The British Museum has announced a major new exhibition that aims to dismantle long-standing myths surrounding Japan’s elite warrior class. Titled Samurai, the showcase reveals that the historical reality of the order was far more diverse and culturally complex than the “honour-bound male warrior” trope often exported by Hollywood, highlighting that half of the samurai class were women.
Running from 3 February to 4 May 2026, the exhibition features over 280 objects, including arms, armour, and woodblock prints. For the geek culture community, the exhibition is particularly notable for its dedicated section on popular culture. It explores how the samurai image has been manufactured and manipulated over the centuries, featuring commissioned works by artist Noguchi Tetsuya and references to modern gaming staples such as Assassin’s Creed: Shadows and the newly released Nioh 3.
“It’s a surprise that comes from a narrow use or a narrow understanding of the word samurai, because samurai doesn’t mean warrior,” Dr Rosina Buckland, Asahi Shimbun curator of Japanese Collections, explained in a statement to the press.
While the popular image of the samurai is often tied to the battlefield, the exhibition details their evolution into a rural gentry and, by 1615, a class of government officials and scholars during 250 years of peace. During these periods, women played vital roles in the elite order. The exhibition highlights figures like Tomoe Gozen, a celebrated female samurai who died in 1247, while also displaying the daily lives of samurai women through trailing robes, hair-regimen implements, and books of etiquette.
The display also interrogates how the samurai myth was weaponised in the early 20th century to galvanise Japanese national identity during colonial expansion. By showcasing everything from a 16th-century portrait of a 13-year-old samurai envoy to the Vatican to a modern Louis Vuitton outfit inspired by traditional plates, the British Museum provides a necessary bridge between historical fact and the fictionalised versions found in our favourite TTRPG supplements and digital adventures.
