Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Round, dark brown metal object with a central oval hole; two dragons carved in relief with gold inlays on either side of the hole; body of object perforated with curved shapes resembling waves or flames; dragons have gold eyes and gold scaly skin; gold details on claws and mouth; some gold inlays are dotted.

Artwork details

Date:
late 17th century
Medium:
Iron, gold, copper
Culture:
Japanese
Dimensions:
600 × 600 px
Museum record:
View original
Palette