Shinai (37)
Price $27.95
The Shinai, or practice sword, was developed around 1750. It is constructed of four well-seasoned, highly polished staves of bamboo. A square piece of metal is wedged into a slot on the inside of the butt of each stave, to keep the staves aligned. A T-shaped rubber grommet seperates the tips, which are covered by the sakigawa. The nakayuki keeps the staves from spreading apart in the middle, and the tsuka serves both as handle and to bind the butt ends together. The himo (string) keeps the leatherpieces bound together, and indicates the blunt side of the single-edged sword the shinai represents. The guard, or tsuba, is made of either plastic or whaleskin and is held in place by a rubber grommet called the tsuba home.
45" Overall length
45" Overall length