What Happened to John Belushi’s ‘Saturday Night Live’ Samurai Costume?

Gabrielle Moss February 11, 5:03 pm

SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, John Belushi, as Samurai Futaba, (circa 1976-1978), 1975-. — Edie Baskin / ©NBC / Courtesy Everett Collection

John Belushi‘s Samurai Futaba was one of the earliest breakout characters of Saturday Night Live. A high-strung, sword-waving traditional samurai dropped into the modern world, Futaba — who was inspired by Akira Kursawa’s 1961 samurai epic Yojimbo — was meticulous but easily frustrated. Forced to take non-samurai-related jobs like baker, stockbroker or optometrist, he often got overwhelmed, caused some chaos for the customer (typically played by Buck Henry) and destroyed at least part of the set with his ever-present katanas — but he always did a darn good job in the end.

In the original skit, which aired on Dec. 13, 1975, Samurai Futaba is a clerk at the Samurai Hotel, which also employs Richard Pryor as an equally aggressive samurai bell boy.

(The original skit was the only time the samurai would speak English.)

Samurai Futaba appeared in 14 SNL skits, popped up during two separate musical performances by Frank Zappa on the show, was turned into his own action figure and was so synonymous with Belushi that his wife, Judith Jacklin Belushi, named her memoir Samurai Widow.

Where is John Belushi’s SNL Samurai Costume Now?

@nomad_215 “Samurai Delicatessen” is a comedy sketch from Saturday Night Live that aired on January 17, 1976. The sketch features John Belushi as a samurai who makes a sandwich by: Cutting ropes on hanging salami Slicing tomatoes in midair Splitting bread with his skull The sketch also features Buck Henry as Mr. Dantley, who waits while the samurai makes the sandwich. The two characters have a pleasant conversation even though they speak different languages. #snl #johnbelushi #ripjohnbelushi ♬ original sound – Nomad_215

Unlike, say, the Coneheads, Samurai Futaba’s costume was quite simple — just a robe (actually a few different ones through the years) and one or two swords. And in case you were curious, that sword isn’t plastic — it was real, heavy metal that genuinely sliced and smashed props in skits; in fact, it hit and cut Buck Henry when he appeared in the “Samurai Stockbroker” skit in 1976.

While the exact location of Belushi’s robes are not known (they might be in the SNL costume archives, which the show meticulously maintains and occasionally displays), at least one of the katanas Belushi used to lay waste to various pieces of the SNL set was sold to a private collector in June 2018. It sold for the strikingly low price of $2,480 — not exactly pocket change, but a pretty good deal for an important piece of TV comedy history!