Tsuba

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Japanese tuben
Tsuba, front and back.

The tsuba (Japanese ) is the guardian of traditional Japanese swords .

This part of the koshirae (outfit) of katana (long sword), wakizashi (short sword), tachi (older form of long sword) or tantō (combat knife) are sometimes richly decorated plates made of metals such as iron, copper or copper alloys ( Sentoku, Shibuichi , Shakudō etc.) exist. Other materials such as leather were rarely used. The shape is often round to oval; The “four-pass” shape (mocha) was just as popular, but square to octagonal or irregularly shaped tubes also appear.

The tsuba sits between the handle ( tsuka ) and the blade and prevents the hands from slipping on the cutting edge during a stabbing technique and the tsuba offers a certain protection against stabs and blows of the opponent on the hands. The often assumed effect as a parrying disc can be disputed, however, since in extreme cases a tsuba could be damaged by the opposing blade or (with non-ferrous metal tsuba) even severed. In addition, there are no traditional defense techniques that allow the attacking blade to slide towards the tsuba.

The ornate decorations example, consist of characters, landscapes, animal or plant motifs, representations of mythological mythical creatures or ornaments , sometimes with inlays, surface mount or Tauschierungen of gold, silver or special copper alloys. Especially older tubes show negative or positive breakthroughs. The plates are provided with recesses; The tang of the sword is led through the elongated one in the middle, the smaller ones, which are often present, are used to hold the accessory knife ( Kozuka ) and the sword needle ( Kōgai ), rarely other utensils such as chopsticks, hairpins or combs.

No tsuba is used in the simple Shirasaya outfit.

In peacetime, tsuba production developed into its own art form. The valuable design served for representation, the utility took a back seat. In the period up to 1600, Tsuben, especially at Tachi , were made of iron in order to serve their purpose in battle. Soft metals such as copper , bronze or Shakudō were only used later .

In today's Budo sports, practice swords ( Bokken , Shinai ) are provided with plastic or leather tubes.

literature

  • Eckhard Kremers, J. Efinger: SUKASHI-TSUBA in European collections. German-language basic work. Detailed text and photos. Fillibach Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 978-3-931240-07-3 .
  • Sasano Masayuki, Shihachi Fujimoto: Early Japanes Sword Guards (SUKASHI-TSUBA). New, enlarged edition, Robert G. Sawers, London 1974, ISBN 978-0-903697-00-2 .
  • Lumir, Jisl: Japanese sword ornamentation . Artia, 1967.
  • Shinkichi Hara: The masters of Japanese sword ornamentation. Second, completely revised and expanded edition. Text and chalkboard. Museum f. Art u. Commercial, Hamburg 1931, 1932, OCLC 251033702 .

Web links

Commons : Tsuba  - collection of images, videos and audio files