decorated habaki

[paulb]

A while ago a friend, knowing I had a liking for illustrations of rats /mice in fittings ( some people go for dragons I just like mice/rats!!), gave me the habaki shown below. I have not seen one decorated in this way before and it seems a very strange thing to do. By its nature it would be worn down very rapidly. Has anyone else come across this type of decoration before?

 

 

[Bazza]

Whimsy???

 

BaZZa.

[Brian]

Love it.

[lonely panet]

WAS THEY A POLICE INFORMANT

[paulb]

sorry gentlemen, you have lost me. Am I being thick or is this something only the southern hemisphere would appreciate?

[Brian]

"A rat..."
The guy who informs on his buddies.
No way to know why it was done, but it's well done and charming.

[paulb]

ah sorry I was being thick!!!

 

[Toryu2020]

Since the rat is a companion to Daikoku it is a symbol of wealth - most likely this would have been on a merchants sword and therefore not being drawn often enough to wear down the carving on the habaki...

-t

[JH Lee]

A properly made saya should only hold the habaki by the ha and mune sides.  Maybe it wouldn't wear as quickly as we think.  

[ROKUJURO]

8 minutes ago, JH Lee said:

A properly made saya should only hold the habaki by the ha and mune sides.  Maybe it wouldn't wear as quickly as we think.  

Why then do they apply the NEKO-GAKI on the HABAKI sides? And why do you have to replace the wooden shims in the KOI-GUCHI of a SAYA from time to time?

Paul's HABAKI looks old to me, much used, and slightly damaged, while the rats look rather new and pristine. So I think that the rats are a later decorative addition.
 

[JH Lee]

1 hour ago, ROKUJURO said:

Why then do they apply the NEKO-GAKI on the HABAKI sides? And why do you have to replace the wooden shims in the KOI-GUCHI of a SAYA from time to time?
 

 

Like with most other things with Japanese swords, I'm sure there's no absolute rule here.  I'm just repeating what was told to me by craftsmen.  And students at my dojo do shim their saya, as you pointed out, when wear and tear accumulate on their training iaito.  But we also always shim only the ha/mune sides around the koiguchi.

[Tonkotsu]

The rats are a companion to Daikoku on this netsuke.

Dick B

[Tanto54]

The Japanese follow a 12 year repeating Zodiac with one of the years being the year of the Rat.  As such, approximately 1/12 of Japanese are born in the year of the Rat.  Many years ago, they believed that your Zodiac  animal affected your behavior and fate and actually made important decisions (e.g., marriage, promotion, etc.)  based on your animal sign.  Japanese from all classes and vocations followed these traditions.  Therefore, it is just as likely that a Samurai carried a sword with a rat on it as a merchant.  

[Toryu2020]

George -

I beg to differ. If this were the case we would see piles of chickens, sheep, cows and snakes on old discarded habaki. They simply do not exist. The rat in Japanese art, especially kodogu, is recognized as a harbinger of material wealth. A very un-Samurai aspiration...

-t

[Tanto54]

Sorry Thomas, you are incorrect.  There are many verified samurai articles with rats on them.  Your anti-commercial view is quite romantic (but inaccurate...).  The fact is that we don't see many decorated habaki at all (meaning with figures not just cross hatching, cat scratching, etc.)  - that's why you don't see many chickens, sheep, cows, snakes, etc. on them...  What do you think happens to the 1/12 of Samurai that were born in the year of the Rat?  Were they forced to become merchants?

 

As you say, rats are sometimes the "harbinger of material wealth", but that is only sometimes the case and when it is, it is because of their association with the Japanese Gold of Wealth Daikoku.  While a rat is one of Daikoku's secondary attributes, his main attribute is A Golden Mallet called Uchide no Kozuchi - otherwise known as the "mallet of fortune”.  You can find many swords and tosogu decorated with Daikoku (and his attributes: the Mallet, a Rat or a Bale of Rice), but I imagine that you would say all of those are merchant swords.  However, you will find all of those attributes on Katana and Daisho which should be reserved for Samurai.  Surely you've seen some of the great Daikoku horimono on swords that were owned by Samurai.  Putting the God of Wealth or his attributes (the mallet or rats) on Samurai only articles debunks your assertion that Samurai wouldn't aspire to wealth.  That's more of a Western romantic interpretation (how do you think they paid for their Wars???)  Finally, surely you've seen kabuto with old maedate in the shape of a golden hammer (I've seen at least 50 over the years from various periods) - well, merchants didn't wear helmets did they...  These are clearly recognized as Uchide no Kozuchi the Golden Mallet symbolizing Daikoku the God of Wealth (and they are on Samurai helmets....).

 

 

[Toryu2020]

George I think you have helped make my point in an odd way. Daikoku is the subject of the habaki not "I'm a rat and proud of it!" - I'll admit that symbols of Daikoku were used on samurai goods. However the rat IS a symbol of Daikoku and not usually symbolic of "the year of the rat". I say again otherwise we would see many more items, samurai or merchant, depicting sheep. After all sheep year people are proud warriors too. In the absence of other evidence, I feel we have to see this as a symbol of Daikoku, and we can surmise that it was on a merchant sword since in the Edo period, when it was most likely made it was Buke custom for boys to shun money and accounting as being unmanly. You don't have to agree this is just how I see it.

-t

[Geraint]

Well Paul, I bet you never thought that a learned debate about Japanese astrology and the social rank of the original owner of your habaki would ensue...........

 

It's a nice thing and was a very nice gift, without wishing to set another cat among the pigeons, I wonder what sort of sword it came from?

 

All the best.

 

 

[paulb]

You are absolutely right Geraint but these diversions can be very informative, especially between two such learned members. 

Regarding the sword the answer is a very small one see images below. The other habaki is from a shinto wakizashi pretty standard size and form

[Shugyosha]

Daikokuten also moonlights as a god that presides over battles so he had a martial aspect and so was very relevant to samurai:

 

https://www.Japanese-wiki-corpus.org/Shinto/Daikokuten.html

 

Here's a picture of Daikokuten on a koto Soshu blade that I own (the weird colouring is a reflection of whatever was around when the photo was taken):

 

 

[Bruce Pennington]

I haven't been following habaki art for long, and not disagreeing with anyone, just adding.

 

I have 2 other zodiacal animals on the Cat Scratch Habaki Thread

Tiger

 

and Dragon

 

Here's a dragonfly, but clearly not a zodiac character:

 

and bird

 

I agree, they are the exception to the rule though.

[Shugyosha]

Love that tiger! 

[Tanto54]

Dear Thomas, I think that you yourself have admitted that your point is incorrect.  If you will forgive me - as we say in the Dojo, you need to use your head for something more than just something to strap your Men to (Men = Kendo head protector).     You admitted that the wealth “symbols of Daikoku were used on Samurai goods”, but then you say that Paul’s habaki must be from a Merchant’s sword because it has a wealth symbol of Daikoku on it...  Very faulty circular logic.

 

It looks like you’ve made up your mind and no amount of evidence will cause you to change it, so usually I wouldn’t respond.  However, this is one of those myths and stereotypes that is detrimental our Nihonto hobby, so I will respond for the sake of others.  The idea that Samurai shunned wealth is largely a romantic myth (see modern scholarly critiques of the famous Bushido Code book).  That stereotype is detrimental to our hobby because it causes many members to ignore or shun perfectly good swords and fittings that were owned by authentic Samurai because they have been told that "those are just merchant swords or fittings”.  Your prejudice against symbols of wealth on swords is simply a Western romanticization that could have the effect of diminishing the value or apparent “worthiness” of Paul’s habaki.  Furthermore, Japanese do not have a negative view of rats like Westerners do.  Whenever possible, I try to correct these old myths/prejudices for the sake of our hobby.

 

Finally, you say that just because you haven’t seen many Samurai goods with sheep on them proves that Japanese did not use their birth Zodiac animals on their goods.  The idea that Japanese did not use their birth animals on things like swords, netsuke, tobacco pouches, etc. is simply wrong.  Ask anyone who knows about Japanese culture and they will set you straight on this point.  In fact, you will find Samurai and Merchant articles with sheep (and rams and goats - they are used interchangeably) in Japan.  The reason that you probably haven’t seen very many is because the Westerners who visited Japan in the late 1800’s & early 1900’s and who brought back most of the swords and fittings that you see  today had the same prejudices against sheep (and rats) that you have.  So they didn’t bring those back for you to see (they mainly just bought the "cool ones" with dragons or tigers...)

 

Coming back to your main point - that Samurai shun wealth.  That is like saying Knights went around doing only good deeds and protecting Maidens’ honor (a very nice romantic notion but disproved by scholarly research....)  Take a look at the daisho below from the 1600’s wrapped in Gold - clearly owned by Samurai and clearly not shunning wealth.  Look at most Tachi koshirae - only owned by Samurai - very wealthy and flashy.  Of course there are exceptions and schools who followed the tea masters wabi sabi and iron tsuba only rules (but remember that the tea masters were themselves, ironically, more related to Merchants than Samurai....).  However, those are minor exceptions and no where near the majority.

 

Finally, the new photos provided by Paul above (that shows that the habaki is much smaller than a normal wakazashi habaki) indicate that the habaki is from a tanto.  That means that Paul's habaki is most probably a presentation tanto for a new Samurai baby born in the Year of the Rat.  Because such presentation tanto are a Samurai tradition, this makes it even more likely that it belonged to a Samurai instead of a Merchant.

 

 

[Toryu2020]

George -

My main point is that before 1868 few people if anyone outfitted a sword based on their birth year and gave that as the reason or we would of heard of this in the literature. I never heard this as a reason from any of my teachers, that the animals of the Junishi were auspicious, yes, but never "oh this guy must have been born in the year of the dragon..." Where is your evidence for this? The idea that samurai would shun the accumulation of wealth is an Edo Tokugawa period idea, I don't dispute that there were wealthy samurai I only assert that frugality was an ideal among the Buke. Your supposition that this was made for a presentation tango for a samurai child born in the year of the rat is no more valid than my conclusion given the evidence we have but I do know which is more likely...

-t

[Tanto54]

Thomas, in fairness, your main point was not anything about the birth year - it was all about Paul's habaki must be from a Merchant sword because a Samurai would not own something related to wealth.  To your credit, you have now admit that was incorrect.  Attempting to pivot your "main point" is not to your credit...  Like I said, it is fairly clear that you won't change your mind no matter how much evidence is presented, so I won't waste too much time presenting it.  I'll just point out that you can find many ensuite tosogu from before 1868 that have all chickens (or oxen, or dogs, or any other of the 12 Zodiac animals).  Why would a Samurai put all chickens on his sword?  Was he a chicken farmer in his part time?  Did he just really like chickens?  No, he did it because it was his Zodiac sign.  I've studied this and am sure of my position - have you?  If not, I encourage you to do a little research so you can be fair in your responses.

[Brian]

I believe both of you have put forward good points, and we have all been a bit more educated. Let's not repeat what has already been said, and agree to disagree and carry on without this getting confrontational.

[paulb]

I agree with Brian. Both George and Tom have offered some interesting insights in to why one might decorate habaki in this way. Both seem reasonable propositions. In the case of the rat we will never know the reality. It is small as can be seen on from the images above and my thinking is that it was likely used on a small tanto used as art of a brides outfit. But again this is pure speculation on my part.

Many thanks for sharing your thoughts