Photo of "female samurai" offers sound lesson for not believing everything you see on the internet

As I was browsing my Tumblr feed over the weekend, I came across something cool. That actually happens on a regular basis on Tumblr - it's an addicting site! Anyway, I spotted what was labeled as a rare photo of a female samurai. Just look how impressive:

An onna-bugeisha who is not only dressed in fantastic armor but also has flowers in her hair?! She's the sort of character we love to find in history books. Excited as I was and even though ladies like this might have existed (and probably did - take a big enough sample and you'll find a bit of everything), I had suspicions about the authenticity of the picture. Being skeptical will help you survive the barrage of information on the interwebs.

I tried a Google image search which led me to a post stating the anonymous photo above was indeed a female warrior. Interesting, but I still wasn't sold. Further digging led me to a Reddit post and a comment that pinpointed the photo's origin: it's part of a group of portraits for sale, specifically "Portraits of Japanese Kabuki actors and geisha. 1870s." The photographer is unknown. You can view one listing for the photos here.

The awesome rare photo of a female samurai is actually a portrait of an actor. Furthermore, women were banned from participating in kabuki plays at the time of the photo, so it's possible the photo is of a guy dressed as a female warrior.  Now, that assessment could also be false, but that was where the trail ended for me. It was yet another lesson for me to not take everything I see on the internet as truth. Google is your friend.

UPDATE 1/29: I tried to search for a definitive answer based on a comment below. I looked at several of photos of Kabuki actors from the period, did several searches, and an hour later I can't prove if the photo is a samurai or an actor. If anyone has the history, I'm happy to hear it!

h/t Tumblr