Sword Guard (Tsuba) Depicting Herons (鷺図鐔)

Japanese

Not on view

The obverse (omote) of this tsuba shows on the top left in high relief (takabori) a flying heron in silver and on the bottom right a heron in silver standing in water between reed and water grasses in gold and shakudō. The reverse (ura) is more sparsely decorated and only shows on the bottom left one heron in silver standing in water and next to water grasses in gold, silver and shakudō. The face of the rim is decorated in a golden Greek key pattern.

Sword Guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Herons (鷺図鐔), Copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), silver, gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), Japanese

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Obverse

Sword Guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Herons (鷺図鐔), Copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), silver, gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), Japanese
Sword Guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Herons (鷺図鐔), Copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), silver, gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), Japanese

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.