288
pages, Osprey Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-1841768649
Warriors of
Medieval Japan
by Stephen Turnbull – one of, if not THE greatest, western scholars on medieval
Japanese military history – is in fact an omnibus edition of three previously published
Osprey books covering Japanese Ashigaru
foot soldiers, Ninja covert agents and
mercenaries, and Sōhei monk warriors and
their brethren, Yamabushi, along with
a new section on Samurai, the
military nobility and officer caste of Japan. As the title indicates, this book
is about the warriors from Japan’s medieval age, a period lasting from 1467 to
1638, also called the “Age of the Warring States”; the years before and after
are also addressed as appropriate.
The
first part is a basic introduction and chronology, covering the contents and
the time period, before moving on to the Samurai,
with Turnbull covering the usual material while providing some seldom-heard (at
least by me) information on the warrior class, including something about groups
called ikki, which were alternates to
the usual samurai route of either service to a daimyo or going rōnin, a samurai with no lord or master.
The ikki were more egalitarian
groups, composed of members from all strata of society, usually though not
exclusively religious in foundation, and most of them were destroyed by either Oda
Nobunaga or Toyotomi Hideyoshi, both powerful daimyo or feudal lords, during the wars of the Warring States. We
also learn about the jizamurai, a
social class that served as a sort-of meeting point between the poorest rural
samurai and the wealthiest peasant farmers. There’s quite a bit more here, all
of it very well written.
Next
comes the Ashigaru, the spearmen,
archers, and harquebusiers who served as the rank and file in so many Japanese
armies. They weren’t as glorious, as colorful, or as well recorded as the Samurai, but they did their part and
then some. Turnbull especially covers the Battle of Nagashino in which the
peasant Ashigaru mowed down thousands
of samurai cavalry with their guns. The author covers their use in sieges,
organization and command, their life on campaign and their experience in
battle. There’s the usual fine Osprey art in this section and all through the
book by Angus McBride, Wayne Reynolds, and Howard Gerrard, too. Next comes a
section on ninja, and if you’re as old as me (don’t ask) you probably can remember
the ninja craze from the 80s and after, during which these guys got turned into
magical supermen. Thankfully, Turnbull manages to both dispel the myths while
playing up just how these mercenaries were really used. It does become obvious
why and how they earned their reputation, though, as the ninja were a cross
between Special Forces and spies, doing all sorts of assassinations,
intelligence gathering, and sabotage in war and peacetime. This was a truly
eye-opening section. Last comes the warrior monks, the Sōhei and
Yamabushi. I never knew before
reading this book that the Japanese Buddhist monks were so militant or
well-armed (they seem to have been using guns before even the Ashigaru) or that they once held so much
influence over the Imperial government that they were referred to as akuso, “evil monks”, by many. These
monks were also often part of the aforementioned ikki and fought their own small-scale wars against the Samurai, many of which ended with brutal
massacres. Again, to me this was all very new and a delight to learn and read. The
last section has a glossary, a bibliography, and a listing of various museum
collections.
I
have to make clear is that this is not a book that one just sits down and reads;
I attempted to do just that but there is just too much information to absorb
that way; furthermore I don’t think that it was written to be read that way. It
reads more like a reference book or a text book as the writing, though
informative, is rather dry and academic. For all that it is packed full of
incredibly interesting info on all the warrior classes of ancient and medieval
Japan; Turnbull is where you go for all things Japanese.
