Samurai exhibit comes to Bowers Museum in Orange County

A little piece of Japan will be in Orange County for the next few weeks. KPCC's Susan Valot says a new exhibit about samurai warriors has just opened at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.

Susan Valot: Helmets and ornately decorated armor lead the way into a room full of swords – some of them hundreds of years old. Beyond that, glass cases house colorful kimonos.

Those artifacts – about 150 in all – are part of the "Art of the Samurai" exhibit. Bowers Museum Executive Director Peter Keller says the items are on loan from the Tokyo National Museum until June 14th.

Peter Keller: The reason it's here only eight weeks is because the material is considered so important to the Japanese government and it's very delicate because it consists not only of arms and armor – beautiful, beautiful swords, including one that's considered a national treasure. These swords are 500, 700 years old.

Valot: But Keller says the exhibit also includes the cultural aspects of a samurai's life.

Keller: So you'll see he was not only a fierce fighter, a warrior, but also a nobleman as well. So they had very fine, very fine taste, so you'll see works of art. You'll see items from the tea ceremony, cosmetic sets that are absolutely spectacular and beautiful, beautiful kimonos.

Valot: The swords have a beauty of their own – a beauty, says Keller, that's steeped in history.

Keller: One actually killed one of the highest officials in Japan. And then his son used the same sword to commit suicide. It had an amazing history. When you look at these swords, they're just unbelievable masterpieces.

Valot: A few steps beyond the swords is one of the more interesting cultural items – part of a wedding set for a princess in 1816. Through a translator, Kazutoshi Harada of the Tokyo National Museum says the set includes tools the princess used to dye her teeth.

Kazutoshi Harada (via translator): It may be hard to believe, but this custom of coloring, dying your teeth originated probably in the 10th century and was well established by the 11th century.

And although it's hard to believe now, it was a customary practice firmly established. So it was just a normal thing to do. And those who didn't color, dye their teeth black were considered uncultural, unsophisticated.

Valot: Eventually, the practice came to be a part of the wedding tradition. It fell out of fashion more than a century ago. But the Tokyo National Museum's Kazutoshi Harada says some aspects of samurai life and culture have endured. He says the code of the Samurai – do what is good, be loyal, respect your parents – is honored and practiced in Japan today.