Could an Ashigaru Defeat a Samurai? Armour, Weapons, Skill Comparison.
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
- Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan.
In Japanese, they are usually referred to as bushi or buke.
By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.
As aristocrats for centuries, samurai developed their own cultures that influenced Japanese culture as a whole. The culture associated with the samurai such as the tea ceremony, monochrome ink painting, rock gardens and poetry were adopted by warrior patrons throughout the centuries 1200-1600. These practices were adapted from the Chinese arts.
In general, samurai, aristocrats, and priests had a very high literacy rate in kanji. Recent studies have shown that literacy in kanji among other groups in society was somewhat higher than previously understood.
Some samurai had buke bunko, or "warrior library", a personal library that held texts on strategy, the science of warfare, and other documents that would have proved useful during the warring era of feudal Japan. One such library held 20,000 volumes. The upper class had Kuge bunko, or "family libraries", that held classics, Buddhist sacred texts, family histories, as well as genealogical records.
A samurai was usually named by combining one kanji from his father or grandfather and one new kanji. Samurai normally used only a small part of their total name.
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#Metatron #Samurai #Ashigaru
Having over 1000 hours in Shogun 2 total war. I can say, without a doubt, yes.
Yari Wall!!!
Yari wall OP
Ashigaru yumitaide kotaimas ( it is what i heard 🤣)
Yari Ashigaru Chad vs. Yari Samurai Virgin.
I remember a dude who would always host and choose the uphill map and just camp with yari ashigaru and bows. Are public lobbies still such a mess?
The Metatron: "Ashi means feet."
Samurai Jack: *sweats nervously*
Haha, good one. 😂
Just put them in Yari wall, they will beat most low to mid tier units.
What about double Yari wall?
Spoken like a true TW fan.
"Hi, my name's MrSmartDonkey and today we're going to be taking a look at the Oda Clan."
Untill you send a line of longbowmen
Just the best game ever made
unfortunately total war screwed up the matchlock units
they take forever to recruit for campaign
They also are pretty underwelming exept those Portugese or those Otomo cavalry
Exept if you use line infantry in Fall of Samurai.
Also cmon, the bug on three line formation that marked the genius of Oda Nobunaga
Thats probably the only thing to not mess up
@@anonyme4881 in the original game if you just spam yari ashi you win. doesnt matter what faction
@@HistoricalWeapons Spamming yari dont work well in legendary difficulty if you're not Oda.
At one point you need some Bow Samurai/Monk. And Yari cav cause they are broken
Yari Ashigaru are very good against cav and to lock down frontline, but they are bad against arrow and to deal damage. And they flee quite fast.
They are still the best unit in the game. You just cant spam them at one point
Also, Oda Ashigaru let you conquer Japan in 12 turn in legendary difficulty
@@anonyme4881 why 12 if you can do it on 1 turn.
Metatron, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was dead by the time battle of Sekigahara. It were his supporters that fought against Tokugawa.
Yes, you are right I did say that on a previous video. On this one, I got carried away and said Hideyoshi meaning his supporters, and forgot to mention that he had died. I apologise for that.
@@metatronyt ah sure, we all make mistakes. Now I feel like a vulture for jumping on you like that.
@@pavelstaravoitau7106 No problem! As long as people dont get misinformed! That's all that matters to me
@@pavelstaravoitau7106 He just gave you permission to feast on his carcass. Punish him.
Mitsunari Ishida more specifically i think
Samurai: NOOO you can't train a peasant to easily kill a samurai in the most expensive armor who has been trained since childhood just by giving him a gun NOOO
Ashigaru: Haha stick goes pew pew
Memes... It's great
literal parallel to the knights of europe getting rekt by crossbows
@@chainz983 No. Its also guns.
@@joevenespineli6389 im pretty sure that by the time arquebusiers became common place, knights were pretty non-existent. Or at the very least, they didnt run around covered head to toe in plate armor
@@chainz983 its not crossbows that made them obsolete, what Im saying, crossbows were pretty commonplace alongside the knights.
mat eastons answer: It Depends
*CoNtExT*
On how deep the penetration is
Skallagrims answer: "Context."
The battle of Sekigahara was the battle between Ishida Mitsunari and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Toyotomi Hideyosho had been dead at this point, and Mitsunari "represented" Hideyoshi at this point.
Wanted to say the same.
this is a bruh moment
Yeah, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had been dead for some time before Sekigahara happened.
I really like that merchants, lawyers, consultants, social media manager and stockbrokers are last on the pyramid.
:)
Ah yes, the social media managers of the Edo period. Tadahiko Kou being a famous example.
@absourate But how often that happened is a different story. I’ve always read that that kind of thing was rare, even if it was legally acceptable.
And below that are blue checkmarks
@@robbyz512 stfu lol
I assume a samurai known for cutting down merchants for no good reason would have trouble buying or selling stuff. Merchants would avoid them if possible :P
... though if some unlucky merchant fails to hide in time, well, negotiating prices would probably turn in the samurai's favor.
Hey Metatron i am a 15 year old from India. I had no interest in history before discovering your channel. your video on barbarians invoked a love for history in me. I binge watched all your videos and I found them very entertaining as well as informative. I would love to see you discussing about Indian history as our curriculum does not teach us enough about the rich and vast history of the Indian subcontinent. I am sure even many others would love to learn Indian history, especially ancient India. I hope you will see this comment and react to this accordingly.
war elephants go Brrrr
Check out your mysorean rockets, some consider them the beginning of modern missile munitions, I've got a friend from Karnataka here in the UK, we went to Edinburgh castle and there was an exhibit on tippu sultan, and something I found interesting was how our British swords were straight and sharp in a timeline until the fighting with tippu and afterwards the style changed to sabres more similar to your tulwar style swords, I think you guys just have left a deep impression with those blades to completely change the style of British issue swords
@@jackp492 yes you are absolutely right. tipu sultan used these rockets against the british in the anglo-mysorean wars. the mysorean rockets had a range of about 200 metres(i may be wrong), while the british had a much shorter range. after defeating mysore, they took these rockets to britain. then they developed their own rockets based on the mysorean model. they used these rockets in the napoleonic wars.
Unfortunately though, he can't talk about the Indians in length, given that he was able to talk about the Romans & Japanese & extensions of such, due not to him being versed in such topics, but also because he reads & speaks the languages such topics are written in. I sure as hell don't think Raph knows enough about the Indian subcontinent, both in terms of its history & the languages, to talk about such topics in length.
i love to see stuff like this metatron is out here doing the lords history teaching work!
Very cool concept, and very entertaining video.
Thanks!
@@metatronyt not very entertaining
@@assumjongkey1383 oh look everyone, it’s the cool kid
@@GracelessEmber I am realy the quite kid
@@GracelessEmber because he mostly reapates what he said in his old video
Me, in the middle of a Shogun 2 campaign: "This is valuable information"
Some swordsmiths were considered samurai class, some even had titles as lords of regions of Japan making them above samurai and below daimyo in power. One case of craftsmen being above the samurai class.
I would liko to see more videos about italian military tactics/fighting styles in middle ages.
Condottieris, genoese crossbowmen, and other famous italian mercenary units. I saw a video about constantinople and the italian mercenaries playing an important role defending the city against ottomans. It says that the condottieri under giovanni justiniani were unbeatable in melee against the ottomans and fought them off wave after wave.
Toyotomi Hideyori was NOT low-born. His father was originally an ashigaru (and the son of an ashigaru), but had risen through the ranks to become the shogun. His mother was Yodogimi, daughter of the Daimyo of the Azai clan and the niece of Oda Nobunaga.
He probably confused Hideyori and Hideyoshi :)
Hideyoshi was low-born, and he was the one who eventually took over all of Japan. He never became shogun, specifically because he was too low-born, but he did manage to become kanpaku (regent) instead. His son, Hideyori, was certainly born into privilege.
The battle of Sekigahara, however, was fought after Hideyoshi’s death (not against Hideyoshi), and it was basically the battle to decide which of his chief lieutenants- Tokugawa Ieyasu and his allies, or Ishida Mitsunari and his - would take over control of the Toyotomi government (Hideyori was still a little boy at this time).
@@rpgvoyager Only a Minamoto could be Shogun, only a member of the Five Regent Houses of the Fujiwara clan could be Kanpaku. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was low-born, so he was no way a Minamoto or a Fujiwara by born. He wanted to be Shogun, but he failed to make Ashikaga Yoshiaki adopt him (the Ashikaga clan was a branch of the Minamoto clan). After that, he made Konoe Sakihisa adopt him (the Konoe family was one of the Five Regents Houses and a main branch of the Fujiwara clan), so he could be Kanpaku.
Things for Tokugawa/Matsudaira Ieyasu were easier, since the Tokugawa/Matsudaira clan was a samurai clan, Ieyasu simply declared the Tokugawa/Matsudaira clan a branch of the Minamoto clan (which was unlikely), and no one dared to disprove it.
I don't know where you got your info from, but there's no doubt that Toyotomi Hideyoshi was low-born. His dad was an ashigaru, which while being a fighting class, was definitely not of the high-born caste. His mom was not someone related to Oda Nobunaga, as any mention of his mom pegged her to only be a daughter of a blacksmith, which also meant that she was definitely not high-born.
@@FalconWindblader *sigh* You could try actually reading what I said. Toyotomi Hideyori was the son of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyori however was the only one of the two that was alive when the Battle of Sekigahara was fought (the official stance being that the five regents fought on Hideyoris behalf).
I'll defeat you you with the power of peasantry and this matchlock I found
Ottomo and Oda master clans
I'll defeat you with.... Hold on wife is calling me for dinner. Lets pick up where we left off at sunrise.
Oops. I forgot no one referred to dinner as the evening meal until the time of Webster. *smacks self with pummel our of shame* Stupid stupid stupid!
@@rachdarastrix5251 😫🙈🙈🙈🙈
Haha gatling guns go ratatatata
"Let's find out" man, that quote gives me some flashvargs lol
1 vs 1 - Samurai usually wins.
group vs group: obviously, the ashigaru just form a yari wall and become OP.
id say samurais would most likely be trained in group tactics as well
@@alvinip9128 Yari samurai can't use yari wall, every Shogun 2 player know that:)
Bow trumps spear
@@teeprice7499 The fact that other weapons were evidentially used in battle proves that your statement at the very least requires some qualifiers.
What exactly do you mean?
@@Bird_Dog00 Meaning samurai with daikyu tend to kill ashigaru with yari
Great video as usual!
This is a great video!
There are a few interesting things about Japan's social pyramid. Samurai could really do anything for money, except be merchants. If they had land, they could farm. If they were lower status or exceptionally poor samurai they could be ashigaru. First sons received all the advantages in feudal Japan, so ashagaru was a good profession for the second or third son of a poor samurai family. If they needed extra money they could become craftsmen. The one thing they were prohibited from, according to "Bushido: The Soul Of Japan by Inazō Nitobe, was a merchant. Even though merchants were the lowest on the social pyramid they were usually the wealthiest class outside of nobility. However, since the samurai class had all of the military and legal power they were prohibited by Bushido from also controlling the wealth of Japan.
Oda clan: so I started blastin'
You're thinking Otomo
Tyler1_gun.wav
Not just using matchlock but with yari and yumi. Ashigaru are the backbone of the military of the clan.
@@justinisaacrada8540
Just need yari and match lock to have the gun and pike battles
@@JP-rf8rr What about yumi? Yumi are might be cheaper than tanegashima because wood are inexpensive. Tanegashima are expensive because gunpowder and good quality metal in Feudal Japan are limited and sometimes they might have mechanism malfunction during raining weather. Yumi is a good anti-surface ranged/artillery weapon to use that fire in an arc and has a faster reload/fire rate than the tanegashima one on one.
love these videos, would really enjoy one about portuguese weapons and armour
Absolute passion and knowledge! Subscribed! Though I've been a floater for a while. :)
...Not so good on the history. At Nagashino, 1) The Takeda were heavily outnumbered, at 3 to 1 (becaue 3,000 Takeda were left to maintain the siege), _and_ attacking a fortified position across a small river, because the Takeda heir was an infamous moron.
2) The Takeda were NOT just Samurai. They had about 5,000 cavalry at the battle, and we can presume those were all samurai, but there's roughly 10,000 Ashigaru who were fighting with them. Whereas the Oda force had TWICE the cavalry, so we can assume roughly TWICE the Samurai. So how exactly is this a triumph for the Ashigaru?
3) Despite this, Nobunaga lost about 16% of his troops, and he only inflicted double the casualties on the Takeda. If you're familiar with Lanchester's law, you will realize how shocking this is, that a force 3x the size, after winning, only inflicted twice the casualties. Most of those deaths came when the Takeda were forced to retreat, too, when that's less a fight than it is mopping up stragglers.
4) To top it off, Arquebussiers made up
I mostly agree with you but I also feel some of that is misleading.
A good portion of Oda-Tokugawa's forces was in reserve while Takeda would ultimately commit all his forces, except for the 3000 sieging. Although in each specific engagement, Takeda's forces were still outnumbered. Oda-Tokugawa did commit some reserve to the northern flank halting an initially successful Takeda advance. So technically no, it wasn't overran.
Your casualty comparison is pretty flawed because you are comparing percentage with fixed numbers when you should either compared percentage with percentage or fixed numbers with fixed numbers. You get really nothing from mix matching data sets. Takeda lost 80% of his force compared to 15.7% of Oda-Tokugawa. Lanchester's law is also a generalization which dos not account for equipment, positioning and other factors. Nonetheless, it also doesn't apply here because Lanchester's law assumes two armies of same composition, ie. spears vs spears or guns vs guns. This battle, at least the aspect we are mainly focusing on is spear+guns vs cavalry+spear. It's rather asymmetric.
Certainly this battle isn't the perfect example of firearm's superiority as it is often claimed to be. A lot of that hype is probably due to it being the first use of volley fire by rank and actually surprised Takeda's forces who assumed there will be a lull time for charging. Additionally the arquebus and palisade combination broke the momentum of the cavalry charge resulting in piecemeal attacks on to the actual spearmen defending. That actually caused unexpectedly high casualties for Takeda's forces but as you said it was not the decisive factor since the battle lasted for several more hours in melee and Oda-Tokugawa's cavalry definitely played a big role too. Also Takeda while also had access to firearms did not employ them properly if at all. He was on the attack and did not form any sort of line formation at distance to engage with the arquebus, so in effect he might as well not have any.
So to conclude, no Nagashino isn't where guns triumph cavalry. But you make it sound like the arguebus was a non-factor which isn't correct. They played an important role in winning the battle. The battle was won for multiple reasons. Oda-Tokugawa won due to discipline, positioning, palisades, arquebus, and flanking cavalry. ALL of these factors played a role. BTW Takeda also isn't as incompetent as Westerners like to portray him to be. His charges were timed to account for the reload of the arquebus, but he didn't know of the fire by rank technique which was never used until that battle. Likewise he did intend on bypassing the palisades through supporting infantry to dismantle them, and also going around it on the flanks.
@@neurofiedyamato8763 Not trying to be misleading, it's just my understanding of the battle.
1. Reserves: Both sides had reserves, and it wasn't until near the end of the battle when Katsuyori charged in with his reserves including his bodyguard that Takeda was fully committed. I don't think we can really say how many forces were in direct combat at which times, as that's extremely difficult even with modern and well documented battles.
All in all, it's impossible for us to say exactly how many Oda troops were rotated to keep fresh, and exactly how many were deployed, so I just used the number of forces present and taking part in the battle. This is generally how numbers are compared. As the Oda forces lost 6,000 troops through the battles course, we can be certain quite a few new troops were rotated in or brought in as support through such heavy fighting.
2. Data: I was not mixing the data, as the data is the same regardless of presentation.... I only ONCE mentioned the % losses of Oda, and I was focusing on raw number of casualties. Saying we should ignore the raw casualties and focus only on percentages is utterly absurd, as at that rate you'd have no idea whatsoever as to what kind of battle it was and how well each side did, where 100% casualties could mean 5 men or 500 thousand. So I don't know why you are suggesting comparing percentages on the basis I mentioned them once.
Even if you were going to use that method, you would be better to say the Takeda wiped out 50% of their number in enemies, while the Oda destroyed only 31% of theirs, as that at least demonstrates the difference in individual fighting power.
Lanchester's law is not one formula. There are many derivatives at this point, which include formulas for artillery, aircraft, etc.. It is mathematical principle for how war casualties and odds tend to stack up. We don't know the exact formula to apply to this instance, but we do know a much larger force with every advantage in defence and ranged weaponry (something specially to note with Lanchester's law) did not inflict a proportionally higher rate of casualties despite all these advantages, and winning the battle.
What I'm really curious about, is how many of the Takeda were killed in the pursuit, as there's a chance most of the deaths took place in that period as with other battles.
3. Formation: I'm not sure I could concur with your idea that the Takeda arquebusses had no impact. This seems to deny the possibility these could be used in skirmishing order and fashion, as is probably more suitable for engaging a fortified position during a cavalry charge. I also don't see how the Takeda would manage to kill 6,000 Oda if their formation was incompetent, as your description seems to imply.
Largely, while their firearms were not leveraged to as great an effect as Oda's, I would need more information to come to this conclusion that they were rendered ineffective.
Thank you for the thoughtful response. I hope this clears up the miscommunications I didn't intend.
* wound or kill 6,000 Oda
@@vanivanov9571 I didn't mean that you wanted to mislead but the way it came out, it made Oda's arquebus seem like a non-factor thus I felt it was misleading. But interesting points.
1 and 2) Regarding the casualties. The problem I had was that you stated 16% on Oda-Tokugawa's side but twice as much on Takeda which doesn't tell us much about the battle. So that's why I said a like to like comparison would be better.
Regardless I don't see how this was a bad casualty rate for Oda-Tokugawa's forces. Takeda lost twice as much. Takeda had 1/3 the force but didn't inflict 1/3rd the casualties on to Oda-Tokugawa. Likewise Oda-Tokugawa didn't inflict 3x the casualties on to Takeda's forces as that's a mere impossibility.
I'm not sure if you understand what I mean by that. So the original Lanchester's linear law makes a simple assumption that there will be a 1 for 1 trade. So we can assume that Takeda should be able to kill 33% of Oda's forces. But the opposite is true for Oda-Tokugawa where they only get a 0.33 kill per man. What i'm trying to say is that the casualties inflicted by Takeda is proportionally higher because they had more targets for them to kill. Even if Oda-Tokugawa's force killed 100% of Takeda's men, the kill ratio relative to their own casualties cannot be 'impressive' despite their numerical superiority. 15.7% is not a bad number. The battle would have to be a walk in the park if you want a better casualty ratio IMO.
3) As for my statements regarding Takeda formation, no I didn't mean to say it was incompetent. On the contrary i tried to emphasized that he did pretty well. It's just that while he made mostly the correct moves in the context of older style of battles; Oda Nobunaga introduced a new form of warfare. Not merely the existence of the arquebus, but its employment which rendered what was otherwise smart moves in to a disaster. Of course that alone was not enough, but it certainly eliminated the advantage of his cavalry. The key in Oda's arqubussiers was turning a cavalry charge in to a prolonged melee. Cavalry typically aren't suited for getting stuck in melees. Takeda did well in spite of getting his charges nullified.
By comparison Takeda's use of arquebus was limited. Even if he wanted to employ them in a more proactive manner it was limited by the nature of the battle. We can look in to later periods of warfare for reference.
Takeda definitely did not employ line formation for his gunners, otherwise it would have been noted by most sources. Even if he did, it would be at a disadvantage as they would need to advance against a prepared position and take a volley first before being able to return fire. Often the defending formation gets the first volley. But we know this didn't happen since Takeda sent his cavalry first. You just don't use guns after that because you got your own men in front.
Now lets speculate a little, since there's not a lot of translated information regarding Takeda's use of firearms. At least not that I know of. Maybe he could have fired some volleys in between the charges but that means Takeda's arquebussiers would have to advanced and retreat several times and every time Oda's gunners get to fire first. Just not exactly a smart move...
The alternative is an open formation as you suggested. The problem here is that in later periods we find that open formation is often used as supporting units protecting the flanks or scouting ahead. This is because if they were to face a line formation head on, they don't have the concentrated firepower to win such an engagement. Based by the employment of skirmishers in later periods, they aren't exactly good at offense either thus I would still think their effect was minimal even if employed as such by Takeda.
Not only is there basically no information about Takeda's employment of his gunners, it would seem to me they would have minimal influence regardless due to the nature of the battle being waged. So this is why I believe they are largely ineffective.
@@neurofiedyamato8763 Certainly, I wasn't saying the guns were no factor. This type of defensive battle is what the arquebus was considered best at, and Nobunaga took special care to maximize their effectiveness. It was likely the most cost-effective unit in his army. Just that many treat the Ashigaru and the guns as if they were the only factor in the victory, as if they could've killed Takeda cavalry as fast as they can arrive.
1&2. 6,000 losses for Oda, and 12K for Takeda, specifically.
"Regardless I don't see how this was a bad casualty rate for Oda-Tokugawa's forces. Takeda lost twice as much."
This is why I mentioned Lanchester's law. It is not an OK casualty rate at all, it would suggest a huge advantage on the part of the smaller army--yet Oda possessed many, many advantages.
"Likewise Oda-Tokugawa didn't inflict 3x the casualties on to Takeda's forces as that's a mere impossibility."
I think you have misunderstood Lanchester's law. As you inflict casualties on the enemy, they exponentially lose the ability to harm you. The fact Oda took 6,000 casualties at all is part of what's so shocking, as to how effective the Takeda were.
3) TBH, the Takeda formation was probably excellent, but their strategy was moronic. All of the older and experienced generals knew this was a suicidal plan, but had no choice, and made the best of it. So it's hard to call this brilliance on the part of Nobunaga (although his tactics were excellent), since his plan worked due to the excessive incompetence of his enemy's leader telling the Takeda to charge across a river, through muddy ground, into enemy fortifications and killzones, to fight a larger force of Samurai and Ashigaru. This wasn't a traditional strategy, this was idiotic at any point in history.
4) Line arquebuses: We can't really say, with so little information. It's all speculation. Maybe the Takeda arquebusiers were a smaller number of specialist sharpshooters, as in some medieval armies? If so, skirmish order would've been more effective for them, especially against the fortifications.
Your ideas are fine, but we really can't come to a grounded conclusion, as it's all speculation.
Keep up the good work!
So in the past in Japan the hierarchy was Peasants (Farmers) -> Artisans (Craftsmen) -> Merchants. It's interesting that nowadays it's kinda reversed. Farmers generally are at the bottom and make little money, same for artisans. Whereas merchants get the majority of the pay. Game companies are an example with developers (artisans) getting way less pay than the publishers (merchants). Companies like Amazon which basically started as a delivery service (merchant) are now some of the richest companies in the world. Interesting how things change.
Long-time gendai budo practitioner here. Thank you for addressing a question that a number of us who are interested in Japanese feudal martial history ponder.
Samurai: I study the blade my whole life, learn the art of different martial art and use of weapons. What can you do?
Ashigaru: "for his neutral B, he has a gun"
I don't know why but I just love the way he pronounces japanese words.
nice intro
love it
Amazing!!
Love the Total War footage! :D
Any chance for you to make a video about Shogun and Rome?
Hell, even Warhammer giving that you play the real deal.
Great video, very informative and indepth comparison. .
9:45 Small picture, that looks like it is constructed from LEGO.
11:05 That helmet on the lower shelf looks like a WWI-II British helmet.
Super cool!
Hi Metatron, I’m a huge fan for 2 years from Kazakhstan,. Sono vissuto in Italia per 7 anni. Just wanted to know, would it be possible for you to create a video discussing the formation of the Kazakh Khanate after the collapse of the Golden Horde. Would be really cool to see such a vid😎
Well this is a good question, definitely more interesting than comparing knights vs samurai
Great video. I have to say I completely agree.
Great video. Very happy that the "pyramid" came into the Edo period was mentioned. The Tokugawa really used the social structures, and Bushido to control the populace. Fun thing I came a crossed in my research was a depiction of how three man ashigaru were to approach, and kill a samurai. The interesting part was that it was mid to late 15th century, and the ashigaru depicted had bamboo poles and almost no armor.
It's good to hear more about the Ashigaru.
Thank you Metatron. This video clarified/answered some of my questions.
1. Musashi Miyamoto was originally from a lower class, a peasant. Ashigaru?
2. Lower class soldiers/warriors do scavenge armors/weapons from bodies on the battle field.
3. Always thought farmers/peasants are the lowest class in medieval Japan.
I have been waiting for your videos.
O genki deska, rafu-san? How do you use a question mark with Japanese? You raise your voice? 👍
1. Musashi Miyamoto was a son of a mid-ranked samurai/bushi, and therefore a mid-ranked samurai himself. Musashi's daimyo was conquered/killed in battle which rendered Musashi into a ronin (employed bushi = samurai, unemployed bushi = ronin). 2.
Conventions about looting on the battlefield varied by commander, but the general tendency was that all loot became the unit's property, but lower ranking troops could request to keep certain items as part of their take, subject to the commander's whims and wishes. 3. No, in Japanese society, peasants had land deeded to them. The bushi weren't even originally a caste, they were originally enterprising nobles, who, along with there retainers, patrolled the frontiers. The bushi were then often hired by the frontier peasants for protection (often under rather audacious payment terms that would resemble a modern mob racket), and so the peasants gradually lost power to the bushi. When the frontiers started running out, the bushi started looking back at the civilian nobility, and gradually seized power from the those.
informative!
I would love to see you do a vid on the Ashigaru kit on campain. Their gords they used for cantines, their juzu which contained rice, and any sleeping, and cooking kit they might have used.
It is incredible how much work Metatron put into working on his english pronunciation and his accent through the years. He sounds way more Italian here
From historically accurate and 101% realistic simulations i can definitively say that ashigaru spam is viable and preferrable atleast to year 1560.
It wasn't Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He died two years before the Battle of Sekigahara. It was Tokugawa Ieyasu and his generals against Ishida Mitsunari and his who were fighting for Hideyoshi's regency.
Hi metatron I am Hugh fan of your channel could please review ( the Immortal or the Persian soliders ).
This thumbnail is good!
I recently started playing ghost of Tsushima and this video is perfectly timed and highly informative!
Ghost of Tsushima looks like a great game, shame it is full of anachronisms. There is a lot of 16th to 19th century stuff in there for what is meant to be a 13th century event.
This is a great video!
An interesting thing about the social pyramid of feudal Japan was that samurai could belong to any profession except merchant. As Metatron points out, prior to the 16th century ashigaru was mostly peasant class pressed into service. Around the 16th century Ashigaru was more of a profession than a class...
Ashigaru was a good profession for the second or third son of a samurai because in feudal Japan all of the familial advantages and status went to the first born son. Samurai could farm if they owned land, or work as craftsmen for extra cash. As Metatron pointed out, farmers and craftsmen produce useful things, which makes a person useful when they aren't out killing people. Another part of this is that if you were born into samurai status, your entire family was samurai. In the Japanese class system that means that many samurai families were forced to supplement household income. However, according to Bushido: The Soul Of Japan by Inazō Nitobe, Bushido prohibited samurai from becoming merchants because they already controlled the military and legal power of Japan. Seeking economic power was considered immoral.
Metatron, please I'd love to hear you talk about the Roman interactions with Ireland
Awesome video. But one thing, its a misconception that Oda Nobunaga won the Nagashino with guns. Yes they helped but %90 of the battle was again, fought between Oda ashigarus and Takeda Cavalry. There is a fine article about this misconception which i would like to quote
"...One final aspect of the battle that must be addressed is the modern, romanticized image that has become predominant in popular culture. The name Nagashino evokes images of brave Takeda cavalrymen, clad in red armor, charging across an open field to their doom. The popular image is that of a beautiful, sunny day, suddenly choked by the smoke emanating from three thousand gun barrels, cutting down the greatest horsemen in Japan.
The reality was certainly different: To begin with, the Takeda were attacking a fortified position with a numerical disadvantage and no reconnaissance. They numbered roughly 15,000 against the 38,000 of the Oda allied force. In addition to this, the Oda forces had three days to dig in, press-ganging thousands of men to dig trenches and set up fences. The Takeda scouts were eliminated early on, meaning they were not sure of the numbers nor the depth of the defences. The day of the battle, visibility was limited to somewhere around 50 meters due to an intense fog that rolled in (not smoke from gunfire as many like to imagine). There was also a river between the Oda positions and the Takeda starting point. Due to this, the Takeda forces dismounted, and tried to storm the Oda line on foot. Contrary to what Kurosawa would have you envision in his Kagemusha, the Takeda forces had a deal of success. They did breach the first line, but were not prepared for a defense in depth. Fortunately for them however, due to inclement weather the Oda gunners had very little success at the beginning of the battle; matchlocks don’t work with wet powder. What saved the Oda line was the one thing they should be well known for: spearmen. While many like to think of Nobunaga as the great gun tactician, the reality is that the man was brilliant in his employment of disciplined ashigaru spear lines utilizing long pikes rather than the shorter fighting spears predominant at the time.
The final nail in the coffin in dispelling the myth of Nagashino is the number of gunners present. It has been considered an indisputable fact until the last couple of decades that there were 3,000 gunners present. New research has revealed that the original 16th century chronicler, Ota Guichi, who was a retainer of Oda Nobunaga, recorded 1,000 gunners present at the battle. In an army of 38,000 men, this is a far below average ratio of gunners. In fact, evidence has been found showing that an Edo transcriber changed the number to 3,000, and most likely intentionally so. The motive is simple: with the Tokugawa ruling over Japan, exaggerating their contribution to the battle (as it was the Tokugawa who provided the majority of the gunner contingent) was in the interests of the transcriber.
Credit then for the revolution in firearms usage that occurred in 16th century Japan must be given to the ranks of the Ikko Ikki, and not to Oda Nobunaga, at least when talking about central Japan. There are even earlier innovators of firearm usage in Kyushu among the Shimazu and Otomo, with numbers of gunners that dwarf those present at Nagashino.
I would like to summarize finally with a quote from Mitsuo Kure that sums it up perfectly: “What was the most important lesson of Nagashino? Nothing more revolutionary than that an outnumbered force cannot break into a well fortified and strongly defended position. Neither Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokugawa Ieyasu or Takeda Katsuyori ever mentioned any particularly effective use of arquebuses, because the deployment of concentrated firepower was nothing new in Japanese tactics”.
For further reading, Dr. Mitsuo Kure has a great section on Nagashino in his book Samurai: An Illustrated History. Dr. Stephen Turnbull’s Samurai Warfare has the final chapter devoted to the siege of Nagashima and goes into great detail. For information on the “monk snipers” of the Negoro-ji, the best info can be found in Father Caspar Vilela’s notes taken when he visited their monastery (if you can find it)."
One topic I think would be interesting would be discussing about the positive aspects of warriors like knights and samurai. There is a popular trend on the internet where many view these warriors as 100% ruthless and uncaring towards those who were not their superior, even less so with those who were not on their side in conflicts (like peasants of the enemy). I'd like to think that there were warriors who were more compassionate towards the weak, dislike unnecessary bloodshed, etc. I think it is about time we look at the brighter aspects of bygone civilizations so we can learn from them, not just from the negative aspects.
Hi Metatron, I was playing Ghost of Tsushima recently and I noticed that there were stones on the roofs of the buildings. Do you know if this is something they did historically? If so why and did they do this elsewhere?
I have seen these stones im hundreds of different japanese games/animes so they are probably historical.
I have no idea what they are for though :(
Wikipedia said they put stones on top of the roof to prevent the thin wooden shingles from flying away in wind.
Incase he doesn't see it, I believe this was done to prevent the roof tiles from blowing off or getting knocked off. Iron was somewhat scarce in Japan and so iron nails were quite uncommon. Putting stones on the roof fulfills the same purpose at virtually zero cost.
It's done in Bavaria too
@@7zness Thanks. That makes a lot of sense.
Wow I didn't know that peasant farmers were higher regarded than merchants and artisans; and the reason for it makes actually a lot of sense!
Same as confusious (I can't spell) put merchant last because of the same reason
After the reformation, all samurais were banned. Merchants became a higher social class after that
That might sound strange, but the volume of rice harvest was used to measure how rich a Daimyo was. Simply put, it translated directly into money. So the farmers having such a high standing makes sense.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think a Koku coin once represented enough rice a human needs to survive one year.
That is, if you don't go mad from eating just rice with nothing else, no fish, no spices, no vegetables or fruits. Just rice three times a day.
Actually it was Toyotomi Hideyoshi who first introduced the strict class system in Japan.
I'm curious, did something happen to your other suit of Japanese armor? I swear I haven't seen it in one of your videos in quite some time.
Cool!
found my fav channel
Hello Metatron! Thank you for the video. For me it was quite surprising that in feudal Japan peasants > craftsman > merchants. I would have thought the other way around: merchants > craftsman > peasants anytime other then the darkest days of the late 16th-early 17th century feudal war (7 samurays movie is about). But even at that time craftsman make weapons to take food by force. Also, as in any other feudal stratified society, if a person is challenged by a lower rank person, the higher rank person may simply refuse to duel.
Where did you get the Japanese style matchlock, and is it functional?
This was a very well made video, with tons of interesting information and zero cringe. Thank you
hey metatron, as a video suggestion: could you analyze the character Vergil (who wields a katana) from the Devil May Cry games, now they are fantasy, but if you find the time and are interested, it'd be interesting to see if there's any realism in the character's fighting style with the Katana
Rafaello, are there any indices of how did the Japanese look upon after-battle looting (say, by ashigaru) and using this kind of equipment in the next battle?
Hello from France I like your videos I just subscribe recently. By the way where did you get this Japanese armour? I would like the same.
Iron mountain armory :)
@@metatronyt thank you for your respond keep the good work I am starting to be a big fan. hope you will come in France wee have a lot of castle and there is a lot in my region.
Your majesty, can you make a video about Julius Caesar as well ?
Can we see a video on historical prevalence of armour nipple rings?
Early classical greeks and Sengoku Jidai period japan, both put the merchants at the bottom xD smart.
"Merchant are the lowest cast of the society." Chuckle in peace time and American trade.
Idk man, retail workers ain't exactly rich and powerful
@@Sk0lzky Merchants of that age would be akin to the business owner or trade tradesmen which are occupying the top wealthiest men's list even nownday.
@@vacuousbard6410 except they'd often deal directly with the client and physically travel with their goods
One of the problems this caused was later on was the merchants becoming wealthy and so richer and more powerful than people "above" them. When the reality of the social system doesn't match how it is supposed to work people start to question it.
@Jo Jo in a feudal system the merchants aren't the parasites. They at least either create things or employ people. Its the nobility who taxes the farmers and recruit the to go to war. In both Europe and Japan the rise in wealth an power of the merchant class lead to increased social mobility and helped loosen and ultimately undermine the feudal system. Not to say they were all good people or didn't exploit others but compared to the rest the gross injustice of the feudal system hardly the worse.
5:15 I am impressed at the causality implied here, and I'm also afraid you got your names confused. I think you say Toyotomi Hedeyoshi when you meant Ishida Mitsunari.
Toyotomi died in 1598 while Sekigahara took place in 1600. It was Hideyoshi's son Hideyori (then 8 years old) who was displaced. Both Toyotomi and Ishida were lowborn so the class points made stand of course.
However:
While I agree that Tokugawa may have wanted to make an example of Ishida, and I acknowledge that you mentioned that this was a trend that was finalized, I think it needs to be particularly emphasized that the major 'origin' or impetus for this class system was pushed by Toyotomi himself. Popular opinion has it that Toyotomi was aware that he rose from the humblest of origins and reached the peak of power in Japan. More than simply being impressed with himself, Toyotomi feared literally anyone could follow in his footsteps and usurp him. To protect himself and his newly found clan he instituted a system whereby a challenge to his power could never arise, it being easier to keep a few hundred warring clans in line than literally hundreds of thousands of individual people.
According to tradition Toyotomi was born nameless (or without a surname at least) and took the name Kinoshita Tokichiro when he entered service to the Imagawa clan as a servant.
When he entered service to the Oda clan he did so as an ashigaru and rose through Nobunaga's ranks until he became a general, eventually taking a new name, Hashiba Hideyoshi. -
After seizing power in the wake of Oda Nobunaga's murder, Toyotomi unified his powerbase and ascended to the rank of Kampaku (Imperial Regent), at which point the royal court formally renamed his clan from Hashiba to Toyotomi.
In my opinion as Toyotomi moved forward, constantly renaming himself he distanced himself from his past and the people he came from. As a true opportunist and usurper he would have no sympathy for the class of his birth - I rather doubt he could be said to have had sympathy for anyone - and so thought nothing about the benefits and costs of hereditary aristocracy vs a military meritocracy, only the benefit the government he created would have for himself and maybe his heir and descendants.
Whether Tokugawa was someone who genuinely cared about class and the nobility or superiority of birth, or whether he was simply a man as ambitious as Toyotomi in his own right and played the 'samurai-born over peasant-born' card because he could, or whether he simply continued the class system he inherited from Toyotomi for the sake of continuity and stability is something I don't think we'll ever know.
EDITED for clarity and grammar. idk what FB comments and autocorrect did here but it seems my rough draft was fused with the final one.
this. I believe Toyotomi Hideyoshi died during his campaign on Korea. so he couldn't possibly fight in Sekigahara. I also read that (Turnbull something, forget the exact author name) it's Hideyoshi who begin to limit the peasant possibility to rise in the ranks as well. though, I believe you meant to write "Ishida" there, and not Ishira.
@@alifkazeryu8228 Yeah. I revised my comment for accuracy a few times and idk what FB comments and autocorrect did here but it seems my rough draft was fused with the final one. I've edited my comment but at this stage I'm afraid it's left as an incomprehensible mess :(
@@mandragoradravgis incomprehensible? FAR FROM IT. there's only one typo there, and R and D isn't even that far away in QWERTY keyboard, so typo is possible.
@@alifkazeryu8228 lol, you're too kind. But there was a huge gaffe where my summary of Toyotomi's service to the Oda had a completely deleted sentence reinserted below. Goes to show the limits of cut and paste I guess.
I've always wanted to know this
Awesome
do a video about angampora please.
I like that you mention Nagashino, a battle decided by guns
Where can i get hema/imcf grade samurai armor??
I wonder why there is not much info about the "recycling" of the armor after a battle. I imagine there must have been a whole industry of vultures that will collect the intact armor of soldiers after a battle? what happens with the armor of enemies after a victory? Just melt into ingots? or reused immediately by lower-class soldiers?
Always wanted to know too
one problem, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had already passed away by Sekigahara, the Battle of Sekigahara was between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari.
Great teaching I’m a big fan of samurais and knights
I have an off topic question I haven’t been able to figure out, did knights of the 15th century maybe have butted mail? I know it’s controversial but wouldn’t it make sense to have butted mail on sections of body that couldn’t be covered by plate? I saw one gauntlet that had a mail mitten with it that wasn’t riveted so I was wondering if the mail is only covering a small part of the body, can it be butted historically ?
Love any channel that loves Mount&Blade
One thing though:
Sekigahara was a battle between Ieyasu and Hideyori, not Hideyoshi.
As to the standing of peasants and such before Edo, although you're right that it wasn't as strict,
we can't forget such actions as the infamous "sword hunt", i.e. confiscation of swords from non-samurai, done by none other, than the low-born Hideyoshi.
I like to draw a parallel - as much as Elizabeth I was a rare example of a woman with absolute power, who made sure no other woman ever gets as much power, same goes for Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was a low-born regent and made sure no other low-born man ever gets as much power as he did.
Finally, a historical "What-if" that Actually happened.
A lot, actually.
8:00 and this right here is where the concept of the anime nobunaGun came to be
Metatron, what is the most common army set up in the sengoku jidai era? Ive often read stories and documentaries but they dnt seem to enlighten that part of the battle. Mostly its romantisized the battles but doesnt exactly pertain to unit and army compositions.
Social stratification under Tokugawa Shagunate was not 士>農>工>商, but 士>農,工,商. The latest academic consensus is that a strict distinction existed between the samurais and the commoners. I wasn't taught that way in school, but come to think of it, I have heard of wealthy commoners buying the status of samurai, but never of people buying the status of farmer.
Sekigahawa being fought between Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi; oops, this is a big factual error. The causus belli was probably not the clash of two powerful clans, yet. Ieyasu and Mitsunari fought over the protectorship of Hideyori, the posthumous son of Hideyoshi. The war is now largely considered as an in-fight within a powerful samurai administration.
I gotta say I am mostly into Roman history and middle ages history but this made me want to look more into Japanese history. What a different culture.
how many types of yari were there? might make an interesting topic for even a five minute clip
@Kaiser Franz von Lappen der 2. IIRC Bardiche are more closer to Dane axes than something like a Fauchard or Partisan.
A lot, Ive counted close to 30 different types in my personal research. Theres even axe/soear hybrids almost like halberds. Theres a picture on my Instagram of some of these Yari on my Instagram of the same name as my channel.
You could do the same comparison between an infantry soldier and a knight. Thanks
Can you do one on spartan vs samurai I know it's different ages but I do believe it would be a great match up
Does anyone know the dementions of a yari ashigaru helmet. The farmer style one. I know they are smaller than a farmer one, but does anyone knoe the dementions?
Metatron you said that you would play assassins creed Valhalla on your historical evaluation of the cinematic trailer, you think you could ever post a video of your first impressions or a walkthrough like you did with ghost of Tsushima ?
What is the simulation program called
1. Battle of Sekigahara 1603 was NOT Between Toyotomi Hideyoshi & Ieyasu Toguwa but between Ieyasu & Mitsunari Ishida.
It was happening after Toyotomi's death & was in fact part of the conflict about who will take control of Japan after Hideyoshi.
2. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was newer a shogun (due to him not being born in bushi class or at least not coming from 11th' century Japanese nobility (that in that period was over bushi in class) and whose descendants could claim shogun title (Tokugawa was one of such descendants) )
in practice, he was One ruler of Japan but he was using Taiko title instead.
3. Tokugawa Ieyasu & Toyotomi Hideyoshi actually fight against each other in the Komaki campaign with was a war for inheritance after Oda Nobunaga
where did you get that armor?
Very good video. Could an ashigaru wear a sword if he had the money or they were exclusive for samurais?
8:06
Okay, you lost me at this point, i began imagining a cat army with guns
5:10 Wasn't the battle of Sekigahara Tokugawa Ieyasu vs. Ishida Mitsunari? Or was there a second one with Ieyasu vs Hideyoshi?
no there was only one battle at sekigahara, he is simplyfing it. Mitsunari was a Toyotomi loyalist.
Yes, you are right I did say that he had died on a previous video. On this one, I got carried away and said Hideyoshi meaning his supporters, and forgot to mention that he had died. I apologise for that.
@@ravenstrategist1325 Yes I kind of implied people already knew that because I have mentioned it in previous videos, but it was a long time ago so probably I should have made it more clear :)
@@metatronyt Sekigahara Toyotomi loyalist leader Mitsunari (then after a dispute over a temple bell) 1st battle at Osaka castle (they filled the moats) 2nd battle at Osaka castle (then Tokugawa shogunate)
@@metatronyt Tranquillo,anche I grandi uomini sbagliano di tanto in tanto :)
Sounds somewhat like the dynamic between late-medieval/early Renaissance mercenaries and knights.
Wasn’t Toyotomi Hideyoshi the one who kicked off the move toward a more strict delineation between the warrior (samurai) class and the non-warrior (farmer, artisan, merchant) with his Separation Edict?
Regarding the equipment: Wouldn't an ashigaru be able to just loot some higher quality/more expensive equipment after a battle if he is lucky? After all they already made money through looting, so why not? Or would that be frowned upon?
They would, but it could also be dangerous for them to do so at they same time. If you took someones armour that was important, or displayed a sort of wealth that you were not privy to you could get it taken, then beaten, or just killed on the spot. So you could, but you also had to be modest in what you took, and then that's if your lord permitted you to do so.
1) Were Ashigaru permitted to keep weapons and armor taken from enemy Samurai they killed or captured?
2) I would presume that Ashigaru outnumbered Samurai by a wide margin. In the real world, that would be a major factor, although the use of horses by Samurai would be a significant force multiplier.
Copy and pasting;