Tsuba with Horses

Tsuba with Horses is held by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (Germany). Description supplied by the holding institution: The sword guard, a so-called "tsuba", has a rim consisting of four identically curved lobes and belongs to the "mokkô gata" type. Its narrow, slightly raised and beaded rim is likewise repeated in gold along the contours of the openings on both sides of the tang ("hitsu ana"). Stylistically the work can be assigned to the so-called "Nara" school. On both sides of the plate, horses are discernible against a ground of fine granulation ("nanako") in varied movement and orientation. Their naturalistic-looking bodies are executed in the technique of the Japanese gold-copper alloy, the so-called "shakudô". "Tsuba" are Japanese sword guards of iron, copper, or copper alloys that sit between the hilt and the blade of a sword. In the center of the sword guard is an opening for the tang of the sword. Two further openings are intended for a utility knife ("kozuka") and a sword needle ("kôgai").… The collection record gives measurements Height: 7.45 cm, Width: 6.7 cm, Depth: 0.75 cm. Published through Europeana; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.