Munich’s Kunsthalle is currently showing selected pieces from Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller’s Samurai Collection in Dallas, Texas. The selection includes armor and weapons as well as household items, but I was most impressed by the numerous helmets. Their design is often unique and highly elaborate, much more so than in medieval Europe. So here is a series pictures from the exhibition with an emphasis on the helmets. I added the description where available; unfortunately sometimes the autofocus failed me without my noticing.

Photography Notes

I took all pictures with a Sony Alpha 7R II and Sony SEL-2470Z f/4 lens. I had taken some iPhone 6s pictures on an earlier visit, but the dim museum lighting is one definite use case for a full-frame camera. Indeed I probably would have had trouble even with the first Alpha 7R due its noisy shutter and poor autofocus.

I tried a polarizing filter to reduce glass reflections but that didn’t help much and only made the pictures darker, so I apologize for any visible reflections. Click on any picture to enter a full-screen view with description and Exif data.

The Helmets

The first gallery shows the most interesting helmets at the exhibition. Samurai helmets were commonly worn with a face mask – see the second gallery for those.

Helmet 1 Helmet 2 Helmet 3 Helmet 4 Helmet 5 Helmet 6 Helmet 7 Helmet 8 Helmet 9 Helmet 10 Helmet 11 Helmet 12 Helmet 13 Helmet 14 Helmet 15 Helmet 16 Helmet 17 Helmet 18 Helmet 19 Helmet 20 Helmet 21 Helmet 22 Helmet 23 Helmet 24

Armor & Masks

The second gallery shows other items of note: face masks for warriors and horses, plus some full suits of Samurai armor.

Armor 1 Armor 2 Armor 3 Horse Mask Horse Mask Full Mask Full Mask Half Mask Half Mask