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By Lyuesword | 29 June 2020 | 1 Comments

PARTS OF A TSUBA (Japanese swords' handguard)

                                      MAJOR PARTS OF TSUBA

Tsuba (sword guards) are used to protect the hands from sliding onto the blade of a Japanese sword. They are art works in their own right and are widely collected. Some koshirae (sword mounts), mostly tanto, were made without tsuba (aikuchi koshirae). Tsuba were mostly made by professional kodogu and tosogu (sword fittings) artists, although some sword makers produced tsuba (tosho tsuba) as did armour makers (katchushi tsuba).

Some tsuba artists also made fuchi-kashira and menuki. In some cases the maker used a forged or folded plate, in other cases a homogeneous plate was used. Many tsuba are signed by the maker on the seppa-dai (area around the nakago ana). When mounted, the tsuba seppa-dai is covered by seppa (metal spacers) and the signature (mei) is not visible. Occasionally tsuba will be found with two small holes near the base of the tsuba. These are udenuki-ana which represent the sun and moon and were likely used for threading a leather wrist thong to prevent dropping the sword in battle.


                

Tsuba are commonly divided into two types: iron (tetsu) and soft metal (kinko). The kinko tsuba may be made of a variety of alloys. Most commonly either shaduko (blue-black colored copper-gold alloy), sentoku (brown colored copper-lead-zinc alloy), shibuichi (gray colored copper-silver alloy), brass or copper.
Both iron and kinko tsuba may have various carved and/or applied decor and/or cut-out designs (sukashi). Tsuba with extensive cut-out designs are commonly referred to as "sukashi tsuba". Depending on the style, the sukashi may depict designs in either positive or negative silhouette.


The most common shapes of tsuba are round (maru gata), rounded-square (kaku gata) and four lobed (mokko) with many variations within each basic design. The patina (surface coloration) gives the tsuba its beauty. Never clean tsuba or any sword fitting with metal polish, it will remove the patina and destroy the beauty and value of the item. Be aware that there are many modern replica and reproduction tsuba of varying quality on the market. These are excellent for mounting on martial arts swords, but are not considered collectible. 


               

                                



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