Akitsushima. The Island of Dragonflies

The dragonfly - the insect from which Japan’s oldest name derives - draws together, in the country’s culture, the order of nature, the symbolism of warriors and the refined aesthetics of everyday objects. Built around a collection of Japanese armour and militaria on which the dragonfly recurs as a sign of steadfastness and victory, the exhibition at the Manggha Museum leads visitors through these interwoven threads.

The Manggha Museum on the exhibition:

When I was a young boy, my earliest experience of the world of the samurai was by viewing the works of the Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa. Pictures like Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, or Ran incited my imagination and inducted me into an aesthetic completely different from what had been familiar. It was in those films that I first saw the armour and helmets of the samurai, which in time became my passion.

The collection of Japanese armour that we hold today was born many years later in Japan, in a small antique shop in the Izu Peninsula. It was there that my wife - co-initiator of this lifelong undertaking - and I purchased our first set of samurai armour. At the end of our conversation with the owner, he presented us with a small gift - a dragonfly-shaped iron maedate. He said our determination reminded him of that insect, which Japanese tradition perceived as a creature that always moved forwards and never drew back as it flew.

In Japanese culture, in addition to determination, the dragonfly was also a symbol of courage, persistence, and victory. It was referred to as kachimushi - “the victory insect” - and ancient chronicles had given Japan the poetic name Akitsushima - the “Dragonfly Island”.

What to expect

The exhibition shows how a motif as delicate as the dragonfly operated in a military context, revealing a trait characteristic of Japanese visual culture: the ability to fuse practical function with a rich symbolic and aesthetic layer. At its core is a collection of Japanese armour, helmets and sword fittings on which the “victory insect” recurs.

Tickets, opening hours, and current details are on the Manggha Museum website.

Museum profile: Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology.