Number Of Seppa

[Yukihiro]

I have noticed that the number of seppa on army shin-gunto vary greatly: some have only two or three, while others have four and more (up to eight, if I am not mistaken). I would like to know whether the number of seppa depends on the degree of "luxury" of the koshirae or whether it is linked to the period when the sword was mounted. From what I could see, most civilian tsuba are fitted with one seppa on either side, with sometimes an additional one or a leather seppa with a strap.

 

Thank you in advance for your answers!

 

Didier

[ggil]

I always assumed: more “fudge factor” with more seppa. I mean that you don’t have to spend as much time making the tsuka perfect, and you just have to add more or less seppa to fill in the over-gapped (fudged up) tsuka. I see this As ‘modernization’, or making greater supply by cutting small corners. Similar to the use of plates to stamp out blades and not forge them. I think more seppa the less functional, as the blade would bear more stress due to less support of the nakago. I imagine it became a military standard which had to be adhered to eventually, but I bet the old school smiths didn’t like multiple seppa. Sorry for the conjecture, if that is all it is.

[Yukihiro]

I have noticed that one-hole gunto tsuba (that is with a kogai or kozuka hitsu-ana) often had only two seppa, but that might be an impression.

 

[PNSSHOGUN]

I have swords with all matching and numbered Seppa of 2, 4 & 8.

[Mister Gunto]

Interesting question. Its complicated by the fact that over the past 70+ years, we have no way of knowing how often the guntos were pulled apart and potentially put back together minus some of their original seppa by various owners. 

[IJASWORDS]

The number of seppa on the metal saya 98's are invariably 8, with thickness variations taken up by varying seppa thickness. 

Quite often on the leather covered wood saya gunto, any where from 2 to 8 are found.    

[Yukihiro]

Thank you very much indeed for your answers.

[george trotter]

I can only speak for gendai, but I suppose showato will also be included here...We see excellent quality gendai / mountings with 4, 6, 8 seppa. I can not remember seeing any lower class blades with 8 seppa. I have usually thought of 8 seppa as "always" good quality blade and mounts. But with nihonto we can never say never or always say always, but as John said, good sets of 4, 6, 8 seppa are seen on good quality blades and his are numbered...and sometimes so are the other parts, including saya, saya guchi, fuchi, tsuka (ink or stamped) and even habaki.

Just taking my own collection of 10 swords used in WWII, I have 8 gendaito army mounts, 1 shinshinto/gendaito in army mounts and 1 koto in shinto civilian mounts with leather combat cover. Of these 10, the seppa count is as follows:

 

Private order gendai,               steel scabbard 98 with 8 seppa numbered, mon (missing)

ditto                             wood/leather scabbard 98        6            no numbers.

ditto                                        alum. scab.       98         8            numbered, mon (missing)   

RJT                                         alum scab        98         5            no numbers  (post-war dealer mix?)

Private order                   1 but/lacq scab        T3         2 (no dust cover seppa) no numbers

RJT                                 2 but/lacq scab        T3         3            numbered (even habaki)

RJT                                2 but/steel scab        T3         3            no numbers except habaki (rare "higher class" steel scab Type 3).

Pub. Purch.    s/s or gen         alum scab        98         8            numbered incl habaki.  mon

Pub Purch       koto      lacq/leather scab                     2            old

 

Don't know if this has helped, but seppa numbers and numbering seem "irregular" in my collection except to say that the 4, 6. 8 seppa lots are definitely on good quality blades/mounts.

It would be interesting if any members have examples of 4, 6, 8 seppa on "ordinary" mounted showato.

 

Regards,

[vajo]

The seppa should be fix the tsuba and the tsuka. Many Showa-to have a larger number on seppa then gendaito. But overall there should be a harmony in the koshirae. 

 

Bigger Seppa to the sword side, smaller seppa to the tsuka. Tateshiro Seppa are not used at Type3.

 

If a sword has 3 Seppa and it fix without a shaky Tsuba something don't fit. Sometimes i see a big Seppa on the sword side and 2 or 3 seppa on the Tsuka side. This looks odd.

 

4/4, 3/3 or 2/2 should be the count. A Type 98 without a Mellow shaped Seppa looks sloppy. 

 

 

 

1. Army civillian Koshirae (no sword) Type 98 (silver plated fittings)

2. Kanenori Showa-to Type 98

3. Morinobu Gendaito Type 98

4. Kanemitsu Showa-to Type 98

5. Munemitsu Gendaito Type 3

6. Shingunto (ShinShin-to) Type 98