diff --git a/api/filters/fieldspec/fieldspec.go b/api/filters/fieldspec/fieldspec.go
index 00026b923..f7af2bb5b 100644
--- a/api/filters/fieldspec/fieldspec.go
+++ b/api/filters/fieldspec/fieldspec.go
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ import (
 	"strings"
 
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/filters/filtersutil"
+	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/internal/utils"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/types"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/kyaml/errors"
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/kyaml/yaml"
@@ -37,7 +38,7 @@ func (fltr Filter) Filter(obj *yaml.RNode) (*yaml.RNode, error) {
 	if match, err := isMatchGVK(fltr.FieldSpec, obj); !match || err != nil {
 		return obj, errors.Wrap(err)
 	}
-	fltr.path = splitPath(fltr.FieldSpec.Path)
+	fltr.path = utils.PathSplitter(fltr.FieldSpec.Path)
 	if err := fltr.filter(obj); err != nil {
 		s, _ := obj.String()
 		return nil, errors.WrapPrefixf(err,
@@ -165,18 +166,3 @@ func isMatchGVK(fs types.FieldSpec, obj *yaml.RNode) (bool, error) {
 
 	return true, nil
 }
-
-func splitPath(path string) []string {
-	ps := strings.Split(path, "/")
-	var res []string
-	res = append(res, ps[0])
-	for i := 1; i < len(ps); i++ {
-		lastIndex := len(res) - 1
-		if strings.HasSuffix(res[lastIndex], "\\") {
-			res[lastIndex] = strings.TrimSuffix(res[lastIndex], "\\") + "/" + ps[i]
-		} else {
-			res = append(res, ps[i])
-		}
-	}
-	return res
-}
diff --git a/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter.go b/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..c8d2f3342
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter.go
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+// Copyright 2021 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package utils
+
+import "strings"
+
+// PathSplitter splits a slash delimited string, permitting escaped slashes.
+func PathSplitter(path string) []string {
+	ps := strings.Split(path, "/")
+	var res []string
+	res = append(res, ps[0])
+	for i := 1; i < len(ps); i++ {
+		last := len(res) - 1
+		if strings.HasSuffix(res[last], `\`) {
+			res[last] = strings.TrimSuffix(res[last], `\`) + "/" + ps[i]
+		} else {
+			res = append(res, ps[i])
+		}
+	}
+	return res
+}
diff --git a/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter_test.go b/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9b52c3806
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/internal/utils/pathsplitter_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+// Copyright 2021 The Kubernetes Authors.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
+
+package utils_test
+
+import (
+	"testing"
+
+	"github.com/stretchr/testify/assert"
+	. "sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/internal/utils"
+)
+
+func TestPathSplitter(t *testing.T) {
+	for _, tc := range []struct {
+		exp  []string
+		path string
+	}{
+		{
+			path: "",
+			exp:  []string{""},
+		},
+		{
+			path: "s",
+			exp:  []string{"s"},
+		},
+		{
+			path: "a/b/c",
+			exp:  []string{"a", "b", "c"},
+		},
+		{
+			path: `a/b[]/c`,
+			exp:  []string{"a", "b[]", "c"},
+		},
+		{
+			path: `a/b\/c/d\/e/f`,
+			exp:  []string{"a", "b/c", "d/e", "f"},
+		},
+		{
+			// The actual reason for this.
+			path: `metadata/annotations/nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io\/auth-secret`,
+			exp: []string{
+				"metadata",
+				"annotations",
+				"nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret"},
+		},
+	} {
+		assert.Equal(t, tc.exp, PathSplitter(tc.path))
+	}
+}
diff --git a/api/types/fieldspec.go b/api/types/fieldspec.go
index e5836aa1c..f5b711ee5 100644
--- a/api/types/fieldspec.go
+++ b/api/types/fieldspec.go
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ package types
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
-	"strings"
 
 	"sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/resid"
 )
@@ -34,11 +33,6 @@ type FieldSpec struct {
 	CreateIfNotPresent bool   `json:"create,omitempty" yaml:"create,omitempty"`
 }
 
-const (
-	escapedForwardSlash  = "\\/"
-	tempSlashReplacement = "???"
-)
-
 func (fs FieldSpec) String() string {
 	return fmt.Sprintf(
 		"%s:%v:%s", fs.Gvk.String(), fs.CreateIfNotPresent, fs.Path)
@@ -49,34 +43,6 @@ func (fs FieldSpec) effectivelyEquals(other FieldSpec) bool {
 	return fs.IsSelected(&other.Gvk) && fs.Path == other.Path
 }
 
-// PathSlice converts the path string to a slice of strings,
-// separated by a '/'. Forward slash can be contained in a
-// fieldname. such as ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret in
-// Ingress annotations. To deal with this special case, the
-// path to this field should be formatted as
-//
-//   metadata/annotations/ingress.kubernetes.io\/auth-secret
-//
-// Then PathSlice will return
-//
-//   []string{
-//      "metadata",
-//      "annotations",
-//      "ingress.auth-secretkubernetes.io/auth-secret"
-//   }
-func (fs FieldSpec) PathSlice() []string {
-	if !strings.Contains(fs.Path, escapedForwardSlash) {
-		return strings.Split(fs.Path, "/")
-	}
-	s := strings.Replace(fs.Path, escapedForwardSlash, tempSlashReplacement, -1)
-	paths := strings.Split(s, "/")
-	var result []string
-	for _, path := range paths {
-		result = append(result, strings.Replace(path, tempSlashReplacement, "/", -1))
-	}
-	return result
-}
-
 type FsSlice []FieldSpec
 
 func (s FsSlice) Len() int      { return len(s) }
diff --git a/api/types/fieldspec_test.go b/api/types/fieldspec_test.go
index 58282b6a1..94c400658 100644
--- a/api/types/fieldspec_test.go
+++ b/api/types/fieldspec_test.go
@@ -13,30 +13,6 @@ import (
 	. "sigs.k8s.io/kustomize/api/types"
 )
 
-func TestPathSlice(t *testing.T) {
-	type path struct {
-		input  string
-		parsed []string
-	}
-	paths := []path{
-		{
-			input:  "spec/metadata/annotations",
-			parsed: []string{"spec", "metadata", "annotations"},
-		},
-		{
-			input:  `metadata/annotations/nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io\/auth-secret`,
-			parsed: []string{"metadata", "annotations", "nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/auth-secret"},
-		},
-	}
-	for _, p := range paths {
-		fs := FieldSpec{Path: p.input}
-		actual := fs.PathSlice()
-		if !reflect.DeepEqual(actual, p.parsed) {
-			t.Fatalf("expected %v, but got %v", p.parsed, actual)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
 var mergeTests = []struct {
 	name     string
 	original FsSlice