End of the Samurai

[Commander CMG]

They were once Japan's highest social caste, remembered for their fearsome fighting skills and immortalized in popular culture since their demise at the end of the 19th century.

But a collection of fascinating portraits of real Samurai warriors taken in the decades before reforms saw the warrior class abolished and a western-style conscripted military drafted in, give an authentic insight into military life in pre-modern Japan.

• The portraits are thought to have been taken in the late 1860s
  
• The Samurai had long been Japan's highest social caste
  
• Shortly afterwards, the Samurai was abolished by Emporer Meishi
  

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[CrimsonKing]

If you havnt read the book Shogun i recommend it!A bit long but a very good book

[+OverSword]

Wow, they actually show a guy disemboweling himself and the headsman standing near. Those guys were hardcore.

[Corp]

Always interesting to see these old pictures.

[+and-then]

A view of another world and time. Wasteful in some ways but awesome in others.

[Tutankhaten-pasheri]

Very good photos. Though I think the one showing sepuku is faked. The person about to die would fully expose their belly, either by pulling the kimono wide apart, or pulling it off their shoulders and down below their belly. The katana being held by his second looks to be not robust enough for the job and looks like a stage prop, even in an old photo. Also he is too close to the doomed to get a good swing, and when bringing his katana back over his head, he would likely stab the guy sitting beside him. Looks like something staged for the curious gaijin.

Edited April 17, 2013 by Atentutankh-pasheri

[Ealdwita]

Who in the Daily Mail gets to write this kind of article? This one reads like it was allocated to one of the cleaning ladies!

[Ashotep]

Great pictures. I would love to have one of those Samurai Swords hanging on my wall.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

Who in the Daily Mail gets to write this kind of article? This one reads like it was allocated to one of the cleaning ladies!

So of a higher calibre then the usual DM writing??