I’ve been wanting to replace my kote himo ever since the lace attached to the inside of the kote started fraying. The laces finally came undone, so the immediacy of lace replacement was evident.
So I set about looking for a tutorial on how to replace the himo.
I found these diagrams at mushinkankendo:
Then I proceeded to try it myself:
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- Delaced kote
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- Insert one end through with small length out
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- Insert other end through same hole
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- Until you have a loop
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- Bring small end through the loop
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- Tighten
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- Bring the long end in to the next hole
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- Leave a small loop and insert the long end through this loop
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- Repeat
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- Repeat
Until I got to the end of one side and realized my kote only had one hole in the wrist, whereas the diagram had two. So…
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- Insert the lace from the outside in through the hole
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- Then bring that end around and under the small loop you just made
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- Then bring the lace and insert it from the inside back through the hole and through the final loop
I know this last part is a bit difficult to grasp but if you study the last two images you might be able to figure it out yourself.
Finally, lacing the kote…
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- Take the lace from the opposite side and make sure you lace over and under
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- Repeat
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- Until it looks like this…
And you’re done!