Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Tsuba with wood grain decoration

Glossary (2)

shakudō, tsuba

  • shakudō

    alloy of copper and gold, patinated to a dark blue-black colour

  • tsuba

    Japanese sword guard.

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

Publications online

  • The A.H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba) by Albert James Koop

    The A. H. Church Collection of Japanese Sword-Guards (Tsuba)

    Copper veneered with mokume of shakudō, silver and copper in an irregular pattern of black, white and red "eyes" on a back ground; the edge veneered with a strip purporting to show the edges of some 10 or a dozen strata of the same metals.

    The Description in the MS. Catalogue implies that this guard is of a solid mokume of some 20 layers. The pattern would, however, be impossible in anything but a thing veneer of, say, five or six layers.

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