Pocket tsuba?

[Spartancrest]

I stumbled upon this little gem? - Hidden away in the Ashmolean Museum, I hope you can make out the hollow pocket at the top of the guard. From the way it looks it has been made from an embossed thin sheet folded over and crimped at the sides. Although it is listed as a tsuba in their collection I wonder if it was actually a netsuke?

The museum's site does not provide any useful information on the piece. Anyone ever see something like it before?

 https://collections.ashmolean.org/collection/search/per_page/100/offset/0/sort_by/relevance/object/108212

 

INTRIGUED!  

[rematron]

That’s so cool!

[Bugyotsuji]

The Netsuke idea is not so far-fetched. (Spare) Tsuba were sometimes used as Netsuke, to hang things from.