Saya
Saya ( Japanese 鞘 ) is the Japanese term for the sword scabbard .
description
The Saya consists of the following parts:
- Koiguchi ( 鯉 口 , English carp mouth), the opening of the Saya
- Kurigata ( 栗 形 ), an eyelet on the back.
- Shito-Dome ( 鵐 目 ), a metal sleeve inside the Kurigata opening.
- Sageo ( 下 げ 緒 ), a decorative winding with a decorative knot made of silk cord.
- Kojiri ( 鐺 ), the lower end of the saya made of metal or cattle horn .
In the time of the samurai it was made of magnolia wood (Magnolia hyolouca, Japanese 朴 の 木 , Hōnoki ) and covered with Urushi . On the side there is a kind of eyelet ( kurigata ) that prevents the saya from slipping out of the belt. In this eyelet, which was often made of cow horn , was a metal sleeve ( shito-dome ) that protected the kurigata from wear and tear. A decorative knot made of silk cord ( sageo ) was attached to this eyelet . In some versions, holders for side knives ( Kozuka and Kogai ) are incorporated. Often times, the owner of a blade had up to four different saya that were used on different occasions:
- A Saya that was simply made of wood without ornaments ( Shirasaya ). This was used to pick up the blade every day outside of wartime.
- A saya that was simply decorated for everyday use.
- A Saya for the war effort, which was often clad in metal.
- A very elaborately ornate and decorated saya for ceremonial use.
A very rare version consisted of two Saya stuck together. The idea was that when the inner, cheap saya was worn out, it could easily be replaced, while the outer, precious saya could be reused. Depending on the taste of the time, it was often decorated with lacquer inlays, gold leaf or stingray skin ( same ) etc., whereby care was taken that the decoration of the saya and the booklet ( tsuka ) matched .
Among the military swords ( guntō ) that were produced in the 20th century , especially before and during the Second World War , one finds saya made of metal based on the European model, which had an inner sheath made of wood. The color scheme and the decorations are very diverse.
Individual evidence
- ↑ George Cameron Stone : A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor in All Countries and in All Times. With an introduction by Donald J. LaRocca. Courier Dover Publications, Mineola NY 1999, ISBN 0-486-40726-8 , pp. 543, 544.
literature
- Nick Evangelista : The encyclopedia of the sword. Foreword by William M. Gaugler. Greenwood Press, Westport CT 1995, ISBN 0-313-27896-2 , p. 528.
- Kōkan Nagayama: The connoisseur's book of Japanese swords. Kodansha International, Tokyo et al., 1998, ISBN 4-7700-2071-6 .
