The period of Japanese History from 1477 to 1576 is called the Sengoku period. This literally translates into "The Country at War". There are many reasons for the outbreaks of battles across the county, but the two biggest are the inability of the Ashikaga Shogunate to put down the upstart clans trying to gain more territory, ant the fact that the Japanese Emperor had long ago given up any attempt to really run the country. There were Daimyo's across the country that saw an opportunity to increase their spheres of influence, and they were willing to do this at another Daimyo's expense. For seventy years one Daimyo would battle another with some clans being Hied off entirely and others gaining large chunks of land and wealth. But mostly things changed very little, until ....... In 1542 a Portuguese ship destined to Korea was blown off course and destroyed against the shores of the Kyushu island, in southern Japan. There was nothing remarkable about the ship except for the fact that there were a few muskets aboard that were salvaged. The Japanese not being great innovators, but knowing a good thing when they saw it, started mass production of this new weapon. Of course at first it was a weapon have so that you could brag about having one, but soon a few of those upstart Daimyos saw that in a few weeks, a lowly peasant farmer could become a valuable fighting man with a musket. No longer was it necessary to grow and train a warrior for years to learn to shoot a bow or learn the ways of a Samurai. By 1550 things were well on their way to a full scale Civil War. A typical battle in 1550 would involve 30,000 to 50,000 men on each side. By 1600 at Sekigahara there were over 180,000 men in battle with another 300,000 in other battles across the country. This was all happening in a country less than half the size of Germany. Typically in Europe at the same time is was about all the war leaders of the time could muster was about 40,000 men of the field at once. There we some other factors happening at the same time. Religion was becoming a sticky issue for allot of people. Christianity had gained a foothold in the country with the Portuguese bringing Jesuit Priest, and the local peasants, and even the Samurai, finding the strict standards of living and worshipping by the Jesuits not much different than their own ways. Honor was a two edge sword. There were those fighting for their honor and those whom had had their honor stepped on and wanted to get even. The power vacuum left by the Shoguns inability to do anything created opportunities for those who thought that they could. Especially the lower class. This was a time for low to overcome the high. When I started reading about Samurai and Samurai warfare I had a Preconceived idea of what I was going to find. I thought it would be about a code of honor and loyalty. Boy was I wrong. Yes there is plenty of honor and loyalty but, that is not the whole story. There was plenty to disloyalty, broken honor, and corruption. During the battle of Sekigahara a whole clan changed sides just because a general had his feelings hurt. Or there's the story of leyasu, his general was killed in battle against Oda, and the when offered part of the spoils, changes over to support Oda. Or there's the story of Oda, who killed most of some sects of Buddhism and courted the Christians only at a later time, outlaw Christianity and kill a large number of it's followers. Or the story of generals being rewarded for their victories by being given vassals of their own, and then once they were big enough they would defeat their previous Daimyo. Back to MWAN #112 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2001 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com