Brown iron tsuba for a katana, squared ichijo (melon-like silhouette) shape, with a dote (embankment) raised rim.
The rim has a tekkotsu (iron bone) texture and the main body a non-polish ishime-ji (stone surface) texture, with randomly placed kanji carved onto the surface and some brush lines. It has an animal theme with an elephant facing to the left, featuring nunome style zogan (inlay) in raised silver for the tusk, and gold for the sacred pattern on its back. There are two hitsu-ana (openings): one kozuka (utility knife) and one kogai (utility pin). Signature of Yasuchika (either 1st, 2nd or 3rd).
Bequeathed by S. R. Turner
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1973) by Turner, S. R.
Base
composed of
iron
Depth 4 mm
Length 82 mm
Width 74.6 mm
Symbol
composed of
gold
Tusks
composed of
silver
Accession number: O.9-1973
Primary reference Number: 169573
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2026) "Tsuba" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/169573 Accessed: 2026-08-04 04:39:34
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/169573
|title=Tsuba
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2026-08-04 04:39:34|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-169573
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