Ueno Hikoma Samurai and Foreigner 1860s or early 70s

This is a portrait titled “Samurai and foreigner” taken by Ueno Hikoma.  What immediately caught my attention was the only standing foreigner in the middle, who is surrounded by seven samurai.  The foreigner is wearing a western hat and jacket, while the samurai wear what seems like the everyday-wardrobe type of kimono.  It seems to me that the older men are standing in the back, and the younger men are sitting.  The samurai holding a white item in the middle looks the youngest.

What I found interesting were the contrasting qualities between the foreigner and samurai.  The foreigner stands in a tall and upright posture, compared to the frail and delicate looking samurai on his left, and the unhappy samurai with downcast eyes and tilted head.  In addition, I thought the arrangement of the men had an effect on the foreigner.  The foreigner sticks out like a sore thumb since he’s outnumbered and the fact that he's standing in the middle made it seem that the foreigner had some sort of superiority and importance, while the samurai are just sitting and standing in a pretty laid-back manner (excluding the samurai with arms crossed).  
The gazes of the men are dispersed in all different directions.  Most the samurai and the foreigner look pretty focused, while a few of them look like they are about to fall asleep.  By the looks of the samurai, many of them look disinterested. When I think of samurai, I associate the term with power and the feeling of intimidation. Their expressions don’t portray the usual honor, valor, and determination, the qualities of a samurai that I normally imagine.