The last thing I kept from the trip was the quietest: a single sword in a case, lit hard out of a black ground and laid on cream silk. The scabbard is covered in gold lacquer worked in fine detail, the hilt bound in black cord with gold under it, a sword clearly made for ceremony and status as much as for use.
I liked it alone against the dark, no label in frame, no other object to argue with it. After a week of towers and gardens and neon, ending on one made thing under one light felt right.
Shot handheld through the glass at ISO 12800 and 1/40, which is asking a lot of any sensor and most of your own steadiness. It held. This was at the Japanese Sword Museum in Sumida.