Unsigned (mumei) tsuba presented by the original seller with an NBTHK Tokubetsu Hozon Tōsōgu paper and an attribution to the Akita Shōami school, the branch of the Shōami lineage established in Akita, Dewa province. It is a large piece: 97.4 × 82.4 mm, 3.3 mm at the seppa-dai and 227.7 g, according to the seller. A heavy mimi shaped as a twisted rope frames a broad iron field left largely open. On one face a huge anchor, carved in takabori from the iron itself, dominates the design: its curved arms fill the upper area and the shank runs down to the rim, where a small figure dressed in shakudō with gold clouds and silver limbs works on it, beside waves flecked with gold. On the other face a crouching man in copper, with silver face and hair, toils at the water's edge next to grasses in gold iroe. The photographs show a dark, stable iron patina with no active rust, and well-preserved relief and gilding. Both hitsu-ana were filled with shakudō plates long ago, and the central opening carries copper sekigane. The original seller dates it to the early Edo period and notes a paulownia box.