Iron tsuba decorated with sparrows and bamboo inlaid and chiseled in yellow brass, with snow lying on bamboo leaves inlaid in silver-ish shibuichi. Copper sekigane. The kogai-hitsu-ana probably cut out at a later date.

Heianjō school.

Unsigned.

Height: 86.0 mm, Width: 85.4 mm, Thickness at seppa-dai: 2.9 mm.

Momoyama or early Edo period, first half of the 17th century.

Merrily Baird, Symbols…, page 118: “The association of the sparrow (suzume) with both bamboo and rice heads is an old one found in Japanese poetry, paining, and design.”