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Post by Ramsay318 on Sept 18, 2014 19:44:23 GMT
I'm giving thought to getting a custom katana done, but I'm also crazy, so I'm thinking of having it be crocodile/alligator themed (including gator skin instead of ray skin). Thing is, I haven't seen much in the way of crocodilian representation in Asian art. Only this tsuba: educators.mfa.org/node/6771. Has anyone come across other depictions that I could use as examples for having the fittings made? Or, at least, the menuki and tsuba?
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Post by sombersamir18 on Mar 16, 2018 13:22:32 GMT
I'm giving thought to getting a custom katana done, but I'm also crazy, so I'm thinking of having it be crocodile/alligator themed (including gator skin instead of ray skin). Thing is, I haven't seen much in the way of crocodilian representation in Asian art. Only this tsuba: educators.mfa.org/node/6771. Has anyone come across other depictions that I could use as examples for having the fittings made? Or, at least, the menuki and tsuba? Its unlikely that you will find that many depictions of crocodiles in Japanese art. There are crocodiles in the southern parts of Asia such as the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, and Malay archipelago but not in places like Japan.
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Post by MOK on Mar 16, 2018 16:50:09 GMT
FWIW, there is a species of alligators still living in China that also existed in Japan at one point in the distant past (like millions of years distant). Of course, they're also widely speculated to be (one of) the real life inspiration for the Chinese dragon, which should be significantly easier to find depictions of on sword furniture...
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Mar 16, 2018 22:58:15 GMT
As already said, there aren't that many Japanese examples out there, due to the lack of Japanese crocodiles. The world capital of crocodilian koshirae would have to be the Sudan. Although you don't usually see katana in such mounts, you could go full-on Sudanese and mount a katana blade like this: www.semprini/E87-19C-20C-Crocodile-Skin-Sudanese-Kaskara.html
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Post by AndiTheBarvarian on Mar 16, 2018 23:03:20 GMT
Bah, that's like baby seal slippers.
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Post by MOK on Mar 17, 2018 10:42:54 GMT
Or mount it as a kampilan! The hilt shape is said to represent the maw of a crocodile, and Japanese mercenaries were a thing in the South-East so it would be somewhat historically plausible.
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