Musha-e: Japan’s Warrior Prints

Soldiers shouting, horses neighing, swords clashing—one almost hears the echoes of combat in this exhibition of Japanese woodblock prints. These mass-produced works or ukiyo-e, “pictures of the floating world,” that emerged during the Edo period (1603-1868) catered to a newly prominent merchant class. While skilled kabuki actors and beautiful courtesans were ukiyo-e’s iconic subjects, the prints also featured stories of legendary samurai and heroic battles, producing a popular sub-genre called musha-e.

By the time these works were created, musha-e projected an idealized past at a time of peace when samurai served society as bureaucrats more than soldiers. Yet the samurai class remained powerful leaders and important symbols in Japanese culture because of their historic role on the battlefield. This martial identity was preserved in memory and literature, even into the Meiji period (1868-1912) and beyond, when Japan became a modern nation-state and the samurai class was officially dismantled. Still, depictions of Japan’s heroic pastnot only allowed the Japanese to preserve their pride in a samurai heritage, but also served as cultural commentary, reflecting anxieties tied to a rapidly transforming country and offering a form of visual escape that allowed viewers to reimagine a dramatic world of heroism absent from everyday life.

Musha-e: Japan’s Warrior Prints was created by the fall 2025 course “From the Art of the Pleasure Quarters to Tokyo Pop,” taught by Dr. Gennifer Weisenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Distinguished Professor of Art and Art History. The student curators are Amarii Blair T’28, Joanne Chae T’26, Emily Dieu T’26, David Jeong T’27, Clare O’Sullivan T’26, Madison Mikayelyan T’28, Sarah Tran T’27, Wendy Wang T’26, and Sydney Weiner T’26.