What are There Strings on the Sheath?
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.
Have you ever wondered before… Why are there strings attached to the Saya Sheath of the katana? This cotton/silk string is called the Sageo and is tied through the Kurikata hole on the Saya sheath. Today, the Ryuha styles taught through our online lessons are for tying the Saya to the Hakama, the special trousers for training in katana martial arts. Seki Sensei explains that historically the katana was believed to have the spiritual power of the gods, and by tying the Sageo, you’ll be able to keep such powers from the katana within yourself.
However, there is no absolute answer for the purpose of the Sageo. Some Ryuha styles tie it at a different position of the Hakama or don’t tie it at all. Some studies say that in the past, the samurai also used it for tying up their sleeves, for hemostasis in case of injury, for tying up a defeated opponent, etc. Basically, it was a multipurpose tool that could be used for many things.
By the way, buying new Sageo strings tends to be very hard and difficult to handle. In that case, you can soak it in hot water for about a minute, squeeze the water out, and dry it. Then, it gets very soft and will be much easier to handle during training. In our lessons, there are no requirements for the material and color, but it would be best to choose a color that can easily be seen through the camera for Seki Sensei to check if you’re doing it correctly.
I didn’t know about the soaking! My sageo isn’t very flexible, and tying it to the outer obi belt while sitting can be a little challenging.
Thanks again, Shogo!
I didn’t know that either. Pretty handy to know, I’ll have to try it out.
I just did this with hot water. I’d caution if your sageo is milti-colored the colors may bleed together. For example, my sageo is green and white, however after the hotbath the water was tinted green and the white is now more of a light green. I fortunately like it as it reminds me of a turtle shell, but just wanted to caution others as this was unanticipated.
Hi Shogo,
The hot water absolutely worked. My sageo is more mailable now and it feels great.
Just a note of caution when doing this, if your sageo is multi colored, the hot water may extract the color from the darker silk and tint the water.
The lighter color of the sageo, in my case my Kikko sageo was green and white, but now it is green and light green.
I still like the way it looks… reminds me of a turtle shell.
I just wanted to caution others due to my experience.
Thanks again for the info!
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