Sword Guard (Tsuba)

19th century

Not on view

This tsuba shows on the obverse a Chinese figure wearing a prominently gilded headgear, leaning onto his cane and with one shoe visible which is gilded as well. Towards the bottom left, we see what appears to be a rat eating from some kind of bundle and the reverse shows reed but is, apart from the raised inscription “after a painting by Ōkyo,” undecorated. Maruyama Ōkyo (円山応挙, 1733-1795) was a Japanese artist active in the late 18th century who founded in Kyōto the Maruyama School of painting.

Artwork Details

Overview

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Provenance

Title: Sword Guard (Tsuba)
Date: 19th century
Culture: Japanese
Medium: Iron, gold, copper
Dimensions: H. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm); W. 3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm); thickness 1/8 in. (0.3 cm); Wt. 4.3 oz. (121.9 g)
Classification: Sword Furniture-Tsuba
Credit Line: Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Object Number: 91.1.770
Curatorial Department: Arms and Armor

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Scabbard Cover

Japanese

early 19th century

Dagger (Kard) with Sheath, Steel, ivory, gold, wood, leather, iron, Persian, Qajar — Dagger (Kard) with Sheath
Persian, Qajar
ca. 1800

Sword Guard (Tsuba), Ishiguro Koreyoshi Japanese, Iron, gold, copper, silver, copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), copper-gold alloy (shakudō), Japanese — Sword Guard (Tsuba)
Ishiguro Koreyoshi
1840–60

Sword Guard (Tsuba), Iron, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), gold, copper, Japanese — Sword Guard (Tsuba)
Japanese
1858

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