Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dark brown metal sword guard with octopus on top. The sword guard is roughly rectangular shape with curved sides and oval-shaped cutouts on either side. The top is wider than the bottom. The octopus is brown with a lighter brown color on suckers. The octopus has large eyes and eight tentacles. The tentacles extend down the sides and across the bottom of the sword guard. The background is gray.

Artwork details

Date:
late 18th century
Medium:
Iron, copper
Culture:
Japanese
Dimensions:
600 × 600 px
Museum record:
View original
Palette