Sword Guard (Tsuba) Depicting Prawn (海老図鐔)

Japanese

Not on view

The obverse of this tsuba shows a large prawn in flush copper hira-zōgan that occupies the entire right side of the plate, with the antenna stretch into the left side. The eyes are highlighted in gold and the inlay is accented with fine kebori engravings. The reverse depicts a flush shibuichi-zōgan inlay in the form of two crabs and waves. Parts of the wave inlay has come off.

Sword Guard (<i>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Prawn (海老図鐔), Iron, copper, gold, copper-gold alloy (shakudō), copper-silver alloy (shibuichi), Japanese

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Obverse