Tsuba motif: rice bale or zabuton?

[PietroParis]

Some of you might remember this tsuba of mine that I posted about one year ago in the Tatsutoshi thread:

 

 

 

 

At the time I was wondering if the subject might be a rice bale, but Piers suggested that it might also represent a zabuton (woven straw mat).

 

I had found that suggestion believable, but today I saw another tsuba in an upcoming Parisian sale that made me revert to the rice bale hypothesis:

 

 

This tsuba is described as depicting a rat that eats rice grains fallen from a torn rice bale, and the bale looks very much like mine (although somewhat less finely chiseled). We never stop learning!

[ROKUJURO]

Pietro,

the design is certainly that of rice bales. ZABUTON (as far as I know, but I have probably not seen all of them!) are made differently. 

[Spartancrest]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zabuton  ? Traditional Zabuton are square at least according to Wikipedia  

http://jameelcentre....nd/1686/object/21370   

Lobed tsuba in the form of a rice bale with two rats (front). © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

         https://www.ngv.vic....llection/work/54336/

 

I think by the look of the two designs we are meant to see the rice bale end-on looking down on it from above as opposed to side view in the case of the five bale design? [although the mice/rats are side view in all cases]

 

More of the multi bale type - no rodents-