The Meiji Restoration of 1868 took power from the warlords that had been the de facto rulers of Japan and consolidated it under the Emperor Meiji. With the Restoration came many changes, including the creation of a modern, western-style, conscripted army in 1873. The famous Samurai, who despite making up only 10% of the Japanese population, and who wielded a tremendous amount of power, lost their right to be the nation's only armed force, and eventually, even their right to wear a sword in public.
In honour of these noble warriors, Bored Panda has collected this list of coloured Samurai photographs, all taken between 1863 and 1900, in the twilight years of the Samurai's reign. As it's unlikely that any of you are Samurai, this list is closed, but you can still vote on your favourite photo!
More info: Amazon.com (h/t: demilked, fubiz)
This post may include affiliate links.
I didn't know there were samurai women. I looked it up and this is a fun tidbit that I found: With their husbands in combat almost continuously, 16th century samurai women provided for the defense of their homes and children. Their wartime roles included washing and preparing the decapitated bloody heads of the enemy, which were presented to the victorious generals. Like their samurai husbands, personal honor was paramount for samurai women. They carried small daggers and were always prepared to die to maintain their honor and family name. http://www.pbs.org/empires/japan/tokaido_6.html
Thank you for the research. Very interesting.
Load More Replies...
Well, although its true men made up vast majority of samurai....there were plenty of female ones. Tomoe Gozen is an extremely famous one. She fought in many battles and defeated high ranking samurai. She never lost/died in combat.
It is just wonderful to be able to see these ancient pictures.
Women from noble class (samurai class) back then and back there, were trained to use weapons but usually it was not katana but naginata (kind of a polearm). The knife mentioned earlier was used to women-kind-of-seppuku. They used it to slit their throats, not the bellies like men did. But their overall training was more like "we will train you so you will be able to protect our home when s**t hits the fan" than "come to us kill some baddies". It was really rare for a women to go to war, but it happend even so. To help their husband, to protect their home but on battlefield, sometimes against will of their husbands and feudals. The most popular exaple is Tomoe Gozen, but there were few other. Even their mythologi mentions entire woman army squadron or something like that.
Load More Replies...
Famous Nakano Takeko - fatally wounded, she asked her sister for beheading - so the enemy didn t get her head as trophy and Nakano Takeko didn t slow down her female comrades. There is a shrine for her memory
Load More Replies...
He looks ill..face is a tad emaciated. Otherwise a wonderful photo.
"Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young."
Imagining how fast a samurai moved without those heavy attire. Must be awesomely fast
I have enjoyed these pictures and am thankful to have been able to view them they were an awesome people with much honour - I am sorry that so many had nothing but negative foolish responses to these ancient pictures. Thank You for sharing them.
They still exist (descendants of the original Iga and Kōga clans), but they nowadays give tours in their old home compounds which are loaded with traps and escape passages
Load More Replies...
Beautiful and interesting to look at it. Still, these photos were staged for a Western audience, and many of the details such as the tattoo were painted on after the fact (and are not in fact tattooed on the models). I think this speaks more to Western perspectives of Samurai during the early Meiji period as opposed to real samurai culture at this point. But again, I do like the aesthetic.
I disagree... I don't know why you should imagine these photographs were staged principally for a 'western audience'... And tattoos were indeed, during certain periods of samurai history, very much a part of samurai culture, and ceromonial practice.
Load More Replies...
These pictures were beautiful but Csomai Zsuzsanna's comments were the most interesting part of the article as she knows quite a lot about samurais.
sorry, though it was some kind of modern recolouring, apparently it's not.
Load More Replies...
Wonderful photos and most likely Yokohama studio portraits of the 1880s and 1890s for Western tourists at the time. Photographs prior to the Meiji Restoration are fairly rare as Japan was closed to the West prior and photography had only recently been introduced to Japan. You can view more at www.photosofjapan.com if you are interested and yes the tattoos are real, just hand-coloured to bring the albumen prints to life :) samurai2-5...084158.jpg 
Chinese, Korean term for Japan is Wa(倭). Slightly derogatory term for Japanese in Korean is wae-nom = short bastards.
Slightly derogatory Korean term for Japanese was/is "wae nom" = short bastards.
Can someone educate me on the types of clothes and armor they wore please? How could one maneuver in all the metal?
Actually the metal prevented samurai from making certain movements like bending the elbow a certain way
Load More Replies...
They still exist (descendants of the original Iga and Kōga clans), but they nowadays give tours in their old home compounds which are loaded with traps and escape passages
Load More Replies... Beautiful and interesting to look at it. Still, these photos were staged for a Western audience, and many of the details such as the tattoo were painted on after the fact (and are not in fact tattooed on the models). I think this speaks more to Western perspectives of Samurai during the early Meiji period as opposed to real samurai culture at this point. But again, I do like the aesthetic.
I disagree... I don't know why you should imagine these photographs were staged principally for a 'western audience'... And tattoos were indeed, during certain periods of samurai history, very much a part of samurai culture, and ceromonial practice.
Load More Replies... These pictures were beautiful but Csomai Zsuzsanna's comments were the most interesting part of the article as she knows quite a lot about samurais.
sorry, though it was some kind of modern recolouring, apparently it's not.
Load More Replies... Wonderful photos and most likely Yokohama studio portraits of the 1880s and 1890s for Western tourists at the time. Photographs prior to the Meiji Restoration are fairly rare as Japan was closed to the West prior and photography had only recently been introduced to Japan. You can view more at www.photosofjapan.com if you are interested and yes the tattoos are real, just hand-coloured to bring the albumen prints to life :) samurai2-5...084158.jpg
Chinese, Korean term for Japan is Wa(倭). Slightly derogatory term for Japanese in Korean is wae-nom = short bastards.
Slightly derogatory Korean term for Japanese was/is "wae nom" = short bastards.
Can someone educate me on the types of clothes and armor they wore please? How could one maneuver in all the metal?
Actually the metal prevented samurai from making certain movements like bending the elbow a certain way
Load More Replies... 