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A diagram of a katana and koshirae with components identified. Fuchi (縁): The fuchi is a hilt collar between the tsuka and the tsuba.; Habaki (鎺): The habaki is a wedge-shaped metal collar used to keep the sword from falling out of the saya and to support the fittings below; fitted at the ha-machi and mune-machi which precede the nakago.
Shoami (and Ko-Shoami) is a name of an artistic school (style) for making sword-guards , mounted on a Japanese sword (uchi-gatana [1] or just katana). [2] [3] The sword-guard is one of the most important symbols of the samurai.
Umetada is a Japanese style of decoration for metal work. It may have been used by silversmiths since the Muromachi period. [1] But in the Momoyama period, a certain Umetada Myoju (1558–1631) [2] [3] emerged to become the founder of the manufacture of so-called "new swords," or shinto, [4] and to rank with Kaneie and Nobuie as a great designer and maker of sword guards.
Japanese swords were often forged with different profiles, different blade thicknesses, and varying amounts of grind. Wakizashi and tantō, for instance, were not simply scaled-down versions of katana; they were often forged in a shape called hira-zukuri, in which the cross-sectional shape of the blade becomes an isosceles triangle. [130]
The hand guard, or tsuba, on Japanese swords (except for certain 20th century sabers which emulate Western navies') is small and round, made of metal, and often very ornate. (See koshirae . There is a pommel at the base known as a kashira , and there is often a decoration under the braided wrappings called a menuki .
Japanese himo or obi, a cloth or rope belt used to hang swords and various items from a samurai armor. Samurai eboshi style helmet kabuto with an iron plate neck guard shikoro . Edo period Japanese samurai karuta tatami dou .
Jitte can occasionally be found housed in a sword-type case hiding the jitte from view entirely. This type of jitte can have the same parts and fittings as a sword, including seppa, tsuba, menuki, koiguchi, kojiri, nakago, mekugi-ana and mei. Sentan, the blunt point of the main shaft of the jitte. Tsuba, a hand guard present on some types of jitte.
The daishō (大小, daishō) —"large and small" [1] —is a Japanese term for a matched pair of traditionally made Japanese swords worn by the samurai class in feudal Japan. The etymology of the word daishō becomes apparent when the terms daitō, meaning long sword, and shōtō, meaning short sword, are used; daitō + shōtō = daishō. [2]