javanese keris kulture and sword

David · 3rd May 2017, 04:01 PM

Ikkirosiki, forgive me for not welcoming you to the forum sooner.
To address Johan's observations, this is a Javanese keris and it is dressed in a Surakarta sheath and hilt. The sheath is in the gayaman style meant for everyday wear. So nothing Balinese about this keris at all really.
The blade is a decent one, but not particularly special. It seems in fairly good condition though it might be nice to see it in full stain so that the pamor pops a bit more.
On your comments about Saparman Sodimejo, who was better known as Mbah Gotho, he did just die a few days ago and was purported to be 146 years old at his death, though his date of birth had no third party verification and many doubt the veracity of the claim. Regardless i am sure he was really old and saw quite a bit in his time. He undoubtably experienced a relatively large span of history in his lifetime. Of course, not every Javanese would necessarily be extremely well versed on keris or keris culture and he may not have had much more contact with keris than you or i. I do also note that apparently he was a Christian in a predominately Muslim world. The keris has it's origins in Hindu culture and was adopted and absorbed into Muslim tradition after the fall of the Mojopahit Empire. Frankly i don't know if it would have had as much meaning to a Christian man living within that culture or if it would have been rejected by him due to it's connection to non-Christian thought and practice.

3rd May 2017, 04:01 PM	#3
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,211	Ikkirosiki, forgive me for not welcoming you to the forum sooner. To address Johan's observations, this is a Javanese keris and it is dressed in a Surakarta sheath and hilt. The sheath is in the gayaman style meant for everyday wear. So nothing Balinese about this keris at all really. The blade is a decent one, but not particularly special. It seems in fairly good condition though it might be nice to see it in full stain so that the pamor pops a bit more. On your comments about Saparman Sodimejo, who was better known as Mbah Gotho, he did just die a few days ago and was purported to be 146 years old at his death, though his date of birth had no third party verification and many doubt the veracity of the claim. Regardless i am sure he was really old and saw quite a bit in his time. He undoubtably experienced a relatively large span of history in his lifetime. Of course, not every Javanese would necessarily be extremely well versed on keris or keris culture and he may not have had much more contact with keris than you or i. I do also note that apparently he was a Christian in a predominately Muslim world. The keris has it's origins in Hindu culture and was adopted and absorbed into Muslim tradition after the fall of the Mojopahit Empire. Frankly i don't know if it would have had as much meaning to a Christian man living within that culture or if it would have been rejected by him due to it's connection to non-Christian thought and practice.