Research on any era of figure painting can be tough, but the more distant past the area of interest, the more difficult it can be to find useful information. Fortunately, for those of us interested in samurai, there is a resource which shows ancient armor in a modern format. The Samurai Recreated in Colour Photographs (Europa Militaria Special No. 14) , by Mitsuo Kure and Ghislaine Kruit is a collection of photographs of actors, re-enactors, and stuntmen wearing both antique and modern reproduction samurai armor in both static and action poses.

While there are countless prints available of armored samurai in action scenes, artwork is just not the same as a clear color photograph showing how the armor was worn, how it looks on a moving figure, and what the details look like up close. This book contains photos of all of the above, and more. The book includes brief essays on the history of of the samurai in the various periods, but the emphasis is on the photographs, and there are plenty of them. Grouped chronologically by historical period, the photos include detail shots of armor, weapons, fabric patterns, accessories, horse furniture, and heraldry, as well as plenty of shots showing Japanese facial features and makeup. The text indicates whether the armor pictured is antique or modern, which makes a difference to the painter in that the colors of the antique armor tend to be quite faded.

Sculptors will find the book useful as well. In addition to the detail photos mentioned above, there are plenty of action photos of both foot and mounted figures showing how the armor fits, how the armor and clothing hangs on the body, and groundwork. Verlinden's samurai bust, Pili-Pili's Tomoe Gozen bust, and Pegaso's arquebusier all appear to have been based on photos included in this informative book.

This 96 page paperbound book is priced at under $17 at Amazon.com, and is well worth the price to those interested in samurai.

Mike

Thanks Mike for the Book Review. It is an excellent book and I have it in my Samurai library as well.

I recently purchased this book (Thanks Brandy ) and I have to echo Mikes thoughts. A very good book. As a side note, regarding the Europa Militaria Special series, for years I noticed these books were very hard to find IF you could find them. Recently though, Iv'e noticed these books are once again available to be found and you don't have to look all that hard. My suggestion, if you find any titles under this series, BUY THEM ! You can't go wrong. I'm now only a few titles short in having all the books I want. Where did I recently find them? One on Amazon and a lot at VLS.

Jim Patrick