This is the first post on the site, so it seems the right place to explain what this store is, and why I have created it.
My main website remains focused on Japanese arms and armour, restoration, research and historical antiques www.davidthatcher.co.uk.
David Thatcher Art gives me a different kind of space. It allows me to bring together the work that sits just outside the antiques world: books, prints, clothing, designs and other projects connected to samurai culture, Japanese history, folklore, cinema and imagination.
Some pieces begin with real objects. A helmet, a mask, a suit of armour, a fragment of history. Others are more playful, more cinematic, or more invented. That is really the point of the store. It gives me room to move between scholarship and visual culture without trying to force everything into the same category.
The store is new, so it will grow and change over time. My armour books will be listed here, along with prints, poster designs and, in due course, Samurai Zasshi, my new journal on Japanese arms, armour, warrior culture and creative imagery.
I have always liked the idea that serious historical study and creative work do not have to be kept completely apart. Japanese armour is a good reminder of that. It is technical, practical and martial, but it is also theatrical, symbolic and often extraordinarily beautiful.
That same mixture is what I want this store to explore.
So, welcome to David Thatcher Art.
It is a new space, still taking shape, but it gives me room to make things, test ideas and share work that might otherwise remain tucked away in a studio folder, on a hard drive, or in the back of my mind.
