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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)

#1

The Last Samurai

UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE Report

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lduchrow27 avatar
LoriDuchrow
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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

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#2

The Last Samurai

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dariab_1 avatar
DariaB
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Looks like a Yakuza, with these tatoos. Maybe there's a connection between the samurai and yakuza heritage in Japan. Just a guess.

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DavidCrew
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yakuza and other organizations that popped up attempted to use much of already estabilished bushido ways. Irezumi has been around for some historians say at least 10k BC. Tattoos were often signs of dedication and prayers of protection. You'd get a God on you in hopes they would give you ultimate strength in battle with no fear. Many Lords in Japan are rumored to have tattooed or branded their guard. A sign of ultimate dedication and loyalty. It wasnt until the Kofun period that it got a bad taste. During that period they began tattooing criminals to publicly shame them for their crimes and so people could profile them to avoid becoming their next victim. Much of the world did this practice at one point or another. Because of that it became the stereotypical ignorance of society to assume that all tattoos were on criminals only. Many priest have been getting inked for tens of thousands of year. But if gangsters can exploit things they will. Thus they kept the concept alive using fear.

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vanwin avatar
van win
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7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To anyone who is interested in more about this, google "horimono" to deeper into the subject.

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Shonryu
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As someone who is Japanese there is no connection between Samurai and Yakuza. This picture is of Yakuza.

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maggiemoonbeam
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Could you please explain (other than your native knowledge) how we would know?

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MelissaBaker
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Much lower social standing - not supposed to use the samurai full sword, only a short sword

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Jakub Bujko
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Not really too much of a connection. It might just be a yakuza member, it might be a rōnin as well. Yakuza originated from peddlers and gamblers, none of which were normal samurai. A former samurai - rōnin (as mentioned before) might become a member of either for those two groups.

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Christopher von Faustus
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7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Part 2: The Kabuki with it's distractions and diverse clientele provided a means for Tekiya and Bakuto to fraternize with the Samurai which would otherwise be impossible. Despite this being unacceptable in Japanese society it was a mutual business relationship. Later after the restoration the Samurai formed militant Ultranationalist organizations and the newly emerging Yakuza was involved in some of the business end of it or something like that. You may need to fact check this though.

dariab_1 avatar
Daria B
Community Member
7 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Read both part 1 and 2 and it sounds very interesting and pretty much a good answer to what I was curious about. As you said, you were not certain about it, but it definitely deserves a check up.

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MarCus
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Day job: Samurai, come night it's the gambling den galore.

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CandysLand
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Daria. Do some research you can find answers and educate yourself not all japanese with tattoos are associated with Yasuda or criminals

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DariaB
Community Member
8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That wasn't my point at the first place.... But yes, I can search for info between the connection of samurai and yakuza if there is any.

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#8

The Last Samurai

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BeluaqSoul
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Imagining how fast a samurai moved without those heavy attire. Must be awesomely fast

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#15

The Last Samurai

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JaclinSullivan-Scholey
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#18

The Last Samurai

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MythiCat
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8 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This type of colorization was typical for the period. Keep in mind how recent full color photography is...even when I was growing up in the 70's we still had a b&w camera (and TV) just like all of our neighbors, and that's about 50-80 yrs after these pictures were taken!

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#19

The Last Samurai

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Joseph
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2 months ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Lol did you not read into this at all? These are not the original images. These photos were colored by hand. The original images are black & white.

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