ANACHRONISTIC MASCULINITY: SAMURAI ARMOUR AND THE DANDYISM OF THE LATE EDO PERIOD – TAASA Review September 2022

Toby Slade I t is something of a conceit to compare the armour and styling of the hereditary military nobility of medieval and early modern Japan to the 18th and 19th century European men who placed excessive importance on dress, refined manners and the appearance of aristocratic nonchalance.

While Japan was in self-imposed isolation, trying to prolong the medieval social structures of military nobility, Britain and France were embracing the industrial revolution and transforming from aristocratic to democratic societies.

Beau Brummel and Tokugawa Ienari would not have had very much to talk about except for their fabulous clothes...