open tang?

[Rickisan]

Question - Has anyone seen or heard of a sword with a cut out, or open work groove thru the tang?

 

I have a book called,The Yasukuni Swords by Tom Kishida, and while flipping through it today I noticed something very interesting,(hope I am not imagining it) on page 31.

 

The top picture on the page shows Yakuwa Yasutake at an exibition. The tang on the sword in the display case looks like it has an open section cut through it.

 

If anyone has a copy of the book, take a look when you have time, or if it turns out I am going crazy...feel free to let me know.

 

Thank you,

Rick

[John A Stuart]

Hi Rick, There is atype of sword called 'kenukigata no tachi' that is named because of the opening in the nakago resembles an 'hair tweaser'. There are many reproductions of this style. I do not have the yasukuni book but suspect that this is an example of this. These have the nakago as the actual grip with no tsukaito etc. These are an early intermediate between kanto no tachi and tachi of the kamakurajidai. John

[Rickisan]

John,

Thanks for the reply.

 

I did find another example that is similar in another book, The Japanese Sword" by Kanzan Sato. It's the Kenukigata no tachi on page 132.

 

Regards,

Rick

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Welcome back John.

Blizzards stopped enough to return to post, eh ? :D

[John A Stuart]

There is one right now, only gusting to 70 kph though. My new uplink is 4 meters up and withstanding our freakish weather. I hate not being able to read or post on the forums. They keep teaching me new things daily. John