Why Your Thumb to the Side?

Hello everyone. Thank you for reading this article. I’m Shogo from Let’s ask Shogo, the interpreter of the online lessons and owner of this website.

You must keep your left thumb on the handguard whenever you have a katana on your waist. This was to prevent someone from stealing your katana or preventing the katana from falling out of the Saya scabbard. But did you know that just by looking at how you put your left thumb on the handguard, you can see if that person has experience training katana?

You don’t put your thumb right on the top of the Tsuba handguard, but a little to the right. First of all, if you didn’t know about this, the movement wouldn’t be 100% correct. But the question is WHY. Why do you have to bring your thumb to the side a little and not right on the top of the handle? Two things are often discussed.

1. To avoid your thumb getting cut with the sharp edge when you draw

If you keep your thumb right on top of the Tsuba, you may accidentally hit the sharp edge when you quickly draw the katana. By bringing your thumb to the side of the Tsuba, you can lower the chance of this ever happening.

2. So you can flip the katana over quickly

There are many techniques in Iai (katana drawing) where you draw the katana down up. When you do so, you must twist the sharp edge down with your left hand. You can twist your wrist more easily by bringing your thumb to the right.

These fine techniques are very difficult to learn on your own. If you want to learn more about handling katana, please take our online lessons. We will teach beginners carefully and in detail.