Samurai exhibition to tackle myths about Japan's warrior elite

A groundbreaking samurai exhibition that promises to challenge “everything we think we know about Japan’s warrior elite” spanning a millennium of myth and reality is to open at the British Museum next year.

- Dalya Alberge

A women's firefighting jacket from Edo Castle

Titled Samurai, the exhibition will reveal a world beyond armour-clad warriors and duels, as popularised by the noble, katana-wielding heroes of Akira Kurosawa’s classic action films and PlayStation’s hit video games.

Much of the samurai myth - including even the word “samurai” - was invented long after their heyday, a modern phenomenon linked to mass media and pop culture.

The exhibition, which opens in February, will also show that, far from being a male warrior cult, samurai women were educated, governed and even fought.

Rosina Buckland, the exhibition’s lead curator said: “This is the first exhibition to tackle the myths. Most of the previous exhibitions have been about the ‘boys’ toys’, as I call them sometimes, somewhat facetiously - the weapons.