Help with ID

[Peter Dekker]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

With the octagonal escutcheon on the guard of this sword, I am inclined to think perhaps it is intended to represent the Ka'bah, which among other things is regarded as the Qu'ranic symbol of paradise. As Sumatra is predominantly Muslim, perhaps this might be the intended representation.

The Ka'bah is apparently often used in Islamic architecture, and of course various material culture. It seems in many elements of arms decoration, architectural features serve as inspiration for their design.

As noted in earlier discussion, this escutcheon does not seem particularly ergonomically friendly, but then neither is the hilt of the kastane. These are intended as court or dress type accoutrements and not as primarily combat weapons.

As far as I have seen, the octagonal escutcheon on this example is the only one I have seen on sword hilts, and it would be interesting to see the use of this symbol on other hilts or decoration.

You may well be right in its symbolic meaning.

For some reason, the various people of Sumatran came up with a number of weapons -including actual user grade types- that do not seem to be very ergonomic to us. A good example is the sikin panjang with pointy crowns that holds anything but nice, but several survive with fighting damage in the blades. (See: https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item...-sikin-panjang)