Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Brass-colored metal object with rounded rectangular shape and rounded top edge. A teardrop-shaped hole in the center and two rounded rectangular holes on either side. The top half depicts four men with long hair, smiling, looking at each other, and holding a fan and pipe. The bottom half has a wave design with curved lines. The background is gray. The artist is unknown, but the title of the object is "Sword Guard (Tsuba)".

Artwork details

Date:
19th century
Medium:
Copper alloy (sentoku), gold, copper
Culture:
Japanese
Dimensions:
600 × 600 px
Museum record:
View original
Palette