Finished saya inside of leather combat cover

[blades87]

I have come across an interesting item that I recently purchased. I bought a black combat cover with a black saya wood core. Normally, I have seen unfinished wood cores inside of these leather covers, but this one appears to have been lacquered. Furthermore, when I removed the core, I noticed that it had a groove (what is this called in Japanese) for a kurikata. Is it common to have a saya with a kurikata in a leather cover? I looked at the core and there is plenty of wood on the mune and nagasa sides of the saya to indicate that this core could be glued together.

 

I have attached four pictures that are pretty large in the zip file.

 

 

 

Thanks for your help on this one.

saya.zip

[zuiho]

Hello,

 

I cannot say much about your specific item other than to say that since the leather cover is black it may have belonged to a gunto carried by the Naval Landing Forces. There would be no need for a leather cover aboard ship so a Naval ship officer would be unlikely to choose it.

I can also say that when civilian swords were chosen by officers a common modification was to knock out the kurikata, fill the groove with a piece of wood then add a metal suspension ring and combat cover. They might sometimes drill the tsuka and add a tassel loop. You can often pick out such modified swords in photos of group sword surrenders. So, it follows that a great deal of variation can be seen in such outfits, as your example shows.

 

Just my observations ,

William G.

[blades87]

Thanks, William.

 

I am not familiar with the Naval Gunto sayas and normally see the Army Gunto covers. Either way, it looks like the original saya was placed inside of a leather combat cover.