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

Of very irregular outline, but generally rounded oblong, with hammered-up edge; decorated in soft low relief with the Taoist magician Ma Shi-huang seated on a rocky ledge; from the waves below issues a dragon, whose throat he is about to cure by acupuncture; at the back is a man crouching asleep beneath a pine-tree, with a rain-storm swirling overhead. Unsigned, but inscribed: Tōyei-zan no hotori ni oite ("in the neighbourhood of Tōyei-zan," Kiōto) mei no gotoku ("by order") kore wo horu ("carved this").

F. V. Dickins Collection. Possibly one of a pair of tsuba, the other bearing the artist's name. Interesting as being a complicated and elaborate design, without any inlay or incrustation.

Ma Shih-huang (Japanese, Bashikō), one of the sennin (hsien-jên), was a legendary physician of China (2697-2597 BC) who is said to have cured a sick dragon by acupuncture and a draight of licorice, and to have been carried up to heaven by the grateful creature.