noun
kin-tsuba (sweet); bean-jam cake shaped like a sword guard
Abbreviation of 金鍔焼き. A traditional Japanese confection: sweetened bean paste wrapped in a thin wheat-flour dough and grilled, named for its resemblance to a sword guard.
See also: 金鍔焼き
老舗の和菓子屋で金鍔を買った。
I bought kin-tsuba at a long-established Japanese confectionery shop.
金鍔はあんこがぎっしり詰まっていて食べ応えがある。
Kin-tsuba is packed with sweet bean paste and is quite filling.
noun
metal sword guard; polearm
Archaic. Originally referred to the metal guard (tsuba) of a Japanese sword, and by extension a polearm. In modern Japanese, the confection sense is overwhelmingly more common.
刀の金鍔には家紋が彫られていた。
The family crest was carved on the metal sword guard.
古文書には金鍔を携えた武士の記述がある。
Old documents describe warriors carrying polearms.
Compound of 金 (kin, 'metal' or 'gold') and 鍔 (tsuba, 'sword guard'). The confection sense comes from the resemblance of the grilled cake to a sword guard.