Tsuba with Hare

The sword guard is held in place between the hilt and blade by two clamps and is intended to stop the hand slipping down onto the blade. In the centre is the trapezoidal gap for the blade and on the left a semicircular gap for the hilt of the extra knife (kozuka). Originally, the sword and knife were among the close-combat weapons of the samurai (warrior caste). In the 16th and 17th centuries they became merely signs of membership of an estate, but the weapons increasingly evolved into status symbols with correspondingly intricate embellishment. The front shows a gold-plated bee and a hare and the reverse repeats the hare motif, this time with a moon. This combination has a long tradition, for in China and Japan, instead of a man, people saw a hare in the moon. (Barbara Til)