What POD Would I Need to Make the European “Flag Samurais” a Reality?

In honor of the much-delayed Tokyo Olympics, Japanese artists (I've never found their names) have drawn the flags of all the nations personified as anime warriors. For this question, let's focus on the following nations:


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United Kingdom of Great Britain


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Italy


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Finland


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Sweden


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Spain


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Belgium


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France


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Germany


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Switzerland


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Norway


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Netherlands


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Russia


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Denmark


In our timeline, the kinds of clothing and the types of weapons and armors presented in the images are distinctively Japanese. But in an alternate history timeline, they are common among all the imperial, royal and noble ranks of medieval Europe. Which raises the question--what point of departure would I need to make this scenario a reality?
 
The images for Britain, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Russia, and in a lesser degree also Finland and Switzerland looks like they could be some kind of honor guard of ceremonial parade uniform. So vry little would need to be done other than giving the respective governments and/or militaries and/or capital citizenry a taste for flashy regiments parading down the streets on national holidays. For Belgium I am not so sure. But, I can imagine the outfit being the ceremonial uniform of a secret loge of female fashion designers from the Antwerp school of art.
 
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The images for Britain, Italy, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Russia, and in a lesser degree also Finland and Switzerland looks like they could be some kind of honor guard of ceremonial parade uniform. So vry little would need to be done other than giving the respective governments and/or militaries and/or capital citizenry a taste for flashy regiments parading down the streets on national holidays. For Belgium I am not so sure. But, I can imagine the outfit being the ceremonial uniform of a secret loge of female fashion designers from the Antwerp school of art.

Could you clarify on that?
 
Hmmm. France wins alternate Franco-Prussian War, remains part of key Japanese “we copy the winner” reform plans instead of Japan switching to Prussia.

This gradually creates a Japanese culture boom in France itself, that because of fashion spreads to the rest of Europe. Every petty noble wants a suit of Samurai armour in their own colours.
 
Have Samurai Ronins in distinct numbers travel to Europe during the Thirty Year War as mercenaries. Maybe originally the Portugese hire Ronin guards as mercenaries. With time other European powers hire Samurais as prestige units. Later with professional standing armies in the late 17th/18th Centuryemerging, European officier corps adapt the Samurai fashion and Katanas as prestige uniform instead of powdered whigs, sabres, silk suits and tricorns.
 
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Have Samurai Ronins in distinct numbers travel to Europe during the Thirty Year War as mercenaries. Maybe originally the Portugese hire Ronin guards as mercenaries. With time other European powers hire Samurais as prestige units. Later with professional standing armies in the late 17th/18th Centuryemerging, European officier corps adapt the Samurai fashion and Katanas as prestige uniform instead of powdered whigs, sabres, silk suits and tricorns.


That's way too late. I'm aiming for medieval.
 
Have Japanese society collapse entirely in the heyday of the Samurais and then have Europeans "rediscover it" and developing a Japanomania similair to the Egyptomania of the 1920's.
 
Have Japanese society collapse entirely in the heyday of the Samurais and then have Europeans "rediscover it" and developing a Japanomania similair to the Egyptomania of the 1920's.
Maybe this could this lead to:


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Samurai Knights of the Weimar Republic
 
Maybe this could this lead to:


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Samurai Knights of the Weimar Republic
Uniform of the ultranationalist Burschenschaft (student organization) LBS Frankonia, RWTH Aachen ca.1985. through a fluke if history (Frankonias founders all being a fan of Kurosawa movies and Aachen having a Kendo club but no olympic floret fighting organization) Frankonia abandoned the ritual sabre- or floret fighting for Eastern style sword-Karate and thus its members proudly carry a samurai broadsword rather then a thin European style 'Degen'.
 
Could you clarify on that?
On What? On the outfits of the he UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany looking like they could be the parade uniforms of a national honor guard - you know the ones that line up at he airport and escort the visiting foreign king/president/cancellor from the plat to the waiting limo? Or on the Belgian uniform looking like the ceremonial outfit of a secret sorority of fashion designers?
 
That's way too late. I'm aiming for medieval.
Problem are the distances in Medival period. Before the age of exploration, Japan was way too far away from Europe. The Samurai Class itself only evolved in Japan in Medival period. So it would be unlikely that European styled Samurais evolve anywhere in Medival Europe for obvious reasons. Of course, with major butterflies it could work. But that would require ASB-like intervention I'm afraid.
 
Uniform of the ultranationalist Burschenschaft (student organization) LBS Frankonia, RWTH Aachen ca.1985. through a fluke if history (Frankonias founders all being a fan of Kurosawa movies and Aachen having a Kendo club but no olympic floret fighting organization) Frankonia abandoned the ritual sabre- or floret fighting for Eastern style sword-Karate and thus its members proudly carry a samurai broadsword rather then a thin European style 'Degen'.

I was thinking more of a real cool Reichsbanner
 
Problem are the distances in Medival period. Before the age of exploration, Japan was way too far away from Europe. The Samurai Class itself only evolved in Japan in Medival period. So it would be unlikely that European styled Samurais evolve anywhere in Medival Europe for obvious reasons. Of course, with major butterflies it could work. But that would require ASB-like intervention I'm afraid.
Probably more realistic to have some kind of military convergent evolution, with European armourers settling on rectangular shoulder armour and tassets independently.
 
During the Otsu Incident, Prince Nicholas is more seriously injured losing his eye and many of his memories during the attack. Worried about the international backlash that might come from having assassinated a future Tsar the Japanese government attempts to cover it up claiming that the Prince's ship sunk shortly after he left the Russian Empire. They found a surprising ally in their deception in George Alexandrovich, the Prince's younger brother and now heir to the throne. Before they can tie up all their loose ends the amnesiac former Prince manages to flee his captors.

While on the run Nicholas found refuge with a Japanese noble who lost his sons during the Boshin War, seeing potential in the young man he took him in. Unable to remember his name, Nicholas took the name Ryu, in reference to the dragon tattoo on his arm. The renamed man began training under his adoptive father before being sent out to right the wrongs in the rapidly industrializing country.

He might have lived like this forever, had the dreams not started. Nicholas became troubled by visions of a distant land, Russia. Visions of fire spreading from St. Petersburg across the world. Leaving his young wife and son behind, Nicholas finally returned home. A samurai by training, a tsar by the grace of god, and a hero by the blade of his katana.

It might seem surprising today but dueling as an art was almost completely abandoned during the Early Modern Period as beliefs that it was immature and unnecessarily dangerous become more popular. That was until a Dutch merchant was challenged to a duel during a short visit to the United States of America, not realizing that it was a gun duel and not a sword duel he looked for a suitable sword and armor set that he could wear into battle. On his ship the only thing available was a set of samurai armor and a katana that had been meant as gifts back home. He decided to dawn them anyways and go to face his opponent.

The American's gun jammed, allowing the Dutch trader to slash him with the sword. The affair induced a great deal of excitement back in Europe, where tales of the merchant's heroics led an increased interest in dueling and in the sort of armor that he had been wearing. Over time dueling enjoyed a renaissance as an elaborate performance that often had the duelers develop unique costume sets to face each other in, frequently having the duelers appropriate colonized cultures for unique atheistic ideas.
 
The problem with the katana is that while it’s not a bad weapon (even through it’s too heavy for its length), it’s cutting weapon you would use against unarmored or lightly armored opponents, it was also a weapon which was made to deal with the fact that Japanese was worse at metallurgy than the Europeans. Europe have pretty much been define since the Germanic Iron Age by some of the most advanced metallurgy and increasing use of heavier armor until gunpowder made full plates obsolete.
 
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