A long rectangular bronze kozuka engraved with an image of a seated man in a landscape background. The face of the man is decorated with silver along with parts of his clothing. There are specks of gold also on his clothing. The Kozuka has a triangular opening with a hollow body which holds the small Japanese Kogatana blade.

Japan, Asia

Japanese Decorative Arts

A very popular type of decorative arts in Japan

Japanese metalwork

Use this term for both types of warfare.  Named wars are held under the events thesaurus

So what is a tsuba?
A tsuba is the sword guard of a japanese katana or tachi. Its primary purposes are to balance the sword, prevent your hand from sliding down the blade and, as a last resort, as a block against a thrust or slash. However, as time and skills progressed they evolved into items of art and the ever popular status symbol. http://www.ils.unc.edu/~allen/tmain.html

The tsuba is usually a round or occasionally squarish guard at the end of the grip of bladed Japanese weapons, like the katana and its various declinations (tachi, wakisashi etc.), tanto, or naginata. They contribute to the control of the arm (the right index of the fighter typically touches the tsuba), and to the protection of the hand. The shodan no kamae guard [1] is determined by the tsuba and the curvature of the blade. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuba

Japanese armour

235A-1 Kozuka (1 of 3), knife handle, seated man, gilt, bronze / silver / gold, maker unidentified, Japan, date unknown

The word kozuka means literally; small hilt, (ko-tsuka) in Japanese. It refers specifically to the rectangular metal handle of a small utility knife which is usually carried in the scabbard of the Samurai long-sword, or katana.

POWERHOUSE COLLECTION

Japanese bronze kozuka

Object No. 235A-1

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