DBA Armies

This list covers Japanese armies from the aftermath of the Mongol invasions until the introduction of European firearms and drilled foot. They mostly fought each other. Samurai increasingly fought on foot with the katana sword or the glaive-like naginata. Most wore haramaki armour but later increasingly added arm and thigh armour. Others fought as nobushi foot archers. The first ashigaru “light-feet” commoner infantry were foot archers, but the Onin War 1467-1477 introduced large numbers of fierce but lightly armoured ashigaru armed instead with the 3-4m (10-12’) long yari spear, who later in the 16th century were to evolve into drilled infantry. Those samurai who fought mounted continued to use bow and “tachi” sword instead of yari and were closely followed by retainers mostly armed with naginata. They are best represented as 6Cv with the foot in the back row. The naginata-wielding Sohei monks were as turbulent as before but less impetuous. Ikko Ikki were a mass revolutionary movement based among artisans from the “temple towns” around Honganji temples. Samurai opposing them were sometimes assisted by town militia that central government thought almost equally seditious. Generals often now directed their armies seated in the rear protected by bodyguards on foot and are then treated as CP. References: Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior 1200-1877 AD T. D. Conlan, Samurai Mitsuo Kure, Battles of the Samurai S. Turnbull.