Large samurai scroll among 27,000 items to be catalogued

The scroll shows 11th Century Japanese warriors at rest and in battle

A 15m (49ft) Japanese scroll showing samurai warriors in battle has taken museum archivists by surprise.

It depicts the 11th Century Gosannen War and is a copy of the original, which is still in Japan.

It is one of 27,000 items being catalogued by Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, including a collection of about 40 scrolls.

Staff were initially unaware of just how long the scroll would be until they began carefully unrolling it.

Thousands of paintings and historical objects are currently being taken out of storage, examined, packed and moved off site.

The work must be complete by March 2022, when the museum partially reopens, in time tor the Commonwealth Games.

Ayesha Hussain, a museum collections digitisation assistant, said there was "limited information" on the scrolls in its collection, which include other examples, printed on paper and on silk.

But it is believed the samurai scroll was part of a collection of 35 gifted to the museum in 1970 by a doctor who had previously worked in China.

The museum said it would take a full day to photograph and catalogue the scroll

The scroll shows warriors in battle and at rest, in colourful armour, with birds flying overhead.

In one scene a man can be seen leading his horse while nearby archers take aim and another scene shows a group of women in a house, surrounded by an ornamental pool.

In one brutal battle scene, a soldier is seen taking an arrow to the eye.

David Rowan, museum photographer at Birmingham Museums Trust, said the scroll had to be checked and photographed in 28 sections because of its size.