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Posted

Hello forum members,

I have a question regarding the usability of a kogai...
If they are made from yamagane or shakudo etc. how rigid are they?
To repair the laces of an armour or actually to pierce something I would expect a rigid tool.

I'm wondering, because I have a kogai made from brass (?) and it is really soft.

Maybe it's a cast reproduction (?) but anything else than opening letters or cleaning ears would bend it...
 

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Posted

Question: where can we find in Japaneses litterature the way kogai were used?

 

Cleaning ears has long been mentioned but I encourage people having one to try: highly inefficient (I have tried) :)

 

Kogatana as well as kogai appeared on a koshirae for the first time at the end of Nambokucho. What were using Samurai before for cleaning ears or as hair pins?

Posted

I don’t deny Ford the existence of mimimaki, I was just wondering (even if it has the same name because it has the same shape) the use of of kogai as mimimaki. The mimimaki is a spatula with a long neck, on a kogai you have just the round end of the spatula without its long neck, the ear canal is around 2,5cm long and the kogai mimimaki is at most 1cm, thus my question : has anybody read or seen any old documentation or wood print describing or showing kogai use as ear cleaner or in the same way as hair pin.

Posted

Thanks Franco, funny that wari bashi are used as well as mimimaki or hair pins and not Kogai (in prints and text). Only Henry if he has the books provided in his links, can tell us what is said about Kogai and its use unless another member has them....

 

You will notice that, generally, only better koshirae have both kozuka and kogai, that samurai have always (in pictures) neat katogan and that the Kogai is always in his slot...:)

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