Japanese swing guard (vintage)
Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2025 7:52 pm
Japanese swing guard
Great old listing for a Japanese swing guard with a step bolster. Over the years I’ve grown to love finding old Japanese switchblades.
One term that needs to go from the terminology of Japanese switchblade is the “pre-Rizzuto” monkier that was invented in the early 2000s. First it was pre-Rizzuto then pre-Italian then back to pre Rizzuto. I’ve seen it listed online wrong for decades on some sites. Lol. That’s a completely wrong term.
Japanese catalogs and ads are so hard to find. A few are known and common but finding Japanese ephemera is like gold.
To begin to understand the Japanese switchblade history these should just be called a “Japanese Swing guard.” Forget any Rizzuto term to these and you’ll begin to understand the true history. Plans are being talked about for a fun Japanese switchblade book. Sure the Rizzuto term does have its rightful place. Keep that name for fun and basic stamp history etc. But for true historic purposes a more simple and back to square #1 term would work better.
It helps to know the Italian and German connection to these as well.
Great old listing for a Japanese swing guard with a step bolster. Over the years I’ve grown to love finding old Japanese switchblades.
One term that needs to go from the terminology of Japanese switchblade is the “pre-Rizzuto” monkier that was invented in the early 2000s. First it was pre-Rizzuto then pre-Italian then back to pre Rizzuto. I’ve seen it listed online wrong for decades on some sites. Lol. That’s a completely wrong term.
Japanese catalogs and ads are so hard to find. A few are known and common but finding Japanese ephemera is like gold.
To begin to understand the Japanese switchblade history these should just be called a “Japanese Swing guard.” Forget any Rizzuto term to these and you’ll begin to understand the true history. Plans are being talked about for a fun Japanese switchblade book. Sure the Rizzuto term does have its rightful place. Keep that name for fun and basic stamp history etc. But for true historic purposes a more simple and back to square #1 term would work better.
It helps to know the Italian and German connection to these as well.
