Tsuba with a Crow and a Heron on a Pine Branch in Rain

Description A crow and a heron are perched on a pine branch at the lower right side of this tsuba. The heron is made of silver, and the crow is made of a copper alloy. The silver of the heron would have originally been white. The white heron and the black crow appear as a metaphor for the pairing of opposites or ying and yang. Incised lines indicate rain. There is a pine branch on the reverse.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Signature] 伯量 ; [Translation] Hakuryu

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters