Kawakami

Elvis?!

Wait...no. It was menuki.

Menuki are those pretty little things under the wrap on Japanese swords. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and a good number of materials (Though it's almost always metal of some sort; iron, steel, copper, silver, shakudo, shibuchi, etc.). Sometimes they're animals, sometimes they're plants, sometimes they're people, sometimes they're things like mon (crests), weapons, buildings, or simple shapes.

Now that we have that all figured out...what do they do?

A lot of people say they're for grip, but I'm not entirely sure I agree with that. Not completely, at least.

Originally, menuki were covers for mekugi, which are the pins. Sometimes they simply covered the pins, making them pretty and 100% secure, while other times they were actually part of the pin (Or were embedded in the mekugi). In some cases, such as with neji-menuki, the menuki actually IS the mekugi. This is seen on the old style tachi where the tsuka was almost completely covered in exposed samegawa (rayskin), and sometimes on tanto and wakizashi with daishisame tsuka (Full rayskin wrap with no ito). The sword could still be dismounted, but the mekugi was covered.

When the tachi went from daishizame type tsuka to the itomaki no tachi, which had tsuka ito, the menuki was still used but it was moved back off of the mekugi...you know...since the wrapping would have to come all the way off for the sword to be dismounted. They were still used, just not in the same capacity. They were placed in the palms of the hands, so the menuki on the exposed side of the sword (when worn) was near the tsuba.

When tachi gave way to uchigatana, the blade was flipped so that the edge faced upwards. As a fashion choice, the menuki of the exposed side remained near the tsuba. This means that the menuki were under the fingers as opposed to the palms.

Both ways of placing menuki are used, now; the finger side placement as well as the palm side, which is galled gyaku-te. Gyaku-te, "reversed hands", leads me to think that the finger side placement became the "correct" way. Is this because of grip or tradition? No idea.

Anyhoo, yeah. Menuki DO, in fact, add to grip...palm swells make a tsuka more substantial in the right areas, hile menuki under the fingers give more texture for the fingers to latch on to...but is that what they are FOR?

Methinks not...but who am I to say...