These are not female samurai, but Meiji era late 19th or early 20th century cosplayers: most likely geisha posing for postcards: a lucrative business. There are many of these photographs, with geisha dressed up in all sorts of costumes.
Japanese Female Warriors (Onna-bugeisha) Posing With Their Katana Swords in the 19th Centurypic.twitter.com/2VUt3J3cZe
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The fourth photograph isn't even a samurai outfit. It's the garb of an Edo firefighter, though the model is here dressing as one of the 47 samurai pretending to be a firefighter as part of their revenge plan (the mountain pattern on the sleeves is the give-away).
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The first photo is a woman dressed up for the Katana-odori, sword dance, a popular geisha dance. The women in the face paint and complicated costume is a geisha named Kayo dressed up as a character from the Kabuki play Shibaraku.
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Fantastic, and fascinating. Do you have a link to the stories behind these photos?
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Resting Katana Face.
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LOL! We need Onna-bugeisha movies and comics.
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Theres a zatoichi movie that was gender bent with a female. Ot was pretty good. Very underrated.
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As a geographer, I'm in love with the Japanese Islands. As a lover of good literature -love James Clavell's book "Shōgun" about this country.
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They're beautiful!
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They're inspiring.
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In a male dominant society these women had to be nobles but also last of bloodline
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The one on the bottom left definitely looks like she's seen some shit
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Beautiful
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Bad ass!
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Interesting history- they look fierce.
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I think I found my prom dress!!
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