The Forgotten Ashigaru,Samurai are the rock stars of Medieval Japan, and their exploits are legendar

The Forgotten Ashigaru,Samurai are the rock stars of Medieval Japan, and their exploits are legendary not only in Japanese history but modern pop culture. Less celebrated are the ashigaru, the average footsoldiers who made up the bulk of Japanese armies during the Middle Ages. While samurai were brave, well trained, and well equipped warriors, they were also nobles who made up a small percentage of the Japanese population and could not populate large armies. The ashigaru were the rank and file soldiers commanded by Samurai who basically did most of the fighting and dying in Medeival Japanese warfare.The ashigaru originated in the late 14th and 15th century as the various wars between feudal lords became especially heated. Before then, daimyo lords and samurai conscripted peasants from their lands to fight in their armies. Often these peasant soldiers had no training and were armed only with the tools and implements they used for farming. Wars were typically short since when the growing season came, the peasants would need to go home in order to tend their farms. With the increasing amount of warfare in the 14th and 15th century, daimyo lords realized that they could gain an advantage by maintaining a full time  standing army composed of well equipped, well trained professional soldiers. Unlike earlier conscripted peasants, the were paid to be soldiers and warfare was their sole profession.The ashigaru were armed with many of the same weapons as the samurai, to the dismay of many samurai at the time. At first daimyo lords equipped their ashigaru with the simplest and cheapest weapons possible. However, daimyo lords would eventually realize that the better they armed their ashigaru, the more effective they became. Typically the ashigaru was equipped with a yari (spear) or naginata (a bladed polearm) a bow, and a sword. While ashigaru were heavily armed, typically their weapons were of lesser quality than that of their samurai commanders. This was especially true of their armor. While samurai had suits of armor specifically fitted to each individual, ashigaru armor was typically munitions grade “one size fits all” mass produced armor that offered less protection. One weapon that was especially popular among the ashigaru was the firearm. Firearms had been introduced to Japan by the Portuguese in 1543 and quickly became the common weapon of the ashigaru. It’s a myth that samurai were forbidden from using firearms, some samurai adopted the new technology and used them in battle. However most samurai chose not to use firearms as they were not nearly as effective as bows of the era in terms of accuracy, rate of fire, range, and reliability. However the economics of the firearm made it the perfect weapon for the ashigaru. While a samurai would spend a lifetime to become a master archer, due to the simplicity of the matchlock arquebus, an ashigaru could be recruited and trained to be an effective musketeer in a matter of weeks. And boy howdy did the Japanese use their firearms! By the late 16th century, firearm use equaled or exceeded the use of firearms by European armies.One notable example was that of Lord Oda Nobunaga’s ashigaru, whose use of matchlocks fired in volleys allowed him to defeat army after army and become one of the most powerful Japanese lords in history.  By the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1597 the gun to bow ratio of Japanese armies was around 4 to 1.  Eventually the ashigaru became an informal social class unto itself much like the more formal samurai.  For many peasants, becoming an ashigaru was a rare way to become upwardly mobile in Medieval Japanese society. Much to the chagrin of the samurai, successfully ashigaru blurred the line between samurai and commoners, becoming just as wealthy and powerful while enjoying the same privileges. One ashigaru was so successful he became master of Japan. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born to a peasant family 1537 and later joined the armies of Oda Nobunaga. During his military career, he would climb the ranks from a common soldier to an officer, then a general, then became de facto ruler of Japan after Nobunaga’s death.The end of the ashigaru began in 1600 with the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate and unification of Japan.  With the sudden outbreak of peace, there simply was no longer a need for Japanese nobles to recruit and maintain permanent standing armies. Under the Tokugawa system most ashigaru became samurai, and the Japanese class system was frozen so that no other commoners could climb the social ladder like the ashigaru had done before. -- source link

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