Samurai, Knights, and Nationalisms: The Middle Ages in Modern Japan

In the nineteenth century, Europeans rediscovered and reinterpreted the Middle Ages on a grand scale. Medievalist symbols and ideals were widely invoked as a response to industrialization and the Enlightenment, feeding into art, architecture, literature, and culture, from the knightly tales of Sir Walter Scott to the proliferation of Gothic architecture. Colonial officials, soldiers, and settlers saw themselves as modern heirs of medieval knighthood, spreading Christianity and “civilization” as part of their perceived imperial mission. Medieval symbols and narratives were eagerly taken up in European settler societies, including the United States, Australia, and Latin America.

The revival of the idealized medieval past could not be overlooked by those societies that were confronted by the increasingly global reach of the Western empires. As part of this engagement, societies around the world looked to discover and mine their own medieval pasts for national symbols and narratives. This talk examines how Japan looked to its own Middle Ages in the decades from the 1840s to the 1960s, a period when the country was first threatened by Western imperialism before building and losing its own empire. Samurai warriors and other symbols of medieval Japan were reinvented for modern purposes, and came to define the nation at home and abroad. The samurai, especially, have become a truly global icon, as seen in the 2026 special exhibition “Samurai” at the British Museum.