Sword Guard (Tsuba) with Elephant in Pine

Cleveland Museum of Art

The image shows a sword guard (tsuba) with an elephant standing on a branch surrounded by pine needles. The sword guard is circular and made of dark metal with a textured surface. The elephant is on the bottom right, standing on a branch that curves around the elephant and up to the top of the sword guard. The elephant faces left and has its trunk curled upward. The elephant and branch are surrounded by a ring of oval-shaped objects resembling pine needles or flowers with yellow centers. The center of the sword guard has a large oval-shaped hole with a teardrop-shaped cutout in the middle and two smaller oval-shaped cutouts on either side. The background is dark gray, becoming lighter toward the bottom.