Questions about the tsukamaki and time periods...

[dakary]

Hi everybody,

I'm hoping somebody could help me with some questions about tsukamaki.

When it comes to tachi, it seems like hira maki is the classic. But isn't it also true that tsumami maki were also on tachi? Would you find, for example, tachi in the sengoku period with tsuamami maki or when you see this, is it just that it a newer style of tsukamaki put on an older blade?

Also, when did the katatemaki show up?

Thank you!

[SteveM]

Hello Dan, this is not my specialty but I hate to see a post go unanswered.

 

I believe the first swords had no wrapping at all, and just used bare samekawa. I read an online source says that this was due to the first swords being an auxiliary weapon to bows and arrows, and the gloves used by archers gripped well enough with the samekawa on the swords, so no silk wrapping was required. (source:  https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/57641/ ). Actually it says that some tsuka required no wrapping because of the archery gloves. 

 

The same source says that katatemaki was the first wrapping to develop, using wisteria vine or lacquer tree bark for wrapping. Swords with this wrapping style are found in ancient tombs, so this style existed from the end of the kofun period. After that comes hirumaki, and then I guess it really becomes diversified after the Edo period. The problem is that we don't have a lot of contemporary examples of koshirae from the pre-Edo era, as they tend to disintegrate and require rewrapping. 

 

https://www.touken-world.jp/tips/51194/

 

A sengoku-jidai katateuchi katana with katatemaki.  

https://www.samurai-nippon.net/SHOP/V-1816.html

 

The source below says up until the Edo era most wrapping was leather or lacquered leather, and that only after the Sengoku era do you see widespread use of silk. 

https://ameblo.jp/kmymtks9/entry-12673228357.html

 

So in answer to your question, any older tachi that have tsumami-maki are probably swords that have at one time been refurbished. 

Note I just browsed the internet until I found some hits that sort of provided answers, so don't be surprised if other posters come in to correct or clarify any of the above.

[1kinko]

Markus Sesko’s “Koshirae, Japanese Sword Mountings”, has quite a lot of information about early tsuka wrappings.

[dakary]

Thank you very much for the responses. Yes, I do think I have seen before that very early tachi had just a ray skin with no silk or leather wrap. I find it interesting that katatemaki came first. My initial intuition was that it would come later because I thought that hinerimaki came much later and hinerimaki seems like a variant of katatemaki (or the other way around). It makes sense though, that katatemaki would come first because it is pretty simple (comparatively). That might mean that hinerimaki is actually pretty old too. If that's right, then it totally makes sense for hiramaki or tsumamimaki to then be classic for tachi in the sense that it is classic to refurbish them that way.

[Jussi Ekholm]

Unfortunately koshirae is not my main focus but ōdachi and tachi are and I am lucky to have gathered great book collection. So I can provide few historical examples. Unfortunately most of the pictures are quite small and I can't figure out the exact pattern of tsukamaki very clearly on many examples that might have tsumami style.

 

 

Here is an ōdachi from Itsukushima jinja by Suketsugu & Sukeie that is dated to 1346. Koshirae is dated to Nanbokuchō period and here is the tsukamaki description from the book: 上から黒革で菱巻にほどこし

 

 

Second tsuka is from Ōyamazumi jinja, it is Muromachi period koshirae that is for Late Heian - Early Kamakura period tachi by Aritsuna. Unfortunately only the material is specified on this tsuka: 藍革巻

 

 

Third one is again very large ōdachi tsuka (76,0 cm) from Nanbokuchō period. I believe it is connected to the Uesugi family as this is featured in the Treasure swords of Uesugi book. It specifies tsumami-maki on this one: 上に黒革の双つまみ巻をしている

 

Sorry about the pictures again, I don't know what messes them up. I took them phone vertically, they appear on computer vertically after resizing but for some reason they come here horizontally and even upside down...

[dakary]

Thanks Jussi! I think you might be the person to ask this then: in the sengoku period, on tachi, would you find wide a variety of tsukamaki (where maybe personal preference takes over)? Or was it pretty uniform in terms of strict fashion for certain swords (or maybe classes? Were there upper and lower class tsukamaki?)? What kinds of tsukamaki would you find? Would hinerimaki be out of place on a tachi from that period? I think I have seen tsumamimaki and hiramaki on katana from that period and maybe also hinerimaki (but I am not sure - I can't remember).