Sammyrai warrior throws 1st pitch before Tigers-Astros game

[Tatsunoshi]

What is this doing in this forum? Well, because it's being done to promote the “Samurai: Beyond the Sword” exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Gotta love that dead-on accurate armor that several articles covering this mentioned. Hope it's not representative of the quality of the exhibit.

[ltdomer98]

Yeah, that's awful. A friend of mine who lives in Detroit had brought this up to me (the exhibit, not the baseball) and all I could think about was talking with Trevor about how bad most museums are. Sigh.

http://www.dia.org/calendar/exhibition.aspx?id=3923&iid= is the exhibit website.
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The Sengoku Field Manual Blog

[Tatsunoshi]

At least there's no mention of 'sammyrai expert' Stan Sakai being involved like in a couple of other recent museum shows.

I'm picking up a couple of their books on the exhibit for the same reason you brought up Trevor-just to see if they did their homework.

[narukagami]

I wonder how many Edo and Meiji pieces it'll claim were actually worn to battle... Or 20th century pieces totes owned by real sammyrai, for that matter.
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"When the Portuguese first landed upon Japan’s shores in 1543, they stroked their handlebar mustaches and said, “You know, that whole honorable swordsman thing is working well for you, but what you really need is our brand of GUNshido.” They then shot the word “PORTUGAL” into the side of the Emperor’s palace." - Omri Petitte, PC Gamer.

[Tatsunoshi]

All of the armor was attributed to the Edo period (except one Muromachi helmet) and the scholarship for the exhibit actually looks solid. There are quite a few kawari kabuto that were probably 'enhanced' for Western collectors in Meiji/20th century. Some scroll paintings and screens in their "Japanese Art at the Time of the Samurai" volume also are using outdated information (misidentifying who the subject is, when Japanese sources as common as Rekishi Gunzou are using the correct/up-to-date info). Still, much better than the usual Western museum exhibit on samurai culture. Too bad they couldn't have done better for "Mr. Baseball, Sam Rye", although I thought the fur-tufted catcher's shin guards were a nice whimsical touch.