While the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum may be used to primarily showcasing the frontier history of the valley’s five towns, including its iconic carriage house, that doesn’t mean the museum and its benefactors are averse to showcasing history that hails from beyond the rolling hills of Santa Ynez.
One museum board member was in a unique position to help the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum showcase an exhibit of artifacts usually only seen in major metropolitan museums, explained Executive Director Chris Bashforth. Board member and Santa Ynez resident Steven Graves has collected ancient Japanese artifacts ever since his parents lived in Japan in the 1980s, he explained via email during a recent sojourn in Japan. The museum offered a great opportunity to share some of that collection.
“There are many collectors, or more accurately hoarders, of better collections than mine,” he wrote. “Sharing the knowledge and understanding of a culture can only help us all learn.”
This is actually the second time the Graves family has showcased their private collection of Japanese regalia at the museum, Bashforth said. Kathleen Graves contributed her focus within the family collection in the previous exhibit Kimono: Tradition, Pattern, and Symbolism.
Unlike that exhibit, which featured the clothing of the regal and beautiful women of Japan, the current exhibit, Samurai: the Warrior Horsemen of Japan, showcases the battle garb of some of Japan’s most feared and respected warriors, the samurai. The samurai were more than just fearsome fighters though, Bashforth explained, they were a respected class that came into their own and colored a culture.
“When you think of the Japanese as being very disciplined and kind of Spartan, that came out of the samurai culture. It was called bushido, and it was a way of living,” she said. “These warriors lived this way, and they didn’t fight for nothing.”
On Oct. 10 the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum hosted an evening of talks by experts both on the armor and weapons used by the samurai, along with a talk by UCSB professor Dr. Luke Roberts. Roberts teaches history, and his academic focus is on Japan’s Edo period, which ran from the 1500s through the early 1900s. Most of the artifacts in the exhibit are from the Edo period, Bashforth explained, with at least one suit hailing from before the 1300s.
The Edo period signified a shift in the samurai’s job description, Bashforth said. As several fiefdoms attained peace with each other, the samurai were then relied on to do more than just fight, she said.
“They were kind of stripped of money, so they really kind of had a problem then, but they reinvented themselves because they were very smart people,” she said. “So they became educators, politicians, writers—an actual elite class of their own, without being warriors.”
While warring wasn’t their main pursuit, the warrior ethos and culture of the samurai didn’t die, and neither did the careful craftsmanship of armor and weapons the samurai prized. Vibrantly colorful, ornate, and imposing, the suits include horned helmets, intimidating face masks, and elegant fabric work. The armor is displayed simply but professionally, Bashforth said, and the museum also sells a catalogue including color pictures with written explanations and the history of each piece.
Bringing such a rare and high quality exhibit to the Santa Ynez Valley Historical Museum made perfect sense, Bashforth said, given the Graves’ relationship to the museum. And changing things up is also a great way to keep locals engaged with the museum, she said.
“To be able to bring a culture like this, when we have the opportunity, for our community, I think is really important,” she said. “From a museum perspective, in keeping a museum alive, you have to make changes and get people coming in through the door.”
Bashforth said she hopes locals take advantage of the exhibit while it still shows through Nov. 1.
Arts Editor Joe Payne can see the way in all things. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2015.