavy tsuba was added to swords to perform the cutting on dead bodies. If you add weight to the kashira, you'll find the blade will be easier to swing as its bringing the POB closer to the kashira, usually this is done to top heavy swords.

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  • 2 weeks later...

James,  As Jeremy has said, adding weight to the kashira end of the tsuka alters the whole balance of the sword and gives the impression of handling a lighter blade. There is a relatively short sword, you might say a long wakizashi, in the Royal Armouries mounted with a really eclectic assemblage of copper fittings, but in the hand you feel as if you could perform difficult abdominal surgery with it, it handles so beautifully. I suspect we get too uptight about the lengths of blades, accepting that katana had to be this length and wakizashi that, whereas in practice the owner of a sword chose the length and its mounts to suit his physique. This is evident from the response I have had from Japan on my recently acquired daisho, the daito having a blade with a nagasa of only 56cm. I was envisaging it having been made for a special purpose, and yes it was, for someone of small stature,

Ian Bottomley

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