Storing blade in Koshirae

[Emil]

I recently gifted my father a Showato in traditional Shirasaya and Koshirae that I bought from Aoi Art along with a kiri bako for ideal storage.

 

He wants to enjoy this sword by storing it in Koshirae on a wall hanger at up to a week at a time.

 

As I've mentioned in another post it already has some tiny rust spots along the blade and I don't want to make it worse, but I do understand his desire to showcase it for a few days occasionally.

 

Any advice on storing a katana sitting in its Koshirae on a wall openly? Should I tell him it's better to just display the Koshirae with the tsunagi? Or is one week at a time in Koshirae fine?

 

I already told him not to put the wall hanger close to the fireplace or windows to save the lacquer from rapid changes in temperature and direct sunlight.

 

Any advice would be highly appreciated 

 

[1kinko]

Oil and low humidity.

[ckaiserca]

I would strongly suggest that he display the koshirae with the tsunagi and keep the blade in its shirasaya. It should be fine to keep it displayed like that indefinitely. 

[ROKUJURO]

A blade should rest in its SHIRA-SAYA, KOSHIRAE will suffer from oxygen and UV rays in the long range. So an air-tight case would be better for the latter in case it was a good one. Sometimes a cheap IAI-TO can be sufficient as decoration.

[Emil]

I agree with you, it's probably a better idea to display an iaito.

 

Just out of curiosity, some Japanese sword shops that I've been to, display their blades in open air all day long, every day.

 

This one for example displays probably a hundred blades outside of both koshirae and shirasya, some of them with a pricetag up to 2.3M JPY.

 

They have a rack of 10-20 Shinsakuto sold only in Koshirae, you don't even get a Shirasaya. And they are also displayed in open air.

 

I was curious to how they manage to maintain all those swords while customers are free to walk around and breathe on them.

 

 

 

 

 

[ROKUJURO]

Emil,

it is probably less wear on the blades to lay them out 'naked' than to un-sheath and re-sheath them a dozen times a day for the customers. This would also damage the KOSHIRAE if not done very carefully.

If the blades are wiped and oiled once a week, they should be fine. 

[Nicolas Maestre]

For what it's worth, I have been practicing iaïdo with a steel blade for almost 15 years, stored of course in its koshirae, and it's absolutely like new... It's always oiled and taken care of since I use it weekly for training though.

 

Also I have read that some folks here do not even oil their blades. I guess it really depends on how bad humidity is in your country/area ? 🤔

 

So I don't really understand why koshirae would be worse than shirasaya? (genuinely asking!)

[ROKUJURO]

1 hour ago, Nicolas Maestre said:

.....So I don't really understand why koshirae would be worse than shirasaya? (genuinely asking!)

It is simply a different use and purpose.

[Emil]

3 hours ago, Nicolas Maestre said:

For what it's worth, I have been practicing iaïdo with a steel blade for almost 15 years

 

What kind of sword do you use what steel is it?

 

I've seen people reference to iai and samurai for this in the past as well. They claim if you use your sword often enough and just wipe it every time after use, it will be fine.

 

Which technically must come down to airing the saya and wiping of any built up moisture from the blade once a week?