Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image features a sword guard, tsuba, with an oval shape and rounded edges. The tsuba is primarily gold-colored with a textured surface, comprising small dots arranged in concentric circles. A large, elongated oval-shaped hole is present on the left side, while a narrower, similarly shaped hole with a wavy edge runs vertically through the center. The central hole has a copper-colored section at the top and bottom. On the left side of the central hole, there are two lines of Japanese characters. The right side of the tsuba features a design of three flowers with five petals each, accompanied by two leaves. The background of the image is plain white.

Artwork details

Date:
ca. 1615–1868
Medium:
Copper alloy (sentoku), silver, copper
Culture:
Japanese
Dimensions:
600 × 600 px
Museum record:
View original
Palette