Sakura Tsuba
A tsuba is the hand guard of a Japanese sword. It served several purposes.
The tsuba balanced the sword.
Over the years, artists used many different metals. They manufactured tsuba
from copper, yamagane ( a dark impure copper), brass, sentoku (a yellowy or
dark brown brass), iron, shakudo (a mixture of copper, gold and whatever else
was available which resulted in a purplish black patina) and shibuichi Although
the iron was an early development, it reemerged later as artists, such as Goto
Ichijo, rebelled against the overly ornate and structured form which the tsuba
gained.
And it protected the hand of the sword holder from an attack by an enemy as
well as from gliding into the sword blade. The third purpose was a more refined
one. The Japanese tsuba developed into a kind of a status symbol for the sword
owner. Thus the Japanese sword tsuba became an elaborate piece of art - far
beyond its practical use.
