Mekugi pegs

[Caliper]

Hey everyone, got a question, (I know I know, I ask a lot of question)

I know that most traditional nihonto only used 1 mekugi peg to hold on the tsuka back in the day, and to some using 2 mekugi is a bit of overkill

Now, almost all production katanas use 2 mekugis, but could placing only 1 mekugi (the one closer to the fuchi) instead of the 2 be enough to hold the blade in place with the tsuka and not have the blade fly around and killing someone when doing the ocasional backyard tameshigiri

reason I'm asking is that I'm rewrapping a tsuka and the 2nd mekugi hole would be covered, I'd like to be able to dissasemble the katana from time to time, is this unsafe? :writing::-SS

[RobbyDoom]

A bit of info for you. You may be aware of this, but I'm not sure.
Traditionally, many tsuka were held in place by a friction fit.

[Flashing Steel]

one of the big reasons that most production have 2 mekugi is because the tsuka core isn't made specifically for that sword... they might be slightly adjusted or shimmed but they're essentially all one size fits all. so the second mekugi is kind of a safety measure, and in case the tsuka isn't a perfect fit it will keep the nakago from shifting inside in the tsuka when you swing it around. the one size fits all thing is part of why there are so many cracked tsuka in the production sword market

and robby i may be wrong but i don't know that i've ever heard of a nihonto that only had a friction fit. i mean my understanding is that the friction fit was enough and the mekugi was just an added measure sort of thing and maybe that was what you meant but was just checking.

[Taygrd]

Two give you twice the strenght and many old swords only had one, but there were not as many lawyers in the world then as they are now. I have a few with single peg, but the two mekugi swords make me feel safer, especially when cutting. I would use two, but I go to the side of safety. I am not aware of any friction fit nihonto. Even the oldest tachi had mekugi-ana and to the best of my memory the earlist imported straight swords had mekugi-ana as well.

[Caliper]

ok, thanks for the reply

guess I'll stick with the 2 mekugi pegs, I wanted to do the wrapping and leave the katana dressed up and polish it later, but oh well, better safe than sorry

thankfully the tsuka core has no cracks and it's a very tight fit

I assume that the 1 pegged nihonto also had the hole more in the middle of the nakago/tang than the usual proximal and distal 2 mekugi setup

[Flashing Steel]

i think if it came double pegged you should keep it double pegged unless you have a new core made for it. i regularly check my mekugi to make sure thye are up to snuff and i replace em every so often. but i would only switch to one if a new core was made for that particular sword i.e. it was fitted to that nakago.

[RobbyDoom]

and robby i may be wrong but i don't know that i've ever heard of a nihonto that only had a friction fit. i mean my understanding is that the friction fit was enough and the mekugi was just an added measure sort of thing and maybe that was what you meant but was just checking. Pretty much. I was half asleep and didn't want to go into too much detail. It was hard enough to form that sentence..:)

[Taygrd]

Pretty much. I was half asleep and didn't want to go into too much detail. It was hard enough to form that sentence..:)
That is my normal state=))

[RobbyDoom]

That is my normal state=))
lol.....it was 3:30 in the am.

[69NINJA]

That is my normal state=))

God, thats my normal state on a GOOD day!

As for the question posted, I would think one of 2 answers:

1. If the rewrap that covers one of the ana is on a piece that will be displayed proudly and very lightly used should be perfectly fine with one mekugi if its at least the one closest to the tsuba. although you may want to order a real smoked bamboo mekugi 'susudake' pin if the sword didnt come with one.

2. if you want to use it often however, its not too uncommon to drill another hole for a second pin. I have no clue as to the science of mekugi-ana placement or the physics of the balance/pin ratio, but I have seen pics of many nihonto or WWII blades with many new "holes".
Quite a few members here even have modern production blades with custom placed mekugi after rewrap/tsuka customizations.


I assume that the 1 pegged nihonto also had the hole more in the middle of the nakago/tang than the usual proximal and distal 2 mekugi setup

I may be just rambling here but I think even most traditional single pegged swords had the mekugi placed in the common upper part of the tsuka, my belief has always been that during use the palm of the hand would assist in holding the mekugi secure. also why the the mekugi is tapered larger to the right, or if there's two they're reversed and the bottom one would pull toward the left palm. ALMOST ALL katana were made for right handed people. thats just my thought though. If I'm wrong feel free to add it to my list. ;)

[Mako]

69' is right...the mekugi were originally covered by the menuki which prevented them from coming out and these helped fill the leading hand which was always the right because there were no left handed swordsmen, we've covered this before but I think it's worth mentioning again, children of Samurai who were born naturally left handed were taught to do things with the right hand from 'Day 1', not only because of swordsmanship but many other things in Samurai culture demanded using the right hand where use of the left hand would be seen as discourteous and offensive, this is the reason why the sides of the sword and saya are referrred to as omote (outside) and ura (inside), not right and left because they were always worn at the left hip.
Some say that being naturally left handed and being taught to use a sword right handed could mean that particular Samurai was an ambidextrous swordsman which may have it's advantages and that Miyomoto Musashi was one of these Samurai but I don't know if that's ever been substantiated.
We see many old Nihon-to with more than one mekugi-ana, often because the sword is suriage (shortened) or it's been remounted and it was more convenient to make a new hole rather than try to perfectly match the tsuka to the original, sometimes for both reasons and 3 or more holes are present, or for the same reason as 'Caliper', the mekugi would simply be in the 'wrong' place for a different style of tsuka-maki or whatever?
It has to be said that some schools did use 2 mekugi from the outset though.

[Caliper]

it's amazing how every little aspect of the katana, even the tiny mekugi pegs have a wide story and significance

thanks for the replies
I so wish I could be ambidextrous, would help a lot at squash games, played once against an ambidextrous guy and it was a pain in the *** ~X(