We visited the excellent “Samurai” exhibition at the British Museum in London earlier this week and we can highly recommend it for anyone interested in Japanese history, culture, art and of course “the way of the warrior”.
The exhibition is a carefully curated selection of armor and weapons, paintings and prints, artefacts and objects, all brilliantly put together to document and illustrate the fascinating stories and legends of Japan’s warrior class.
(As always with our short stories and blog posts, you can click on any image for a closer look.)
“Samurai” reflects the thousand-year history of “Bushi” (Japanese for “samurai”) from its medieval origins, to political dominance in the twelfth century, to the establishment of the “Long Peace” from 1615 and finally to the abolition of hereditary status in the late 1800s.
The exhibition had several highlights including a depiction of the famous female samurai, Tomoe Gozen. We recently wrote an article about the fearless Ona Musha, (samurai women) and you can read this click here Or on the image below.
As you would expect, there were some very fascinating suits of armor and weapons on display, along with beautiful silk kimonos, robes, floor screens, paintings and wood block prints, helping to tell the captivating story of the samurai warrior class.
The robes in the above image reminded us of the procession of warriors depicted on this fascinating Mezen Satsuma Dish From our collection of antique Japanese ceramics.
A while ago, inspired by our collection of samurai-themed, Meiji-era artifacts, we wrote a short blog about samurai armories. Not surprisingly it has become one of the most popular articles on our website. you can read that blog click here Or on the image below.
You can also view dozens of beautiful Japanese artworks inspired by samurai in our online collection click here Or on the image below.
While we were at the British Museum, we visited the Japanese Rooms upstairs (always worth a visit) and were delighted to see some magnificent jizai okimono, (you can see our selection of jizai okimono here) click here) and a charming “Iris” vase by Makuzu Kozan.
Did you know, Iris was a favorite flower of samurai because of its sharp, sword-like leaves. You can read our article about “Hanakotoba”, the ancient Japanese tradition of assigning symbolism to flowers click here.
You can read our recent blog about the renowned Imperial ceramicist Makuzu Kozan click here Or on the image below.
“Samurai” runs at British Museum until 4th May 2026 and you can plan your trip and find out more click here.
If you’re planning a visit to London, our Islington gallery, (a 20-minute taxi-ride from the British Museum) is open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. contact us By click here To arrange your travel.
If you enjoyed this article, you’ll find over 150 short stories and blogs inspired by our collection of Chinese and Japanese fine art and antiques. click here.