Sword Guard (Tsuba) with the Carp and Seaweed Motif (藻鯉図鐔)

Moore amassed a study collection of nearly 150 Japanese sword fittings along with complete mounts and blades for Tiffany’s designers to consult. A selection of the sword guards (tsuba) and utility knife handles (kozuka) is presented here. Regarded as autonomous works of art, the component parts of Japanese sword mounts were often signed by makers. Embellished with a wide range of decorative techniques, they typically feature representations of the natural world as well as depictions of social customs, scenes from popular stories, and religious symbols. They served as sources of inspiration for many of Tiffany’s Japanesque mixed-metal wares, as seen throughout this gallery.

The top face of this tsuba is decorated as a pond, its iron surface carved to resemble rippling water, with gold-inlaid (kinzōgan) water grasses and a large shakudō carp circling the central hole for the blade tang. Its reverse is polished and decorated with a yellow water lily (kōhone). The artist, Kansai, who according to tradition was a student of the eighth and last master of the Iwamoto School, inscribed his work with the date 1868 and a reference to the location where it was made.