Species Name | Common Name | Location | CITES |
Himantura Gerrardi | White Spotted Whipray | Many (Pakitstan to Myanmar) | No |
The meat is often used in food while the skin is used for leather or samegawa. Our skins are of higher quality than most obtained from China or India. They have larger naval knots/emperor nodes (oyatsubu), more consistent and thicker skin (lower quality skin can be seen through and have holes, inconsistent nodes, discolorations). These skins have been used to supply well known tsukamakishi in Japan, as well as the USA.
These skins are 10 inches wide by 20+ inches long, which is good enough for any normal and large tsuka. It should also be large enough for tanto/wakizashi saya.