The Pitt Rivers is Oxford University¿s museum of anthropology and world archaeology. The Japanese material includes a large number of items of metalwork. Amongst these, the sword hand guards (tsuba) are the best examples for analysis to learn more about the metallurgical skill of the Japanese at the time of forging. The tsuba needed to be both very strong, since it is the last defence of a swordsman but also beautiful to look at since they are the most visible part of a sword mounting and show the power and importance of the wearer. We propose to measure five tsuba from the Pitt Rivers Museum collection. Three of them are of namban style while the other two autochthon style. The five are representative of iron tsuba as a whole. Neutron diffraction measurements will give information about the carbon composition of the bulk metal and the presence and quantity of slag inclusions.