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“The Tiger of Ryōkoku,” from the series True Scenes by Hirokage, Utagawa Hirokage (Japanese, active 1860s), woodblock print; ink and color on paper (The Met)

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Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1839-1892

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Clematis lacquer picnic set from Edo period (1615–1868) 黒漆塗鉄線蒔絵提重

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Hokusai Surf by https://www.instagram.com/mazepah/

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萩原 卓哉／Hagihara Takuya

Archive

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出雲大社　Izumo-ooyashiro

島根県出雲市　Izumo-shi, Shimane, Japan

2025/05

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KOJO MIYAGINO: The Filial Using a Naginata (mid 1800s). Woodblock print, oban tate-e. 36.90cm x 25.40cm. British Museum.

What comes to mind when you hear the word samurai? Men wielding katanas? Ironclad Japanese warriors about to strike a blow? Or perhaps a robed samurai on the verge of self-sacrifice.

How about a kimono-wrapped lady on the verge of kicking ass?

While most women in feudal Japan were expected to adhere to traditional roles, samurai as a rising warrior class (actually called “bushi” before the Kamakura Period) included both men and women. However, "samurai" was a term reserved for men. Women "samurai" were deemed onna-musha (a female warrior on the offensive) or onna bugeisha, a warrior woman on the defensive.

Onna musha were rarer than their onna bugeisha counterparts, who were nevertheless formidable women. Onna bugeisha were trained in martial arts to defend their homes against the frequent ransacking that took place during the Warring States Period in feudal Japan. Their weapon of choice was the naginata, a curved sword mounted on a pole, first used by warrior monks in 750 A.D.

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Kaoru Yamada (b. 1975)

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無常 (mujō) "impermanence"

"Western aesthetics is sometimes familiar with simplicity, asymmetry and suggestion, but the idea that beauty lies in its own vanishing is an idea much less common. Perishability remains, however, what [Donald] Keene has called the 'the most distinctively Japanese aesthetic ideal'. It is certainly among the earliest, being based on the Buddhist concept of "mujō"... nothing is stable, and our only refuge lies in accepting, even celebrating this."

-Donald Richie, A Tractate on Japanese Aesthetics, 2007

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キジ

Japanese Pheasant

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Artist: Moichi Umemura,(edit) 1985

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Ichibangai Dori ヽ｀☂ヽ｀ Kabukicho

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血妙 | K E T S U M Y Ō

紅鋼椿. Kuragane Tsubaki

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Kōno Bairei (1844 - 1895) — Sparrow on a wisteria branch