Custom koshirae
We dress your blade in a mounting made for it: the complete koshirae or only the fittings it lacks. Each commission is quoted once we know the blade; there are no fixed prices.
What a koshirae is
The koshirae (拵, koshirae) is the mounting with which the sword is carried and wielded. A blade kept unmounted rests in a shirasaya (白鞘, shirasaya), a plain wooden scabbard that protects it but is not made for using it. A custom koshirae is made for one particular blade: for its length, its curve and its tang.
- Habaki (鎺): the metal collar that clasps the base of the blade and holds it inside the saya.
- Saya (鞘): the scabbard, of lacquered wood, made to the exact shape of the blade.
- Tsuka (柄): the hilt, of wood covered in same (鮫皮, samegawa), the ray skin, and wrapped in ito (柄糸, tsuka-ito), the braided cord.
- Tsuba (鐔): the guard that separates the blade from the hilt.
- Fuchi-kashira (縁頭): the collar and the pommel that close the tsuka at both ends.
- Menuki (目貫): the metal ornaments that sit under the ito, one on each side of the tsuka, and help the hand to grip firmly.
Two commissions
The complete mounting
For a blade that arrives in shirasaya or whose mounting can no longer be saved: saya, tsuka, habaki and fittings, all made for it and to your taste.
Individual fittings
For a mounting that already exists and is missing something: a new tsuba, fuchi-kashira, menuki or habaki, fitted to what it already has.
The fittings
They are made to measure—in iron, copper, silver or gold, plain or worked with the motif you choose—or chosen from the old fittings in our Koshirae catalogue, which we can mount on your sword.
Where it is made
It depends on where the blade is.
In Japan
For a blade we buy there: the mounting is made before it is sent to you, and the blade travels only once, already mounted.
In Europe
For a blade that is already in Europe: the mounting is made in Europe too, and the blade travels there and back customs-free within the EU and without export permits.
How it works
- You write to us with the form: which blade you have and what mounting you are after.
- We ask you by email for photos and measurements of the blade and, if it has one, of its mounting.
- We send you a proposal with its price. Nothing is started without your approval.
- If the blade is with you, it travels insured to the workshop and comes back the same way.
- We deliver it to you mounted.
Enquiry
Tell us which blade you have and what mounting you are after. We ask for the photos when we reply, by email.