Sword Guard (Tsuba) with Fishing Sage

Cleveland Museum of Art

The object is a dark brown, circular metal piece with a wavy edge. It has two oval-shaped holes on either side of a central elongated oval hole. The central hole is taller than the oval holes. There are three sections of engraved characters on the left side. On the bottom right, there is a raised depiction of a man sitting and holding a fishing rod. The man appears to be fishing. The background of the image is black at the top and fades to dark gray at the bottom.