In 1582, the first Japanese diplomatic mission bound for Europe set off from Nagasaki. Conceived of by Jesuit missionaries, the Tenshō embassy was composed of four young Japanese noblemen who over the course of the decade would meet various kings of Europe and a newly coronated Pope Sixtus V. In 1585, it arrived in Venice to great fanfare and its leader, Mancio Itō, was dressed up in crimson velvet and painted by Domenico Tintoretto.
Striking, playful, and somewhat artificial, it captures a pivotal moment of two world’s encountering one another for a first time. This painting will feature in an exhibition at the British Museum next year that promises to tell the 1,000-year saga of the samurai and explore how their image and myth was created.
Domenico Tintoretto, Ito Mancio (1585). Photo: courtesy Foundation Trivulzio
So much of the samurai story, including the word itself, was reworked long after their power had waned—a myth enriched and confused further by its modern presence in film, manga, and video games. “The samurai dominated Japan’s history for centuries, but the reality of their lives was often quite different from popular understanding,” Rosina Buckland, curator of Japanese collections at the British Museum, said in a statement. “This is the first exhibition to interrogate the myth, right through to the present day.”
A set of samurai armour recently purchased by the British Museum. Photo courtesy British Museum. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Spanning armor, woodblock prints, paintings, clothing, ceramics, and contemporary media, “Samurai” will bring together 280 objects, drawing from the both the British Museum’s own venerable collection and a host of U.K. and international lenders. Due to the light-sensitivity of works, many are being shown in the U.K. for the first time. One highlight is a 17th-century suit of armor, which was recently acquired by the British Museum. It’s fitted with an earlier helmet and golden standard of iris-shaped leaves that were designed to make the samurai “identifiable and fearsome.”
Katsushika Hokusai,
(1811). Photo courtesy of the British Museum. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
This suit, in some ways, matches the standard image of the samurai, a warrior class known in Japan as , that gained political dominance in the 1100s from their involvement in protracted conflicts between feudal lords, called . In the long era of peace that arrived with the Edo period (1603–1868), they served as government workers, scholars, and patrons of the arts. Women formed half of their number, receiving education and holding positions of power. A vivid illustration is a bright red woman’s firefighting jacket and hood which was worn by women who served Edo Castle. It’s woven with anchors and waves, watery motifs that seek protection from fire that was commonplace in the wooden city of Edo, modern-day Tokyo.
By the end of the 19th century, the hereditary status of samurai had been eliminated, in its place the myth of bushidō, a code of honor promoting patriotism and self-sacrifice, emerged. This formed the basis for the archetype so often depicted in modern media, from the films of Akira Kurosawa to video games such as , which are showcased in the exhibition.
The show, Buckland added, “will introduce visitors to Japan’s rich cultural history by exploring the samurai’s multiple roles, the ways they represented themselves and have been shown by others.”
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
