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In Issunboushi, there is a line that goes like this. "Issunboushi wa hari wo
katana ni shite koshi ni sashi" I found a translation that says "He made use
of a needle as a sword", but I have no idea why. True, hari=needle,
katana=sword, but I couldn't find any grammar to help me understand the form
of this phrase. Where does the "made use" come from? What does "koshi ni
sashi" mean? Thank you in advance! :)
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2015-09-16T18:15:00.593
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2015-09-19T21:46:57.090
2015-09-19T21:46:57.090
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grammar translation
How do you say "using X as a Y"?
The part, "katana ni shite", means to use as a katana. *

As for the other question, "koshi ni sashi" is an old way of saying, to "put
in/on his belt". Koshi meaning hip, and sasu being the verb for insert/put in
[belt].

*Note that this is not the same as "ni shitemo", which is a pattern meaning "even if".
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2015-09-16T18:31:24.900
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2015-09-16T18:42:12.600
2015-09-16T18:42:12.600
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answer
I'll put this as an answer but @oals explained it perfectly.  
[AをBにする](http://nlp.cis.unimelb.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-
bin/wwwjdic/wwwjdic?1MUJ%E3%81%AB%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B) (3) to make use of A for
B; to view A as B; to handle A as if it were B.

In this case the "suru" is in the te-form, so it becomes "shite".
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-09-19T21:46:11.367
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answer