The Portland Art Museum has a pretty amazing exhibit of Samurai armor that runs until January 12, 2014.  Recently Sheri and I decided we needed a culture day and met at the museum. The first thing you see when you get in the main lobby are 3 Samurai on full size horses. The backdrop is pretty sweet.

Aside from armor, the exhibit features other objects used by samurai like this saddle lacquered with embedded abalone (mother of pearl) shells.  Totally bling!

The details on the armor is amazing. I was particularly interested in some of the fancy knot work.

A few unique items caught my eye – a crazy helmet made from paper mâché, a battle fan, and the firefighter uniform below.

The Portland Art Museum is free the  fourth Friday of every month 5-8pm, and the first full weekend of every month for Bank of America Card Holders. I head that this exhibit had a 2-3 hour wait this past weekend.