wrap

[Aiki-Kohai]

Can someone tell me what battle wrap is?....what does it look like...how different is it from standard diamond style wrapping.

Pics would help.


Thanks
John

[John Lindsey]

Do you have a Japanese version of the name "battle wrap?" I have not heard much about having different styles of wrappings for war and peace, just different style of wrappings due to martial style, personal choices, etc. Now, maybe they mean how wrapping became more artistic during Edo Jidai, etc? For instance, read the following:

Fittings and mountings of high ranked Satsuma warriors are very distinctive. The TSUKA is very long — 10 to 12 inches — and fitted with over-sized FUCHI/GASHIRA. During the early Edo Period, there was no SAME utilized, nor were MENUKI employed. Sometimes strips of leather were bound around the TSUKA, and leather or cloth ITO wrapped over this, or the bare wood was lightly lacquered and allowed to show through the wrapping. The Bakumatsu (latter days) Edo Period saw the occasional use of SAME and MENUKI.

The lesser Samurai (or at least those who were not so well off financially), had to content themselves with inferior mass-produced blades with KANEMONO of plain blackened iron. The TSUKA of these most usually was wrapped in simple canvas strips, tied in a pattern unique to the area, where the exposed SAME has a triangular shape compared to the traditional diamonds. When MENUKI were employed, they were usually simple blackened iron washers. These mountings were fairly standard, although many variations were utilized. Many of the higher-class fittings, incorporated the "cross-in-a-circle" Mon of the Shimazu Family, as Shimazu Hisamitsu was the current Daimyo of Satsuma.

[John Lindsey]

Also, I think during WW2 some late war gunto had cheap looking wraps. It would start off normal, then it was just wrapped around and around as if they wanted to save time.

[renfield_kuroda]

I believe that, for whatever reason, 'battlewrap' refers to katatemaki:

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/atziluth.htm

or just google 'katatemaki'

Regards,

r e n

[pgsmith]

I'm not sure why either, but Renfield has the right of it. If you are interested in various styles of tsuka maki, here's a link with pictures and names. Pretty interesting! ... http://home.planet.nl/~sebregts/index.html

Cheers,

[Tim Mailloux]

The following is what has been explained to about the Katate-maki or battle wrap style:

In feudal Japan, same’ was very expensive and many times after battle the same’ on a tsuka wrapped in the standard heneri-maki (all diamonds) would get stained from blood and need to be replaced. The katate-maki style of wrapping helps prevent this to a degree. In the katate-maki style the top and bottom thirds of the tsuka, were the hands are placed are wrapped in the familiar diamond patter for grip. The middle third of the tsuka of completely wrapped in ito. So in a time of excessive bloodshed the portions of the tsuka were the same’ is exposed are covered by your hands, and the center is covered by the ito preventing you fallen foes blood from staining the same’.

FWIW, I have also been told by one of my sensei, that the reason some samurai lacquered the same’ on their tsuka black was to hide potential bloodstains.