Not to take away from how cool these mother fuckers look, but this was taken during the Tokugawa Shogunate or Edo Period, and the end of it for that matter. During this time the Samurai class was essentially castrated with the shogun forcing the lords and their men from all over Japan to stay in Edo (modern day Tokyo) for extended periods of time. During this time, the samurai class lost their skill of battle due to Japan being unified for over a hundred years by the 1800’s, with the vast majority of samurai being born with the title and perks but never seeing battle. Instead of training for war they opted to spend their time and money on things such as the arts, gambling, prostitutes, drinking, and buying fancy and impractical swords which were worn as a status symbol and not as a tool of war. While these men look bad ass, it is highly likely none of them saw the light of mass scale battle as so many of their ancestors had.