handsome
“Yeah, I rode a Ferris wheel with him once,” you can now say after attending this swoon-worthy event.
If this is what Japanese farmers look like, you can stick me on a train to the nearest country town.
People may think that being beautiful has no downsides; you’re popular, you get drinks for free, you look good in all your clothes.
But believe it or not, being beautiful isn’t always easy! Just ask Kuwaiti actor Abdul Aziz Al Kassar, who was recently arrested in Saudi Arabia for upsetting public order by being “too handsome”.
Posed portraits in history textbooks can all look the same after a while. Formal clothes, dark to create enough contrast for a black-and-white photo; stiff posture because old cameras required the sitter to be still for at least a few minutes; no smiling, in case the photo blurred. It’s no wonder students love to embellish the illustrations in their textbooks with creative graffiti.
Luckily for us, Japanese site Bakumatsu Gaido, an online guide to Bakumatsu, the Edo period’s final years (1853-67), is on hand to liven things up with a light-hearted look at the samurai with the best-chiseled features, sharpest dress sense and most awesome photo poses. Join us after the jump for Japan’s top 10 ikemen (cool, good-looking) samurai, plus a few bonus selections of our own!
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