wooden handle” katana

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What Is a Wooden Handle Katana? (and What’s the Function?)

September 19, 2025
wooden handle” katana

Those of you familiar with traditional Japanese sword patterns, like a katana, may also be familiar with an unconventional configuration that some call a “wooden handle katana.” It is actually called a shirasaya, which means “white sheath” or “white scabbard” in Japanese. Yet as you may know, the tsuka, or hilt, of a Japanese sword […]

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What Is a Shirasaya? Behind the “Wooden Handle” Katana

March 13, 2025
wooden handle” katana

Traditionally, the construction of a katana has been such that the tang (nakago) slipped through a ferrule (habaki) then through a spacer (seppa) then through the guard (tsuba) and back through another spacer before fitting into a slot in the tsuka, or hilt. The tang was secured in the tsuka with a peg known as […]