[Japan] ancient japanese

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by tall sean, Dec 17, 2004.

  1. tall sean

    tall sean New Member

    my question is in ancient japan was the entire japanese army made up of samurai and pesants or did thay have any other less known troops
     
  2. Johnno

    Johnno Valued Member

    In ancient Japan there wasn't an army as we would use the term today. It was a feudal society where each 'lord' had his own private 'army' drawn from his own retainers. These would include both the samurai and peasants who owed him allegiance.

    The peasant soldiers were called Ashigaru. They tended to be the lowest ranks of soldiers, typically spearmen, but later armed with arquebuses, then muskets, then rifles. Some used the two-handed No-Dachi swords. Samurai would typically be spearmen, archers or cavalry.

    The other classes of society were the craftsmen, merchants etc. They were considered to be even further down the social scale than the peasants. I don't think they would generally be conscripted as soldiers.

    The lowest caste in society were the Eta. They were rather like the 'untouchables' in Hindu society. Again, not soldiers.
     
  3. TheMightyMcClaw

    TheMightyMcClaw Dashing Space Pirate

    It really depends on the era. The military aspects Johnno described are of the medieval period (between the Heian and Tokugawa eras), whereas the social castes he described didn't come into fruition until the Tokugawa era and the spread of Neo-confucianism. I was surprised to learn that leather workers, gravediggers, and other eta/burakumin/social outcastes were considered ordinary tradesman up until the Tokugawa era.

    When most people talk about the ye olde Japan militarily and the samurai, they're usually referring to the samurai of the medieval period. However, the samurai didn't fully come to power until the Tokugawa Shogunate. I'm not very familiar with pre-Tokugawa era stuff, but... when Japan was united and the samurai came to power, they faced a fundamental problem: there wasn't anyone to fight. Most samurai of the Tokugawa era (which is when a lot of samurai ethics and ideals became codified) were ironically more bereaucrats than warriors.
     

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