In 2018, the Guimet Museum presented an exceptional collection of weapons and armor from the warlords of Japan, the daimyos.
In this wake, this high place of Asian arts in Paris leans on the figure of the samurai.
This began to shine particularly from the 1600s. After a century and a half of war, the archipelago was unified under a new family, the Tokugawa.
The reign of this dynasty lasted more than two hundred and fifty years.
The city of Edo (now Tokyo), which was then the new capital, gives its name to the period.
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The Tokugawas, with their military leaders - the shoguns - and the daimyos - brought peace and growth.
Gradually, the samurai in their service (about 8% of the population) began to frequent the courts more than the battlefields.
Thus, it is more likely to apprehend the katanas and wakizashis presented - long blade and short blade forming a whole (the daisho) -, as instruments of…
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