Guarda 1 Shinobu Kamado

Sword furniture is what people examine when they get close to a prop blade, and this is the guard for a slender demon-hunter's katana of the sort carried by the quicker, lighter swordfighters in modern shonen anime. It is the ornamental fitting that sits between blade and grip, styled to be looked at rather than to disappear into the hilt. For cosplayers building a sword from raw stock, the guard is the element hardest to fake convincingly in foam or card, which is why it is worth printing properly. Prop makers reworking an existing display blade may want it on its own. Either way it belongs with the rest of a convention loadout: the costume, the haori, the hair pins and a weapon that still holds up when someone photographs it from a foot away.