Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dark brown circular metal object with a mountainous landscape design. The object is a sword guard, known as a tsuba. It has a dark brown color with a textured surface and three holes in the center for the sword. The holes are two oval-shaped openings on either side of a teardrop-shaped opening. The surface features a design of mountains, possibly a mountain range, rendered in a simple, line-drawn style. Small gold dots are scattered throughout the design, likely representing details such as rocks or trees. The gold dots vary in size and are randomly dispersed around the design. The background of the image is plain white.

Artwork Details

Date
possibly 17th century
Medium
Iron, silver, copper
Culture
Japanese
Dimensions
600 × 600 px
Public Domain
Yes
Museum Record
View original
Palette