The sageo is a typical Japanese braid that is wrapped around sword scabbards for practical and decorative purposes. Some braid patterns common to longer swords are kakucho, sasanami, uneuchi, shigeuchi, but for short swords a special braid with 2, 4 or 7 narrower side-braids is commonly used. The narrower braids are named takoashi meaning octopus legs. This sageo is made of 9 warps, the central part braided on takadai in shigeuchi style and the takoashi are braided on the marudai with four tama each (the 9th warp on each side has been equally divided into the other 8 warps in order to braid two 4 warp takoashi).

This is another sageo project for a wakizashi, which is a blade longer than a shaku (11.9 in.) and less than two. This sageo is my first double braid project made on takadai with 25 silk warps for each colour. The braiding scheme is a combination of 2/2 and 3/3 twill edge reversal so as to obtain a white braid with green edges on one side and a green braid with white edges on the other both with a central ridge. The ends will be finished with simple tassels, the sageo will be about 60 inches long.

Luca can be reached by e-mail.