Kawakami

Why would it be manta?

The manta ray (Manta birostris) is an extremely large, open water ray that enjoys long swims near reefs, warm sunshine, eating plankton, and cuddling puppies. They are currently listed as "Near Threatened" and are not often captured.

While they are HUGE, their nodes are small. Not really the most desirable thing for samegawa, small nodes. Not only that, compare the number of mantas that are even sighted, let alone caught, to the number ...

Everyone likes sharp swords! Everyone wants their sword even sharper! The sharper the sword, the better it cuts! Razor sharp!

...Something that so many people overlook is the fact that a blade CAN be too sharp. The key in making a sword that will last is having an edge geometry that is sharp, but not too sharp. It needs reinforcement. Sure, a razor blade can cut something soft with a lot less effort than an axe, but if you take into account that not everything that is cut is soft, ...

Okay, so I was doing some research a while ago and ran across an article. I just remembered it and managed to find it again, and it continues to press buttons and flip switches in my mind. It relays in some detail some of the findings of a man named Suishinshi Masahide. He is known as THE sword smith who brought around the Shinshinto period of sword making. Rather than focusing on the wide, pretty, flashy hamon that many liked during the earlier Edo period, he re-invented his sword smithing to focus ...

Hishigami are little paper triangles utilized when doing tsukamaki that fill out the ito on either side of the crossover. These little things do so much for the integrity of the wrap, it's almost hard to believe. These tiny, folded pieces of paper fill the ito, making the wrap more substantial, they lock the ito in place by conforming to and anchoring in the samegawa, and they keep the diamonds even by reinforcing the triangular shape of the ito on either side of the crossover.

They're ...

Now, I've been seeing a lot of hype over having an extremely long tsuka. I'm used to about twelve inches for my big hands, but some people demand fifteen! Having a tsuka that big is actually very awkward for me. While there is historical evidence that some standard sized swords with extremely long tsuka were used during the Edo period, I'm not entirely certain that it served much of a purpose besides fashion.

Now, from all I know, the modern love of looong tsuka comes from four things. ...