Wedung from Java

[A. G. Maisey]

The wedung by its very nature is simple:- it symbolises the willingness of a subject to cut a way through the jungle for his lord. Women wear it as well as men, however, its wear is restricted to abdi dalem above a certain rank, that rank is supposedly the rank of a bupati for men, for women I do not know. This is all hearsay, it is what I have been told, it may or may not be 100% accurate.

What does appear to be accurate is that in the Surakarta court wedung with a pamor blade were restricted to wear by princes.

I have never seen a wedung that was positively identified as a Jogja wedung.

The wedung shown here has all the features I would expect to see on a Surakarta wedung, but it does appear to be quite short, which might indicate that it is a woman's wedung. However, I do not think that this wedung is Surakarta, the pamor has the appearance of the North Coast, and to the west, maybe Cirebon. In respect of origin I could only give a defensible opinion if I had it in my hand.

The same goes for age, but a good bet might be 19th century.

Tosan (krama) means iron, aji can be understood in a number of ways, in the context of the keris there are two possible ways, maybe three, in which to understand the word:- respected or honourable, honoured, valuable, or as associated with magic. It is usually taken as "honoured". Any item that is made of iron and that has pusaka status, or even the potential of pusaka status, can be regarded as "tosan aji", this can even extend to items such as stirrups.

A wedung is definitely "tosan aji".