Talismanic or just randomly placed copper dots

[kai]

Hello Albert,

Kai- No hairline crack inline with the dots.

Yeah, I wasn't suggesting it in this case - just mentioning possibilities in general.

Does the dots have anything to do with the tang repair? Cato said that the Jin is released if the blade is separated from the ganya. I wonder if the dots were placed on the blade prior to doing the repair, to prevent the Jin from escaping.

With one of the dots on the gangya, I don't see how this might have been supposed to work. A master bladesmith should be able to (re-)apply a Jin when finishing the repair work; I'd guess that there were rituals to house the Jin elsewhere while working on a blade, too.

Which came first the tang repair or the copper dots???

We'll probably never know. However, I'd guess the dots were part of the original talismanic design.

Regards,
Kai