Continuing with the sword series, here is another form of dagger made in Japan. It's called Aikuchi.
Aikuchi
The Aikuchi (literally "fitting mouth") is a form of mounting for Japanese blades in which the
handle and the scabbard meet without a guard in between. Originally used on the koshigatana (a precursor to the wakizashi) to facilitate close wearing with armor, it became a fashionable upper-class mounting style for tantÅ (daggers) in the Edo period. Small aikuchi tanto known as
kaiken became popular with the Yakuza, as they were easy to conceal; however, the most typical user of kaiken were women samurai from the Edo period onwards, who kept it as an emergency and/or suicide weapon.
Gotta post pics or people won't believe it
... so here goes:
Just gotta love this hilt:
This is more a fancy engraving. It's called the dragon snake:
Just love this design as well
