Review: incredible samurai objects at Georgia Museum of Art

Bottom line: A fascinating exhibition featuring the objects that defined samurai life.

Truth can indeed be stranger than fiction, and the Japanese samurai who roamed Japan from the 12th to the 19th centuries are prime examples of that truism. With their codes of honor, absolute loyalty and outrageous costumes decorated with peonies and rabbit ears and forest spirits, the samurai life and aesthetics could have been conjured up by a Hollywood costume designer and screenwriter.

Moviemakers from George Lucas (“Star Wars”) to Japanese director Akira Kurosawa have certainly drawn heavily from these fascinating icons of feudal Japan whose last days came in 1854 after the U.S. Navy’s Commodore Matthew Perry appeared in Edo (now Tokyo) and forceably opened Japan up to the West.

You’ll find inspiration for Darth Vader’s iconic black helmet in the startling masks and helmets on view in “Samurai: The Way of the Warrior” at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, objects that can conjure up fantastical, cinematic associations of their own. Time spent among the more than 100 artifacts in “Samurai” offers up the thrilling sensation that human history and its rituals and artifacts are far stranger and more fascinating than even the most outlandish film or story.

The majority of works on view are drawn from Florence, Italy’s Stibbert Museum and were amassed by its namesake Frederick Stibbert, one of the first European collectors of Japanese artifacts.

A highly principled, disciplined police force for wealthy landowners, samurai were both skilled warriors and consummate gentleman dandies who swore devotion to their masters and surrounded themselves with objects of rare beauty, beginning with the soldier’s most utilitarian object: his sword. A large display of both polished steel blades and ornately decorated sword sheaths convey a love of beauty and a reverence for craftsmanship that elevated sword or helmet makers to the ranks of revered artisans.

A fascinating mix of esoteric materials gives these objects — cigarette boxes, long bows, elegant vests, wooden saddles — their otherworldly, but also earth-bound quality. The animal and plant worlds loom large, as both a material and a talisman. Almost cartoonish steel helmets are ornamented with rabbit and pig ears or screeching bird figures inspired by Shinto forest spirits whose heavy-lidded eyes and squawking beaks manage to look both terrifying and worthy of the Sunday morning comics. The spectacle of battle-ready men prone to embellishing their armor to show status and to intimidate their opponents, dressed in these whimsical helmets shaped into seashells or crested with elaborate metal fans, must have been incredible to behold.

Bear skin, stingray skin, deerskin and water buffalo horns were all common materials used in armor and sword sheaths. Horsehair was often used to create imitation facial hair on face masks and helmets, as if to affirm the testosterol strength contained within. Lacquer, crafted from tree resin, was a popular material, used to create a plasticlike, weapon-deflecting glossy surface on helmets and armor. But it also adorned more quotidian objects like the food, cigarette and calligraphy boxes carried by the samurai that affirmed their gentleman-warrior ways.

There are objects on display of incredible beauty and strangeness, including a quiver inlaid with small slivers of mother of pearl, which gives the appearance of a glitter bedazzled weapon. Likewise a warrior’s hat is embellished with that glitter effect, giving it a look more disco-era than 17th-century.

“Samurai: The Way of the Warrior” feels like must-see viewing for history buffs, design fans and lovers of Japanese culture enamored by these uniquely refined warriors with a style all their own.