If you’ve ever visited Japan, you might have come across some tiny samurai swords being sold as souvenirs. It turns out that some of these are actually designed to be letter openers. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly reduced tourism throughout the country, so fewer people can get their hands on these tiny katanas. So Japanese scissor company Nikken has decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to sell them online.

These samurai sword letter openers are hand-sharpened by Seki craftsmen and feature a curved blade just like the real deal. However, these katanas are designed to be sharp enough only to open mail, and not to slice your skin.

These special edition swords come with a custom engraving on their blades, with any message you’d like – the only limit being eight kanji, hiragana, or katakana characters, or 15 Roman letters and numbers. They come in three different color schemes, and each one includes a handsome display stand.

The miniature katana letter openers are up for sale on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake, with prices starting at just ¥4000 (~$37 USD), but it’s unclear if they can be shipped outside of Japan.

[via SoraNews24]