There are drops of silver inlay. The active design of flowers, leaves, buds with rope-like and swirling elements is unusual and engaging. The nakago ana, and presumably the sword it was mounted on, is rather large for such a small tsuba and seems to be a fashion of the times. The kogai ana is original. The surface of this guard is decorated with a profusion of scattered stamps.
Black lacquer remains in the depressions.
Similar stamp work appears on early Muromachi Aoi tsuba. I wonder if this style of guard was the inspiration for the later Tembo tsuba. They were certainly copied verbatim in late Edo times. The carved down areas within the petals of the chrysanthemum are filled with very fine nanako in linear arrangement. The gold overlay on the rim has worn away from the high points.