Artwork preview

Sword Guard (Tsuba)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Round metal object with a central oval-shaped hole. Dark brown metal with gold accents. Two birds, one at the top and one at the bottom, surrounded by leaves and circular patterns. The birds are facing each other. The top bird has a sunflower-like object next to it. The background of the object is a dark brown circle with gold accents along the edge.

Artwork details

Date:
18th century
Medium:
Iron; gold, silver (nunome-zōgan); copper
Culture:
Japanese
Dimensions:
600 × 600 px
Museum record:
View original
Palette