Keris blade with makers thumb prints (pichit)
Full Description:
A very rare and early keris blade from Java, 12-15th century. Made from a single piece of steel, it is quite clearly marked on both sides with a series of the maker s thumb prints (pichit) -with seven prints on each side. The bottom of the tang has a twisted end, probably for practical reasons - to secure it into a hilt.
The thumb prints are such that the unique patterns of the maker are visible in the metal, and in a further show of skill, each print is circled with silvery pamor lines.This example is particularly rare because of the small, well chiselled humanoid or fetus-like figures known as a putut figures
that decorate each side of the base of the blade.
Sheppard1 says that Malay shamans would have them as one of their rituals objects but that they were never intended to serve as a weapon. He says that a subgroup among these blades was referred to as a kris pichit – blades with finger of thumbprints running along them. According to Sheppard, ‘‘the finger impressions seem to have been made during the process of forging, for the damask pattern in the iron continues through the depressions. No one knows how these impressions were made, and the blades are so rare that some people believed that they must have been the work of smiths who were possessed of supernatural skill.’’
A similar example (but without the putut figures) is illustrated by Sejr Jensen (2008)2. The author says that such blades are said to have been made by the female empu (kris blade maker) Sombro who lived in the tenth century in Pajajaran, Java, and who is said to have been magically skilled. According to Sejr Jensen she made the pichit depressions on the red-hot blade with her thumb but then hardened the blade by passing it through the labia of her vagina!
An extremely rare and interesting blade, such blades are thought to have been the prerogative of royalty and traditionally it was believed that the possessor of a putut kris would find that his debts were forgiven.
1 Sheppard, M., Taman Indera: Malay Decorative Arts and Pastimes, Oxford University Press, 1972, p.132.
2 Sejr Jensen, K., The kris and its symbols in Arts of Asia, May-June 2008