But they surely seem to be: samurai armour is so vital, so electric, with its grimacing, moustached, black face masks and full-body metal and fabric plating. Photograph: The Trustees of the British MuseumThen again, the samurai always were ghosts in their suits. Photograph: The Trustees of the British MuseumThe British Museum’s exhibition, however, does not just honour the art of war but embraces love and peace. And it was samurai nobles who were the most prestigious clients of early modern Edo’s pleasure quarter, the “floating world”. Samurai armour embodies a merciless truth about the human condition and what it can become.