A child and a 50 year old walk into a dinosaur museum.
The kid, barely 4 years old, clutches a plastic stegosaurus in somewhat sticky, astronaut ice cream dusted hands, and squeals with delight in front of the bones of a tyrannosaur.
The 50 year old leans forward to the mini plaque on the base of the exhibit and reads a list of facts, her knees and lower back deciding how much info they need before moving to the next one. She knows a bit more about *looks back at plaque* Tyrannosaurus Rex, that is, until the next one muddies its facts with the last plaque, and the whole museum reduces to a memory of a place she once visited. She walks on, in search of the cafe or somewhere with good Wi-Fi.
The child’s mother finally catches up, with an armful of jackets and a bagful of fruit snacks. Little “Jenny” erupts into a PBS-approved listicle of facts about the long-dead monster as if she were unveiling the cosmos’ precious secrets. Mom gets it. She once loved brontosaurus the most, and begins to tell her daughter so. Before she can finish a sentence, Jenny is off like a dart to the next sauropod. Mom adjusts her bag, and dreams of a hot bath.
Wonder is an interesting thing. It is the cornerstone of finding a calling as well as the exhaustion of the less-interested. It’s a thing we’re willing to brew, to challenge its existence by exposing ourselves to new art, music, people, and experiences. It’s the thing we mourn when our lives are devoid of it. From it comes the best teachers and the most dedicated students.
When I can, I surround myself with the wonder-filled. When I was invited to the press preview of the VMFA’s Samurai Armor from the Collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Meuller exhibit, I decided to tap into the joy of sharing that experience with someone that could truly wonder at it. I invited Kai Tomas, a Japanese sword fighting instructor operating out of Norfolk and voracious consumer of Japanese culture, to tour the exhibit with me. I wanted to see the exhibit through the eyes of an acolyte.
But, before I get to our conversation, I have to tell you about the sumptuous collection the VMFA has brought to our city and the incredible women that have planned and curated its installation.
What we are touring during our conversation below is nothing short of magnificent. The lower level exhibit hall at the museum is smartly dotted with glass encasements – free-standing islands and in-alcove. Inside them are the most intricate, detailed, fearsome and elegant trappings of war and pomposity. Large, flared kabutos with gilded diadems depicting raging lions, breastplates adorned with stalking dragons, and intricate shin guards with cherry blossoms stamped in copper and iron seem to recall ancient bloodshed from behind tempered glass. The swords and pole arms inlaid with precision and care, their purpose could not only be death. There’s so much life in ō-yoroi. Its existence is equal parts celebration of tradition and warning of doom.
Just when you think you’ve seen every variation of battle mask, ceremonial costume, functional battlefield armor, you enter the grand high-ceilinged hall with a staged horseback scene. The full weight of the samurais’ legend comes to rest on your chest. Meeting these warriors on the pitch must have been shattering to the enemy’s resolve. It is magnificent, from the first timeline printed on the wall, to the threshold of the gift shop.
Jessica Liu Beasley is the Director of the Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Meuller Museum in Dallas – the home of this collection presented here. She is the collection’s steward. The eponymous museum refers to the Swiss-born, Texas real estate developer and his wife. Between the Dallas gallery and its travels to 15 cities worldwide, the collection has been viewed by close to 2 million museum-goers. Ms. Liu Beasley has been the curator of the exhibit for its entire existence, making herself truly an inexorable part of the show.
Locally, we have Li Jian to thank for the installation. She is the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Curator of East Asian Art at the VMFA. She has been with us in Richmond since 2007 but has been an esteemed Curator of Asian Art since 1995 when she served at the Kettering Curator of Asian Art at the Dayton Art Museum in Ohio.
I met Kai at the entrance to the show…
Christian Detres: Test test test. Cool. All right, so we’re at the samurai exhibit at the VMFA and press opening. You don’t have to hold it up. It’s fine. And Kai, tell me a little bit about you.
Kai Tomas: Yeah, so my name is Kai. I am an instructor for Japanese sword fighting and known as kenjutsu, which is the original of the sword arts – which is divided into the two that pop culture knows well, kendo and Iaido. Kenjutsu is kind of the original. I love samurai culture, and Japanese culture as a whole. I’ve been into it since I was a kid. Now I run Ludus Ferocia, which is a historical combat Academy in Norfolk, Virginia. One of our disciplines, along with many other medieval combat styles is Japanese battlefield and dueling fighting.
CD: How do you come to it? What sparked your interest?
KT: Japanese movies, you know? Pop culture, just like anybody else. Anime.
CD: I was actually gonna lead with that in this article. Some real serious fascinations come to you in unexpected ways. Watching Voltron or Robotech, Battleship Yamato – even Transformers, when I was like six, seven years old made it easy to recognize the derivations of robot and costume designs from the Yoroi that we see here today. You realize that Japanese pop culture motifs in that direction are as culturally derived as any Western knight armor. The imagery exists beyond the battle function and just connotes chivalry, duty, honor etc. The depiction of a warrior in armor is literally a Jungian archetype. While the connotation may herald protection and safety, its real-world message was more frequently to establish rank or display wealth.
KT: Yeah, that was actually a very big one, display of wealth. So we think that samurai might have been a little less braggadocious and a little more humble than their European analogues, but in the Sengoku period, if they had the money and they were allowed to show it, they would wear the biggest kabuto helmet they could. The biggest codpiece, the biggest whatever they could, just like knights would do. They would want to show everyone else on the battlefield. “This is who I am! From this family! And I have this much money!”
CD: So the first thing I noticed as I was taking a little stroll through the installation was that there seems to be a nexus event in 1600. So many of these suits of armor and their most elaborate embellishments date to this year. Many of these pieces are older, but they get reworked around this time. For every one piece here that is improved at that time there are two that were specifically forged then. It seems something went down to precipitate this.
KT: The Battle of Sekigahara. In 1600.
CD: That’s the one I’m thinking of, yeah. Which also is being popularized right now in Hulu’s re-imagining of James Clavell’s historical epic Shōgun. By the way, incredible television. It raises the hair on my arms to think that I’m standing in a room surrounded by armor that was literally on that battlefield. I’m walking around here, and I’m overhearing other people’s conversations, and at least half of them are like “oh, yeah, so this episode blah blah…” The romance of this period in Japanese history is embedded deep in the world’s consciousness now. Not just the Japanese. What an incredible export for a nation that so closely guarded its culture.
So, yeah, anytime a great war comes to fruition, so does great advancement in the technology of war. The Portuguese are coming in. The English are coming in – bringing their weapons of disruption, and marrying their weapons and tactics with a completely different culture – creating a unique amalgam of styles and functional gear.
KT: I have a lot to comment on as per the evolution of the armor. It was based on who was Shōgun at the time, or who was the daimyo of that clan, as to how those advancements took hold in the realm. Tokugawa, the winner of the war containing the battle of Sekigahara, was a very forward thinking man. Instead of sticking to traditions, he insisted on having his nation evolve. He understood that if they do not evolve, they don’t win against the invasionary threat of the European diaspora.
More than 300 years prior to the battle of Sekigahara, the two Mongol invasions of Japan completely changed the weapons of the samurai and their armor. And then the Dutch, who normalized trade relations with Japan in 1609 brought in firearms and their own armor, their own helmets. Guess what the later dō-maru (body armor) and kabuto (helmets) look a lot more like after this? The Dutch influence is very visible.
CD: There are a couple very Spanish and Portuguese-inspired helmets in this collection. Check this out. Straight up conquistador style. So this one here, what we’re looking at, is from the Mōri clan. Actually there’s quite a bit here from the Mori. This is one of the examples you cited earlier where the armor was created circa 1600. A product of Tokugawa’s ascent to Shogunate. It seems a lot of Lords took this as an opportunity to enhance their armor. To basically display their positions in a rapidly changing political sphere.
KT: The time period around the Battle of Sekigahara is often cited as the time when samurai were truly samurai. Tokugawa taking over led to his closing off Japan to outsiders. Samurai became more like clerics. They had a place in the government but the warriors had no one really to fight anymore. This era of samurai started dwindling out. Before Sekigahara, you have what is like “proto” to this development. What we all consider in pop culture to be “Oh, that’s a samurai” is indicative of this specific time. The Battle of Sekigahara and the establishment of the Shogunate. This is what we’re looking at right now. This armor.
CD: Let’s look at some of the weapons. I can totally get into some swords. So what is this here? U-jit-sune? A Handachi sword? I took three years of Japanese and still sound like a dummy.
KT: That is a tachi. Handachi is just a way of saying tachi. Tachi holds the evolution of what we know as Katana uchigatana. Tachis are long, a longer blade than we are used to seeing in pop culture. The samurai’s main focus was not actually as a swordsman on the ground but as a cavalry-mounted archer. The deadliest tactic they had at the time was shooting people from horseback.
The swords, as well as the bows, were very long because they were cavalry. They were trying to reach people from horseback. That changed after Sekigahara because the use of cavalry went down. Even when the Mongols invaded, the tachi didn’t do very well against the Mongol armor. The Mongols at that point had an entire empire’s worth of technology. The thinner tachi were breaking against their enemies. They made thicker tachi. If you watch Shōgun, you’ll see some of the guys wearing tachi. You can tell because it’s hung blade down. You’ll see some people wearing katanas which is slipped through the belt blade up. I think it’s fascinating because you know for sure when that time period is when it started transitioning already.
CD: Gotcha. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about how the swords are hung. Was there a functional aspect to prepare for downstroke or upstroke? Is that part of the strategy of situating the blades?
KT: I believe so. Tachi was worn almost like a smiley face, like, blade down. And I believe that’s because of the horseback position the wearer would be in. It has to hang a certain way, and it has to move with you to effect a downward stroke. They would use katanas as well for an upward stroke. They would slip them through the belt, situated for a footed attack, because they weren’t riding a horse anymore. The draw cut, what we call battōjutsu, was famous with the katana. That’s the quick draw and sheath – think of it like a western duelist – same concept as with a pistol as the sword.
CD: Yeah, so you can draw a crossbody. One puerile thing I wanted to know, just out of fascination with the ō-yoroi artform, is the facial hair on the face guards. The masks. Do you have any insight into the addition of facial hair to the face plates? Did that have an intimidation effect? Was that something that has some other cultural background that I’m maybe not aware of.
KT: I don’t want to say no because I’m not actually sure. The Japanese also had deep meaning behind literally everything they did. IT looks intimidating so I’m sure that has a function here. But also to depict maturity and virility – strength. They were just like, hey, I have money. My dad has money and he got me this helmet and it has a big giant rooster on it. And that was literally the end of the argument. There need be no deeper meaning that we’d like to put behind it. You can imagine sometimes these artistic additions had more to do with the sculptor who just really likes making really good roosters.
CD: We’re standing in front of a case that includes the armor of Matsudaira Yoshiyuki. I was hoping maybe you could take us through each piece and give us whatever insight or tidbit of information you can. I’ll just shut up.
KT: Of course of course. There’s a lot of different types of samurai armor. You have tatami armor, which tatami means straw mat. It wasn’t made out of straw. It was actually still made out of iron but it looks patchwork. It’s woven strands of iron. Corded. Did you notice the shoulder pieces? Did you notice when we were going through the installation that there were some that were bigger and some that were smaller. So there’s a distinction between something called ō-yoroi armor, meaning great. They have large shoulder pieces on the side. A lot of people ask, how come the samurai never use shields?
CD: Because their shoulder pieces are the shields?
KT: Yeah. So they would turn their bodies so their shoulders would accept the blows. Their enemies were usually using a two-handed polearm or a bow. These large square pauldrons would take glancing blows better than the Western counterparts, even more effectively diverting arrows.
CD: Li Jian was mentioning in her comments earlier that these circular pieces that hang between the breastplates and the sleeve armor were made to protect the armpit when you fully draw a long bow. I thought that was ingenious. It seems superfluous and decorative but has a very specific function.
KT: That area would have been a prime target, a soft spot, for what is essentially a walking tank. The evolution of battle tactics changed how they did things. The large shoulders weren’t weren’t needed anymore. Then you have the sleeves, which if you notice, has chainmail integrated into the cloth. It’s not a separate piece like it would be in Europe, it’s woven directly in. The sleeves are extremely mobile. They feel good to wear in fact. It’s very mobile.
It seems when making the comparison between Western armor and Eastern armor, the knights of Europe just plowed through a battle, invincible in slow, heavy, low visibility assemblages that were damn near impenetrable to the average foot soldier. The Japanese setup seems built for more activity, speed, comfort, and long wear. Europe reached the apex of armor faster because Japan never really had the quality of steel. Europe had good steel and had trade with India. Its trade network made many advancements and refinements available where Japan’s isolationism hindered it. But as the Japanese do, they used the materials that they did have on hand and made a masterful system. Like they did with the katana. The katana is made out of poor steel but it’s been worked into such a pure state that is incredible.
CD: Thanks for the hang Kai. There’s so much more of this exhibit to look at. Why don’t we, as fans, just take the rest in with the recorder off?
KT: Cool.
After Sakigahara, during the long isolationist peace, many of the armorers became artists – making beautiful cuirasses, lovely kabuto, and perfectly balanced weapons for the showroom, not a blood-soaked plain. Their skills were elevated by their patrons from the battlefield and displayed in the home as heirlooms. Objects of power and remembrance. Their techniques of construction would become meditations on art that transcended the art itself.
We would learn to see the silhouette of the samurai as a fearsome demon capable of mythical feats. We would see the codes of bushido romanticized and sanitized to inspire generations of heroes, real and imagined. The katana, especially the forging thereof, would become allegory to raw creation – a tool born with a noble purpose. The sigils and arcana associated with ō-yoroi would become epithetical to the wondrous masses worldwide.
Arigato gozaimasu Li Jian-sama. Arigato Jessica Liu Beasley-sama.
More information on VMFA’s Samurai Armor from the Collection of Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Meuller exhibit can be found HERE
