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Samurai Mask and Helmet
Photograph by Ira Block
On the battlefield they inspired terror, harvesting heads and glory with their swords. Their leaders wore fierce masks and horned helmets. All lived by a code that valued death over defeat. They were the samurai, the elite warrior class who ruled Japan for nearly 700 years from 1185 to 1867, leaving an indelible mark on a land still making peace with its violent heroes.
Pictured here are a samurai mask and helmet on display at the Osaka Castle Museum.
These photos and captions were published in the December 2003 National Geographic article "Japan's Way of the Warrior."
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Battle Reenactment
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Weekend samurai tangle at a battle reenactment along the Ara River in Yorii, the site in 1590 of a clash between 50,000 armored warriors who attacked each other with cannon, muskets, swords, lances, and bows and arrows. Four centuries later, the town festival is one of many samurai-themed events held in Japan.
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Samurai Fortress
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
A bridge to the past leads to a mist-veiled castle in Matsumoto, one of the best preserved fortresses from the samurai’s reign, which stretched from the late 12th to the mid-19th centuries. Rising to power as ruthless soldiers, samurai leaders fancied themselves as sophisticates, hosting plays, poetry readings, and tea ceremonies in their lofty strongholds.
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Kabuki Performance
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
The swift, sharp justice of a samurai sword propels a kabuki drama at the Hikiyama Festival in Nagahama. Samurai heroics animate many plays written for kabuki, a dramatic form that emerged in the early 1600s as entertainment for commoners. Scandals involving actresses and their samurai admirers compelled the government to ban females from the kabuki stage, a tradition that holds today.
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Archery Competition
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
With samurai intensity a wiry contestant draws his bow during a kyudo, or archery, competition in Tokyo.
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Bowmaker
Photograph by Ira Block
A favored weapon of early samurai, the traditional Japanese bow takes shape in the hands and feet of Shibata Kanjuro, a 21st-generation bowmaker in Kyoto. Working with 30-year-old bamboo, he applies tension to give the seven-foot-long (two-meter-long) bow its classic contour.
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Mounted Archery Competitor
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Deerskin chaps complete the medieval hunting outfit worn by participants in a yabusame, or mounted archery, event in Nikko. In this sport, adapted from a samurai training exercise, horsemen moving at a full gallop fire arrows at small wooden targets.
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Geisha Dancing
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
A forbidden pleasure for samurai, geisha dancing with its silken sweep of kimonos still graces the stage of the Gion Kobu Kaburenjo theater in Kyoto. Such entertainments, part of the emerging urban culture in Edo-period Japan, conflicted with the sober tastes of the shogun. Many samurai, however, couldn’t resist the excitement and eagerly attended performances, often in disguise.
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Kabuki Actors
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Samurai of all ranks played go, a board game about territorial conquest, doubtless as addictive as the cell-phone video games of young kabuki actors.
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Martial Arts
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Without war, many samurai turned to martial arts like kendo, sword fighting often practiced with bamboo staves.
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Bamboo Flutes
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Recalling a form of begging adopted by masterless samurai called ronin, members of the Komuso Society walk in Tokyo playing bamboo flutes with their faces hidden. Ronin collected alms during the peaceful Edo period, wandering the countryside as humble monks.
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Festival Fighting
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Enjoying an energetic history lesson, townsmen (and sometimes women) with bamboo lances and plastic swords charge across a soccer field in Yonezawa as they reenact one of Japan’s bloodiest conflicts, the 1561 battle of Kawanakajima. Festival fighting consists mostly of gentle shoving as bombastic music plays and a commenter describes the action. In the actual battle, at least 17,000 were killed or wounded.
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Cherry Blossom Petals
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
To die like a cherry blossom, which falls at the peak of its beauty, held deep appeal for samurai. Warriors facing defeat would rather commit suicide than grow old with dishonor. As an 18th-century manual stated, “A samurai who is not prepared to die at any moment will inevitably die an unbecoming death.”
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Fire Department Trainees
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
A samurai look endures in Kyoto, where fire department trainees in warrior-like headgear practice their skills. During peacetime, samurai pitched in as firefighters and took jobs as police, their legendary bravery and discipline putting them in demand.
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Modern Samurai
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
Today becoming a samurai costs just a hundred dollars for rented gear and the courage to appear in public.
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Warrior Reenactor
Photograph by Michael Yamashita
The power of the samurai that emerged in the 12th century carried Japan through its medieval period and into the modern era. By wearing sword and armor, Japanese reenactors connect with the most vivid chapter of their history, when warriors had their way.
