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The last of the samurai in pictures | Art and design

The last of the samurai – in pictures

A collection of rare photographs of samurai presented by Daniella Dangoor is being exhibited at The London Photograph Fair. Most photographs purporting to be of samurai are actually not and were taken after 1877, when the samurai system was abolished. These images are of genuine samurai, taken between 1860 and 1877. The photographs in the collection offer a rare glimpse into a vanishing world

Main image: Kubota Sentarô in armour with retainers, Yokohama, c1864 Photograph: Felice Beato

Tue 15 May 2018 09.00 BST Last modified on Thu 26 Mar 2020 14.32 GMT

  • Southern officers, circa 1867

    Hand-tinted albumen print from wet collodion negative. A group of samurai are shown gathered in discussion around a map, those of lower rank in western-style tunics standing slightly apart as they watch the deliberations, while a servant squats in apparent readiness for his instructions. Beato’s seemingly innocuous title of ‘southern officers’ identifies the sitters as members of one of the Satsuma clans actively opposing the Shogunate, and further enhances the viewer’s sensation of having stumbled into a council of war

  • Upper-class woman in palanquin with samurai escorts, circa 1867

    Hand-tinted albumen print from wet collodion negative. For the warrior class and for the nobility the most luxurious vehicles were human-powered palanquins called norimono, expensive and with a comfortable interior

  • Portrait of an unidentified samurai in armour, Yokohama, circa 1873-76

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative. An unusually sensitive portrait taken at a time when the samurai class was about to disappear. Despite the edict of 1871 encouraging – but not enforcing – the abandonment of their distinctive topknot and swords, the sitter wears his hair in the traditional style and sports two swords, but is also dressed in full armour. This portrait either pre-dates the 1876 ban on wearing swords in public or was taken immediately afterwards as a keepsake

  • Kubota Sentarô in armour with retainers, Yokohama, circa 1864

    Hand-coloured albumen print from wet collodion negative. As commander of the Shogunal forces posted in Kanagawa, Kubota had frequent access to the foreign settlement in Yokohama. He was widely respected, among the British, for his openness to western ideas, especially in military matters, and he sought advice on how to train his samurai in modern drill. His preference for British methods at a time when the Shogunate had committed itself to employing French military advisers possibly led to his removal from the command in 1867

  • Portrait of Col De Berckheim with senior members of the second Shogunal mission to Europe, Paris, 1864

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative. A Shogunal mission was sent to France in 1864 to negotiate the opening of Japanese ports to foreign trade. The mission visited the nearby studio of Nadar, where these portraits were taken. In this photograph, the assistant envoy Kawazu Sukekuni (centre), and the mission’s metsuke, Kawada Hiromu (standing) are shown with their escort in Paris, Col Sigismond Guillaume de Berckheim, commander of the horse artillery of the French imperial guard

  • Swordswoman in fencing outfit, circa 1875.

    Hand-coloured albumen print from wet collodion negative. Founded in 1873, the ‘Gekken-kai’, or fencing association repackaged traditional samurai fighting into a profitable spectacle for the public. Drawn from the samurai class, group included several women, and their demonstrations of skill with the naginata, or polearm sword, proved a popular draw in tours across Japan. Although an integral part of the samurai armoury, it was more generally accepted as a weapon used by aristocratic women and often formed part of a samurai daughter’s dowry

  • Portrait of a samurai commander, c 1870

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative on carte de visite mount. Little is known about this striking image of a samurai commander but the horns and crescent moon on his helmet suggest a senior ranking samurai

  • Portrait of a masterless samurai, Yokohama, c1867

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative. This portrait taken during the early 1870s by the Yokohama photographer Shimooka Renjo, himself born into a family of low-ranking samurai, illustrates the fate of many samurai as the new government stripped them of their status and privileges. Some adopted professions they had been taught to despise, others fell between the cracks and eked out a vagabond existence on the edge of society, offering their swords for hire

  • Portrait of Tokugawa Akitake, Paris, 1867

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative. Half-brother of the last Shogun and lord of the Mito domain, Tokugawa Akitake was dispatched to France in 1867 as a special emissary, accompanying the Japanese delegation to the Universal Exposition in Paris. He returned to Japan when the Shogun was deposed in 1868

  • Kubota Sentarô in armour wielding a sword, Yokohama, circa 1864

    Albumen print from wet collodion negative. The commander of the Kanagawa garrison.
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