Red papered grip wrap

I'm very pleased to say that Peter Dekker's tigersden jian is still going strong. After several years of sparring it now has a well dented blade but still no chips or cracks.

tigers den wooden jian

Peter has recently replaced the grip wrapping, and this time he has used an olive-green, coarse cotton cord over a red paper backing.

Old and new Chinese grip wrapping papers

This is a traditional wrap that is technically difficult to do well, but as you can see, Peter has done a really excellent job:

Wraps of this type can be found on late 19th century jian and dao.  Here is a backing paper from an old jian that Peter has refurbished:

Grip wrapping paper from a period jian

The paper is much degraded, but you can still make out remnants of the calligraphy. Sadly, we can no longer decipher what it says though it was almost certainly designed to affect the fortunes of the person wielding the sword. It may well have been a blessing or very likely a wish for long life, but a hidden message like this could just as easily have been a curse. This sounds rather like the stuff of Kung Fu legend, but it was not unusual for charms like this to be used in China.  There were even arcane manuals on the subject.

Quite thought provoking......it makes me wonder how many of us possess antiques that are cursed or charmed?



Information and pics in this post are courtesy of Peter Dekker,  mandarinmansion.com