Silver Screen Samurai: The Best of Japan's Samurai Movie Posters

With their menacing depictions of sword-wielding warriors, samurai movie posters have been coaxing fans into theaters since the 1930s. Fuzzy landscapes featuring cherry tree blossoms or Himalayan peaks often serve as the background for these fierce-looking heroes, who usually appear with their eyebrows furrowed in determination as a fair maiden looks on. This compendium, which claims to be the first ever collection of original samurai movie art, is divided into four main chronological sections, spanning the years 1935 to 2003. In his introduction, Foster, who has lived in Japan for 26 years, reviews samurai poster themes (such as the popularity of the color red) and describes important actors, like Katsu Shin, who appears in 16 of the films covered in the book. He also provides a section on""what to look for"" in samurai movie posters and explains terms like kodachi (a small, short sword) and ronin (a masterless samurai).