, ‘female martial artist’)Possibly Yokohama, Japan
(Universal History Archive / Getty)
This woman, likely to be a model, is portraying an Onna-bugeisha, which can be translated as ‘female martial artist’. The Onna-bugeisha was a samurai, serving the nobility of feudal Japan. Where a male samurai fought with a katana sword, the onna-bugeisha typically fought with the naginata, a polearm with a curved blade at the tip, and with bows and arrows.
Japanese women samurai are known from the first century BCE and yet, during the Edo period (1603-1868), an Onnabugeisha was not permitted to travel unless accompanied by a man.
‘Mononofu no
Tateki kokoro ni kurabureba
kazu nimo iranu
wagami nagaramo.’
‘When compared to the ranks of warriors’ stalwart hearts; I cannot enter into their number, despite this body of mine.’
Death poem of Nakano Takeko, female warrior, 1868
