Sword Guard (<i>Tsuba</i>)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image displays a metal guard. The guard features a dark brown metal circular body with a weathered surface. It has irregularly shaped cutouts on its face, including a large central triangular cutout with rounded edges and two elongated ovals on either side, and three rounded shapes resembling flower petals in the upper right and lower left corners, and middle right side. Small gold designs shaped like birds are positioned near the top of the petal cutouts. The lower right side features a gold-lined circular area with etched designs resembling flowers or fans with curved handles.