I didn't know there were samurai women. I looked it up and this is a fun tidbit that I found: With their husbands in combat almost continuously, 16th century samurai women provided for the defense of their homes and children. Their wartime roles included washing and preparing the decapitated bloody heads of the enemy, which were presented to the victorious generals. Like their samurai husbands, personal honor was paramount for samurai women. They carried small daggers and were always prepared to die to maintain their honor and family name. http://www.pbs.org/empires/japan/tokaido_6.html

Looks like a Yakuza, with these tatoos. Maybe there's a connection between the samurai and yakuza heritage in Japan. Just a guess.

He looks ill..face is a tad emaciated. Otherwise a wonderful photo.

Amazing Warriors with a great code of honour

"Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young."

Always ready

All-in-one hat/rice cooker.

Imagining how fast a samurai moved without those heavy attire. Must be awesomely fast

Manspreading!

Has it been coloured with crayons?????

Are his shoes supposed to be that small?

Patience

Truth

I have enjoyed these pictures and am thankful to have been able to view them they were an awesome people with much honour - I am sorry that so many had nothing but negative foolish responses to these ancient pictures. Thank You for sharing them.

What the f**k are those stupid comments here?!

LER

This type of colorization was typical for the period. Keep in mind how recent full color photography is...even when I was growing up in the 70's we still had a b&w camera (and TV) just like all of our neighbors, and that's about 50-80 yrs after these pictures were taken!

Lol did you not read into this at all? These are not the original images. These photos were colored by hand. The original images are black & white.