Last year I got to shoot a Sengoku (Warring States) period costume show at Nagoya Castle.

The Omotenashi Busho-Tai, known as Nagoya Samurai Performers in English, are a theatrical troupe which gained popularity similar to a pop band.
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The performers portray the three great unifiers of Japan: Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu; their commanders: Maeda Toshiie, Kato Kiyomasa and Maeda Keiji, as well as their loyal soldiers.
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Nagoya Omotenashi Busho-Tai‘ success allowed them to perform not only domestically but also abroad and led to formation of similar groups all around the country; even resulting in national Busho-Tai squad contest.

The show consists mostly of dances and martial arts choreography, the performers wear armor weighting about 20kg.

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Original music and songs from the show were released on CD album and DVD feature, which can be found by clicking the following link…

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My press pass got me to close to the action, but it also restricted my movements as I was obligated to stay the entire show in the “photo pit” – picture below, and I wasn’t allowed to stand up.
Anyway, I did the best I could, under the circumstances, which you can judge for yourself by viewing my Samurai Show photo gallery here.
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To photograph the show I used Nikon d800 and  Nikon Df with Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G,  Tokina AT-X 16-28mm f/2.8 and SB-900 AF Speedlight
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