![]() Instead, the purpose is to lighten and strengthen the sword blade. There is no difference in ease of withdrawing a blade from the saya, or a reduction of the sucking sound, which many people believe was the reason for including this feature on commando knives in World War II. The presence of a "blood groove" or HI (also known as "fuller") does not actually allow blood to flow more freely from cuts made with the sword. Signatures and dedications written in kanji and engravings depicting gods, dragons, or other acceptable beings, called horimono. Some marks on the blade are purely aesthetic. The sword smith's signature (mei) is placed on the nakago. To remove the tsuka one removes the mekugi. It is used to anchor the blade using a mekugi, a small bamboo pin that is inserted into another cavity in the tsuka and through the mekugi-ana, thus restricting the blade from slipping out. Kissaki have a curved profile, and smooth three-dimensional curvature across their surface towards the edge - though they are bounded by a straight line called the yokote and have crisp definition at all their edges.Ī hole is drilled into the tang (nakago), called a mekugi-ana. A straight, linearly-sloped point has the advantage of being easy to grind, but it bears only a superficial similarity to traditional Japanese kissaki. The kissaki (point) is not a "chisel-like" point, nor is the Western knife interpretation of a "tanto point" found on true Japanese swords. In addition, whether the front edge of the tip is more curved (fukura-tsuku) or (relatively) straight (fukura-kareru) is also important. The tip can be long (okissaki), medium (chukissaki), short (kokissaki), or even hooked backwards (ikuri-okissaki). The sword also has an exact tip shape, which is considered an extremely important characteristic. The shinogi can be placed near the back of the blade for a longer, sharper, and more fragile edge - or a more moderate shinogi near the center of the blade. The most prominent is the middle ridge, or shinogi. Other aspects of the mountings (koshirae), such as the menuki (decorative grip swells), habaki (blade collar and scabbard wedge), fuchi and kashira (handle collar and cap), kozuka (small utility knife handle), kogai (decorative skewer-like implement), saya lacquer, and ito (professional handle wrap, also named emaki), received similar levels of artistry.Įach blade has a unique profile, mostly dependent on the smith and the construction method. In Japanese, the scabbard for a katana is referred to as a saya, and the hand guard piece, often intricately designed as an individual work of art, is called the tsuba. Samurai may have used the shorter sword for decapitating beaten opponents when taking heads on the battlefield, and seppuku, a form of ritual suicide. Katana with long blade was used for open combat, while the wakizashi or tanto with shorter blade was considered a side arm, more suited for stabbing and close quarters combat. ![]() The two weapons together were called the daisho, and represented the social power and personal honor of the samurai. Both were worn by members of the Japanese warrior class. ![]() ![]() In battle, katana was typically paired with the wakizashi or tanto, a similarly made but shorter sword. Pronounced in the kun'yomi (Japanese reading) of the kanji, the word has been adopted as a loan word by the English language as Japanese does not have separate plural and singular forms, both "katanas" and "katana" are considered acceptable plural forms in English. The Katana is a curved, single-edged Japanese sword traditionally used by the samurai.
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