Rare sword guard "dai tsuba"

Description

casted from iron, depicting the Japanese character “dai” which means as much as “large”/“extensive”;
made by a “testubin-shi”, the maker of casted teapots. The casting of iron was very expensive in earlier times, since the needed charcoal war very rare and could only be afforded for lots of money. Until nowadays the casted plates have not achieved the attention they earn.