The 7 Virtues : Art and Armour

In 2022, to showcase the Samurai Museum’s collections, an exhibition of photographs by Sylwia Makris was incorporated into the museum’s permanent exhibition.

It combines the presentation of the collections with staged scenes evoking the samurai code, Bushido.

The samurai code of honour, widely known as ‘The Way of the Warrior’ or Bushido, is based on the book ‘Bushido: The Soul of Japan’ by Nitobe Inazo (1862–1933), a Christian scholar and politician of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

These codes are based on seven core virtues: righteousness (Gi), heroic courage (Yu), compassion (Jin), courtesy (Rei), sincerity (Makoto), honour (Meiyo) and loyalty (Chugi).

Sylwia Makris’s photographic series, created in close collaboration with the Samurai Museum in Berlin, captures the seven virtues through individual scenes depicting historical events and Japanese folk legends.

The protagonists, dressed in historical robes and equipped with artefacts from the renowned collection, embody well-known warriors and mythical figures.

Samurai armour, crafted from precious metals and fine fabrics and requiring a high level of craftsmanship, has fascinated the photographer.

Sylwia Makris is particularly interested in giving a new lease of life to historical garments and artefacts by assigning them to new wearers more than 150 years after the end of the samurai era.

Her large-scale colour photographs, with stark contrasts between light and dark, are based on two central aspects: playing with traditional notions of Japanese warriors and the pictorial tension that raises questions about pride and humility, strength and sensuality, attack and retreat, power and powerlessness.

SYLWIA MAKRIS – Author and photographer

Sylwia Makris attended the Gdynia Ortowo School of Fine Arts in Poland, where she initially trained as a sculptor.

In 2007, she finally discovered her passion for artistic photography, which, over the years, has become her most important visual medium.

According to the artist, luminous digital images have the potential to unite painting, drawing and sculpture.

Inspired by the art of the Old Masters, Sylwia transposes traditional painting techniques into contemporary photography.

Her visual language combines well-known subjects with modern thinking and prominent figures, including musicians, actors, models and writers. Her works are part of collections in Germany, Poland and the United States.

Large-format works created especially for the Peter Janssen Collection will be on permanent display at the new Samurai Museum in Berlin from spring 2022.

The Samurai Museum Berlin, which has been housed at a new site in central Berlin since 2022, is the first museum in Europe dedicated exclusively to the culture and history of the samurai.

It houses the largest collection of authentic samurai artefacts outside Japan. Over a thousand objects dating from the 8th to the 19th century, ranging from armour to woodblock prints, bear witness to the extraordinary craftsmanship of the samurai.

Originally soldiers in the service of the emperor and noble families, the samurai rose to become Japan’s ruling class in the 12th century. The warriors’ thoughts and actions were governed by a strict code of honour.

The museum offers a unique insight into the way of life, art and traditions that shaped Japanese feudal society for over a thousand years.

Interactive displays guide visitors through samurai culture, explaining, for example, the rituals of the tea ceremony.

Temporary exhibitions explore the long-term influence of the samurai on contemporary culture, even outside Japan.

On the museum’s former site, at Villa Clay in Dahlem, a research centre on samurai culture is open to experts from around the world for academic exchange.