Japanese sword mountings are the various housings and associated fittings (tosogu) that hold the blade of a Japanese sword when it is being worn or stored. Koshirae (拵え?) refers to the ornate mountings of a Japanese sword (e.g. katana), koshirae are used when the sword blade is being worn by its owner, whereas the shirasaya is a plain undecorated wooden mounting composed of a saya and tsuka that the sword blade is stored in when not being used.
Read more about Japanese Sword Mountings: Components, Shirasaya, Koshirae
Famous quotes containing the words japanese and/or sword:
“A pragmatic race, the Japanese appear to have decided long ago that the only reason for drinking alcohol is to become intoxicated and therefore drink only when they wish to be drunk.
So I went out into the night and the neon and let the crowd pull me along, walking blind, willing myself to be just a segment of that mass organism, just one more drifting chip of consciousness under the geodesics.”
—William Gibson (b. 1948)
“The Knight’s bones are dust,
And his good sword rust:—
His soul is with the saints, I trust.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)