Tsuka Length

[Kurogasa55]

I have seen quite a few swords that have a tsuka that seems a little too long for the nakago of the sword. On the swords that i have seen regarding this the nakago goes maybe halfway down into the tsuka. Is this normal? It does not seem very practical to me to have a nakago only halfway down into the tsuka. If a samurai was fighting it would make it seem to me that the tsuka would crack/break during combat. My thoughts are that maybe the Tsuka was put on the sword later and was not made for it? Any thoughts?

[John A Stuart]

It's common where that longer style of tsuka is used in some ryu. They are tough beggars when in good nick and the nakago does take up the shock along the pivot point. No worries. John

[Kurogasa55]

It's common where that longer style of tsuka is used in some ryu. They are tough beggars when in good nick and the nakago does take up the shock along the pivot point. No worries. John

 

Thanks for your reply. I have wondered about that for a long time and it just seemed a bit strange to me.