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. ...
Who is completely, one hundred percent unfamiliar with Japanese swords? I'm sure, by now, just about everyone has had the chance to see...at least something resembling one. They're in the mall, at gift shops, in dojo, on TV, in movies, all over the web. There might even be one in the attic. Who knows? While a lot of people know of Japanese swords, considerably less know a substantial amount about them. There is so much that goes into a Japanese sword that I figure I can blog for a while to give ...
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