Meet Frenchman Jules Brunet, the real-life last samurai. Fighting alongside the Shogunate rebels who wanted to maintain ...

The samurai maintained their elite status into the mid-1800s, when Western influences began to take hold. In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry and his American fleet sailed into Japanese waters and ...

And in the 20th century the mythological version of the Samurai, designed in part for Western consumption, became integral to a newly forged national identity.Nicola Liscutin is Programme Director ...