Samurai Retainer in a Raincoat (1)

A samurai retainer wears a full rain cape (mino) over his armor and weapons as he moves through wet weather — the practical garment transforming the martial figure into something simultaneously formidable and deeply domestic, the warrior subordinated to the demands of Japanese weather. Shotei renders the retainer with careful attention to the overlapping layers of the rain cape and the glimpse of sword hilt below it. The figure belongs to the tradition of warrior imagery that ran through the shin-hanga period, when samurai culture was simultaneously historical and recently present.