Sword guard (</>Tsuba</i>) Depicting Exiled Writer and Statesman Su Shi (蘇東坡図鐔)
Unknown Artist
1750–1800
Medium
Copper alloy (possibly sentoku), copper
Dimensions
H. 2 7/8 in. (7.3 cm); W. 2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm); thickness 3/16 in. (0.5 cm); Wt. 4.5 oz. (127.6 g)
Classification
Sword Furniture-Tsuba
Culture
Japanese
Department
Arms and Armor
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Accession Number
91.1.791
Tags
Art Historical Context
This exquisite *tsuba* (sword guard), crafted in Japan between 1750 and 1800, served as a protective fitting for the hilt of a samurai sword. Fashioned from copper alloy—possibly the warm, golden *sentoku*—with additional copper elements, it measures 2⅞ inches high and weighs a substantial 4.5 ounces, underscoring its robust yet refined construction. The openwork design vividly captures a scene featuring the exiled Chinese writer and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101), known as Su Dongpo, amid bamboo groves and horses, evoking a sense of poetic wanderlust. Su Shi, a Song dynasty polymath celebrated...