![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Art of the Samurai
Nov. 22nd, 2009 10:40 amSo we went to the Samurai exhibit at the Met yesterday. It's a really stunning exhibition with amazing pieces. The workmanship in the blades and the armor is just astonishingly elegant, especially when you compare it to the European arms and armor of the same period. I did find the layout a little confusing, as they repeatedly would try to point out advances in technique, but kept jumping back in time, making it difficult to follow. However, the depth of the exhibit is impressive...
...who the hell am I kidding here? Holy crap, Masamune's hat really was that big.
This was the awesomest thing ever, if you've played Samurai Warriors (or if you know anything at all about the Warring States period of Japan, but I feel like there are more people on this list in the first category). I knew the game was based on historical events, and I'd even looked up some of the facts behind them, but this really brought home the fact that these people were real. When they did Masamune's crescent moon helmet or Takadatsu's antlers, they weren't exaggerating. I figured it was typical anime-style ridiculous costumes, but no - these guys actually rode into battle with a foot and a half of antler stuck on their head. Heck, one guy's horns, which were probably about three and a half feet wide, were so huge that at one battle the enemy mistook them for flags and he drew cannon fire. Giant swords? There was one there that's 162 cm long - I know a lot of people shorter than that damn sword. They had a blade that Oda Nobunaga, chasing a servant who had insulted him and was cowering under a table, used to cleave the table in half to get to the guy. (Apparently they didn't call him the Demon King for nothing.) And this sword is as gorgeous and shiny and flawless as the day it was made. The European swords show their age. The Japanese ones don't.
And they actually did have war fans! (They used them as signalling devices, and didn't run around hitting people with them, but still.) Seriously, this exhibit is amazing. Practically everyone who was important at the time has something here. Ieyesu, Hideoshi, Nobunaga, Takadatsu, Masamune. Nothing from Keiji, but half the stuff in the exhibit seems to have ended up in the Maedas' hands eventually. Alas, poor Mitsunari doesn't seem to have left much behind. Really, really, really cool.
...who the hell am I kidding here? Holy crap, Masamune's hat really was that big.
This was the awesomest thing ever, if you've played Samurai Warriors (or if you know anything at all about the Warring States period of Japan, but I feel like there are more people on this list in the first category). I knew the game was based on historical events, and I'd even looked up some of the facts behind them, but this really brought home the fact that these people were real. When they did Masamune's crescent moon helmet or Takadatsu's antlers, they weren't exaggerating. I figured it was typical anime-style ridiculous costumes, but no - these guys actually rode into battle with a foot and a half of antler stuck on their head. Heck, one guy's horns, which were probably about three and a half feet wide, were so huge that at one battle the enemy mistook them for flags and he drew cannon fire. Giant swords? There was one there that's 162 cm long - I know a lot of people shorter than that damn sword. They had a blade that Oda Nobunaga, chasing a servant who had insulted him and was cowering under a table, used to cleave the table in half to get to the guy. (Apparently they didn't call him the Demon King for nothing.) And this sword is as gorgeous and shiny and flawless as the day it was made. The European swords show their age. The Japanese ones don't.
And they actually did have war fans! (They used them as signalling devices, and didn't run around hitting people with them, but still.) Seriously, this exhibit is amazing. Practically everyone who was important at the time has something here. Ieyesu, Hideoshi, Nobunaga, Takadatsu, Masamune. Nothing from Keiji, but half the stuff in the exhibit seems to have ended up in the Maedas' hands eventually. Alas, poor Mitsunari doesn't seem to have left much behind. Really, really, really cool.
