Information On Kakure Kirishtian Tsuba

[Oaken]

Hello all.
I was wondering-
-What exactly are kakure kirishitan tsuba? 
-Are all cross shaped tsuba kakure kirishitan tsuba? How does one know whether a tsuba is a kakure kirishitan tsuba or not?
-If these tsuba were examples of 'hidden' Christian faith, was it not obvious to others that these guards belonged to Christians? 

[ROKUJURO]

Abdul,

as the name says, the Christian symbol was (at least partly) hidden when the TSUBA was mounted, so not obvious.  

[Bugyotsuji]

There were harsh laws introduced against Christianity. Tsuba from that time onwards were not generally obvious, although there were exceptions. You would be foolish to walk around in public with outward signs on you.

 
There should be many threads here discussing all the angles of this subject, and because of the very ambiguity of the motif, some folks take strong stands, so opinions of NMB members tend to vary. Remember there are fakes too, with Christian images added much later than the Edo Period.