What's Awesome at Christie's: Japanese Weapons

by Annie Scott (RSS feed)
Sep 11th 2008 at 9:02AM

Did you know that Christie's has an Arms and Armor section? And that it's totally fascinating?

You film buffs will be in heaven. These are the beautiful weapons you dreamed of wielding after watching Kurosawa.

This, at right, is a kinko tsuba (not that kind of Kinko's). A "tsuba" is the tip/guard at the end of the grip of a Japanese sword. We'd like to see one on a kitchen knife. Bam! What? Just for a minute!

FYI, Kinko means "imprisonment" or "vault" in Japanese, and it's also a town in Kagoshima. Kinko's, the FedEx-owned corporate dandelion, was named in the 1970's for its founder's curly ("kinky") hair according to Wikipedia. Only in the 70's folks. Seriously.

Back to awesome weaponry, here are Luxist's picks for the most fabulous Japanese Weapons from Christie's:

Gallery: Japanese Weapons from Christie's