Bamboo tsuba
This bamboo tsuba is the hand guard of a Japanese sword. It served several
purposes. The tsuba balanced the sword.
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. 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.
