The Way of the Tsuba

[mingshi]

Apart from guarding your hands, is there any other practical use of Tsuba on the Shinai in Kendo?

Wait... When you hold the shinai, your Kote is bigger than the Tsuba anyway... wonder why it is still a handguard at all!!!

I was told it can facilitate Hiki-waza from Tsuba-zeriai. Say, using the Tsuba as a pivot, and roll on your opponent's hands/shinai...

Have you been taught about anything similar? I never managed to understand that though... :confused:

BTW What is the difference between using a leather Tsuba and a plastic one? Another sign of wealth I suppose?

[Neil Gendzwill]

A good leather tsuba won't break, plastic ones break routinely. Plus a leather one looks nice.

[gill]

Also a leather tsuba won't scratch your, or your opponents Do

[Paburo]

Originally posted by gill
Also a leather tsuba won't scratch your, or your opponents Do
there should be leather shinais then??? :D :D

jenny>>
the tsuba is good against blocking WHEN the shinai of the opponent 'slides' along your shinai. the tsuba stops it before it reaches your kote. nowadays it'd be painful NOT to use a tsuba and receive all those slid-blocked hits on your fingers.

in the past though, it would mean losing your hand. something not pleasant i bet.

neil >>
i've never ever seen or heard about a broken tsuba (plastic or not) in kendo. i think the leather tsuba is more a sign of preserving the traditional materials than for real practical purposes.
just like when you buy a bamboo dou instead of syntetic.


another difference is that some leather tsubas have to be tied to the tsukagawa??

i think its true the tsuba works as pivot in some kaeshi waza too.

[Inouye02]

it's synthetic : )

[Neil Gendzwill]

I've seen lots of plastic tsuba break. But mostly they just look cheesy. For about $CDN30 you can have a swanky leather tsuba that will outlast every single shinai you ever own.

As far as ones that tie on - that's the old-fashioned tsuba-dome. It's a round fairly soft leather piece with two leather strings. You have to drill a hole through your tsuba. Then the tsuba-dome goes against the tsuba with the strings through the hole. The whole shebang slides onto the tsuka and you tie it to the tsuru. Looks very nice, but it's a pain in the butt if you need to switch tsuba quickly.

[mingshi]

Don't you just like the sense of irony when you have to go back to the tradition if technology fails? But in all cases, it's not too cost-effective/ skill effective?

Plastic Tsuba breaks often so you use leather.
Bamboo breaks often so you use Carbon.

Just a thought.

[Neil Gendzwill]

The problem with carbon is that they don't act like a bamboo shinai. So while I appreciate the fact that I can always pull my carbon shinai out of the bag and trust that it will be OK to use, I hate the way it responds and feels.

[rottunpunk]

i cant afford a leather one

but i just covered my plastic one in electric tape-looks a hell of a lot nicer (i dont like the colour) and it fits my shinai better now wahoo

on real swords they were traditionally small (not used as a hand guard at all-cuz whats the point?)
but they are more probably to disguise the movements of the hand when beginning to draw and for something to hold your sword in the saya when walking about etc.

dont know of that made any sense-but it did oin my head at the time of typing...and im avoiding doind the masses of coursework im meant to be doing

:p

[sminki]

tsuba does serve certain purposes in blocking and controlling shinai.

i have a same tsuba (only same kendo equipment i can afford for now, although next time i upgrade my bogu, i have inklings to get a same do) and just broke my friends leather tsuba that he bought in japan for $70. i guess that leather was very dry or i just caught it at the correct angle. he wasn't too happy about that...

[munenmuso]

Ever considered a tsuba as large as a dinner plate?

No more cheap kote tricks...eh

[JSchmidt]

If you don't think the tsuba serves any real purpose, remove it and tell me what your knuckles think about it, after a couple of ji-geiko sessions :D

Jakob

[munenmuso]

Also, imagine two equally-talented samurai killing each other both using shira-saya swords, the one without tsuba-fittings. If both lose their fingers on tsuba tserai, the match will be a draw. Loosing your finger is better than loosing your life.:D

[rottunpunk]

yeah but if you are using a real sword (especially with most of the modern style tsubas or considering the size of the older ones) a swrd could easily cut passed them

whats the point of going for the hand when you can cut hin in half goin up through the groin stomach chest then head anywyay

:p

[stevemcgee99]

Sometimes the wrist is closest.

[titus]

Originally posted by Paburo

there should be leather shinais then??? :D :D


Actually, I read somewhere that the original shinais developed for kendo way back when used shinais that were completely covered in leather, and they stopped doing that because it was too expensive.

[Paburo]

yes. i think marine boy also pointed that in certain (kenjutsu?) schools they still use a leather covered shinai??

either way, i don't think they invented those leather shinai to avoid "scratching their do's" :P :P

[kendomushi]

One very real function of the tsuba and grip on any sword used in combat it to help keep the hand in the right place. Blood flowing along a sword makes it slippery, imagine losing your grip due to your own or anothers blood, or mud, or rain and wet.....
In a forceful thrust, the tsuba protects your own hand from sliding off onto your own blade.

[Marine_Boy]

It is called a fukuro shinai

check the following link

http://www.tozando.com/eng/kendo/s110.html

Stan

[Fraz]

I got a leather laminate style tsuba. After a few practices it started to split along the lamination lines, so I'm back to using a plastic one.... Just another way of spending money..:)

[kendomushi]

I was given a shark skin (same) tsuba by one of my sensei. He has a shark skin do that I always teased him about saying things like if he wakes up with a bump on his head after keiko and the do is missing I have no idea what happened to it. He gave it to me when I made 3dan. I hardly ever use it though as I'm afraid to damage it.
Mostly I just use the plastic ones.

[Kenshi]

thats not the type of fukuro shinai used in yagyu shinkage ryu [as taught by yagyu nobuhara sensei]. I can personally attest to having bleeding knuckles through using one of those bad boys!

[Confound]

Rottunpunk,

Not to be contradictory, but I own some Edo period tsuba (one from a wakizashi), that aren't small. I've seen some rather large ones, as well; however, the biggest one I've seen were intended as gifts, I don't know if they were actually used.

Though one could only call me an expert on this subject if some mysterious plague decimated half the people on the planet, I would disagree with the assertion that most tsuba were small.

c