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

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

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Tsuba with round border containing a lozenge

Glossary

tsuba

  • 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)

    Thick; constructed as a lozenge-shaped frame within a circular ring, the former united to the seppadai by four short bars; bars, lozenge and ring are all of circular section; the seppadai is square-edged.

    It is, of course, only a square, not a lozenge, that can be truly inscribed in a circle, and here the angles of the inscribed figure necessarily "bite" more deeply into the ring at the top and bottom than they do to right and left; also the short bars are not in all cases at right angles to the side of the lozenge. For these reasons the design, while very attractive in the normal position, looks extremely awkward when placed diagonally.

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