Something I want to add to point 4: another reason for this misconception is simply the fact that wooden castles and fortifications would deteriorate faster, leaving an impression nowadays that all castles were these huge stone structures. Azuchi ruins can still be seen nowadays for example. This is something European history suffers with as well, probably most lower class nobles would simply have wooden forts/keeps as that's all they could afford, none of these exist now however as they have all rotted away by now leaving nothing behind.
Should also remember that even Stone castles have wooden extensions to them, that have deteriorated with age. When modern people try to restore old castles, they often forget to rebuild wooden sections of those stone castles, or make them extremely simplified compared to how they probably actually were.
Wooden castles made more sense for Japan too. Prone to earthquakes, a wooden castle would likely have a bit more flex to it, whereas a pure stone castle would likely have collapsed. Europe didn't have to deal with earthquakes to such an extent as Japan so their stone castles had a greater chance to remain standing
Exactly. Considering also from stories like Sunomata Castle, legend has it that Hideyoshi manage to build it within days and shock the Saito retainers. If you think rock castle it what they build. Yes you would think that was really impossible. But if it is a simple wooden fortification. While still a heavy task, it still plausible to do that
To this day, Norwegian Stave churches still remain as *SOME* of the most well kept wooden structures in history. They even have a few design similarities with Samurai Castles, lol.
As always I get entertainment and education in equal measure with your videos. I enjoy learning stuff about this period of Japanese history and well you always deliver. The idea that all Daimyo wanted to be Shogun is probably the most misunderstood. They all started off as wanting to be a big fish in a small pond. However, if circumstances presented themselves they choose to become the big fish in a bigger pond. Imagine Toyotomi Hideyoshi the peasant, saying I'm going to be Kampaku of Japan. Some lowly samurai would have ended his existence for such arrogance, long before he ever gained any power. The biggest myth was loyalty to one's lord was absolute. It was, until it wasn't, as all of the major samurai changed loyalties when it suited them, or they felt forced to. There were some who at some point in their lives decided their oath of loyalty was more important than their lives, which made them famous because it was so rare.
I agree with you but when it comes to loyalty, we should remember that most of the time the low-rank and poor samurai did follow their lords. Their lord could betray his master (lets say a general who betrayed a daimyo), but his average rank and file soldiers would follow him in his betrayal because they were directly subordinate to him, not to his former master.
Misconception 2: You did not mention that you have the same effect for maps of Europe: Germany was several hundred individual princes and thousands of little imperial knights. France was not one conglomerate but about a dozen larger things that had the same king. Only england was *kind of* monolithic. Misconception 3: GUNS! the late Sengoku Jidai is all about guns.... and spear, because naginata was outdated. Misconception 4: Castles are often not to scale... because outer ramparts are lost first. That happened too in Europe. On the other hand, the rise of plains castles compared to mountain castles *also* can be seen in Europe: the rise of Starforts in flat terrain was a direct result of gunpowder... Misconception 5: The sengoku jidai was a row of individual wars, not one great free-for-all. Some areas did not encounter war for decades, especially the island and northern provinces, others did not get much calm time, especially the Kanto region.
"and spear, because naginata was outdated." The naginata was NEVER outdated. It is however MORE EXPENSIVE than a spear. It was a common practice to use the blades from broken katanas just to make naginatas less expensively. Generally, a naginata is on the contrary superior to a spear. However, while used en masse by formations of soldiers, unless the soldiers are highly trained, much of the advantage of the naginata is minimized or outright nullified by the tight formations required(while optimal use of a naginata needs a slightly looser formation), leaving the troops with a weapons with only a tiny advantage, in return for being much more expensive to make, especially if there is a lack of recent wars to pick up broken katana blades from. "GUNS! the late Sengoku Jidai is all about guns...." Yes, but also sort of no. Under the right commander, guns could be very effective, and in some battles absolutely were very much so. Guns did not however rule uncontested. And there are examples of even commanders that were good with musketeers, that were caught out in bad circumstance, mostly by an opponent who refused to fight until it was a rainy day, making it extremely hard for gunners to keep their powder dry or even shoot at all at worst. OTOH, Japan had the advantage of learning from what later essentially became the Dutch/Swedish school of musket warfare, which were ahead of their time, and they did so to a large extent by seeing Oda Nobunaga pioneer their use very effectively despite the many issues the new weapons had, especially early attempts at massproduced guns by Japanese weapon makers. They simply did not have the preceding knowledge needed, and the problem with Japan's overall poor quality iron deposits only made matters worse. So, while they had some of the best musketeer tacticians in the world at the time, they also commonly had some of the absolute worst muskets. There was also a strong cultural issue. The very basics of musket and cannon warfare is that everything can be massproduced. The guns can be massproduced, the power likewise and the bullets are so simple to make that troops often remade bullet over campfires. But most importantly, training a decent musketeer took a few months, while training a decent archer took several years. Musket warfare was literally like made to be fought by the nonwarrior classes of people. Yet at the same time, many samurai were very interested, which ended up resulting in tinkering, generating all kinds of weird adaptations of firearms, like guns with several barrels, IIRC the most extreme one i've seen had 7 barrels in a rotating arrangement, around a doublesized "mini-cannon" in the center. How anyone could fire the center weapon is a mystery, but all kinds of similar strange variants were built. So, there was a definite bit of "muskets are for peasants, THESE are for warriors" thing. Oh, and another reason why it was not all about guns is simply because while trade with Europeans brought in large numbers of muskets as well as spread more knowledge about how to make them effectively and reliably(not to mention how to make black powder in large amounts without blowing themselves up in the process), the simply fact was that the above mentioned problems with domestic production meant that guns were never as "cheap" as they were in Europe. The sengoku jidai somewhat APPEARS to be "all about guns" because the increased trade(and hence a greater availabbility of imported guns) and more and more Japanese smiths figuring out increasingly more about what was needed to make guns reliably, which resulted in a distinct drop in price(they were still expensive, just not nearly THAT expensive) coincided to generate a great increase in guns in the Japanese armies over a comparatively short time. Basically, they changed how much of each type of equipped weapons their troops had in less than 50 years, as what it took Europe something like 150 years at minimum and possibly even more than 300 years. But in the end, a large portion of all armies remained the common and basic ashigaru spearman. Worth noting that some daimyo did try to slimline their troops by cutting away as much as possible of other troops. They found out the hard way that this was a bad idea.
This is also one of reason there are conspiracies such as the shadow shogun (Kagemusha) or something. Since many believes that Ieyasu was quite strict in terms of meals
I’m so glad you brought up how the spear, not the sword, just like in all cultures was king on the battlefield (except maybe Rome). I honestly believe if the sengoku jidai had gone on for more decades than it had, Japanese warfare would’ve looked exactly like European pike and shot
You could argue that even for Romans, the most important weapon was the pilum, not the sword. There are cultures though which placed more emphasis on bow than the spear, like Parthians, Koreans, pre-Sengoku Japanese and basically everyone from the Steppes.
I agree, spear was important, heck recently someone (one of those vids where a specialist is analyzing historicall accuracies and inaccuracies in movies) mentioned that swords were not that popular as movies try to convince us. Spear was great for common soldiers, knights on horsebacks were equipped liek smore armouries, with hammers and maces etc to get through the layers of steel. But sword fights are more cinematic :) PS: I am definitely sure that I might be still incorrect in my statment, but it definitely made me think more about how warfare loked like and how many weird or false ideas i have them as a simple amateur.
When you think that logicaly,, best weapon is the one that can kill enemies afar while not harming yourself. I would say that, of course Pikes, Bows, and Guns are actually the most popular comparing to say, sword. Basically, sword to Samurai is like Pistols to today's army. It's a backup weapon and You will use it when you really had no options
@@Dfathurr "Basically, sword to Samurai is like Pistols to today's army. It's a backup weapon and You will use it when you really had no options" No. The sword for a samurai was a status symbol first of all. The origin of samurai is the armored mounted archer. That was THE way samurai began. But both the armor and the horse are expensive to aquire and maintain. While to be an effective warrior like that, took great skill, requiring lots of training, leaving little time for other things. Hence came the bushi warrior class, who became rulers of tiny fiefs in return for always being ready to provide a heavy mounted archer to their liege lord. The sword(s) was a way to show that they were one of the few privileged elite warriors. Becoming expert users of said swords came as a result of basically not wanting to be useless with the very symbol of their superiority. The bow however mostly remained the primary weapon. Likewise, the spear became the common weapon of war, while the sword became the weapon of personal honor.
I think a huge reason why simplified maps are used, is what strategy gamers call 'Border Gore', the more realistic maps are just not pretty to look at.
#1 is really a matter of nuance, it's still essentially where the clans wanted to "be" the Shogun, by puppetting whoever was in charge. They didn't need to hold the title directly.
I have heard that warrior monks using naginata might be a modern myth, or rather a missunderstanding. The famous sohei with headscarf and big naginata is taken from artoworks of the 12th-14th century mainly, and dissapear after that. It is likely that ikko ikki and other later warrior monks did not look like this. But using the few remaining medieval artworks left, people created a false image of what Sengoku era warrior monks were like, or so it seems.
that would be cool if you made a video on the myths of nagashino. like how the Takeda samurai charged on foot and not on horseback, and that there wasn't many guns there.
Yeah, Nagashino was not won because of the guns nor thr number of how many but because of Nobunagas quite extensive field fortifications which drove the Takeda into making mistakes, it also helped that the weather before Nagashino covered his armies movements from the Takeda.
After watched the 4th misconceptions. May I suggest The Shogunate to cover about Sengoku iconic castles? Such as Odawara, Osaka, or Ueda. To know the facts and characteristics about those castles, more we can comprehend the historical occurence like the Sanada defence againts Hidetada's troops
I think there is ONE strategy game that attempt to use the Francisco1530 map. A game called "Sengoku Jidai" by Paradox Interactive (who is famous for making grand strategy games), it basically a resource gathering game and will take almost forever to play it. Honestly, spears has always been the main weapon in all culture and countries, it not only with the Samurai favorite weapon, even European knights, Middle Eastern warriors, African tribal warriors and of course Asia as well. Spears is basically what we call "Rifle" in modern warfare while sword is your pistol. I think I saw a graph from another website where they put the list of weapons that most soldiers died during Sengoku. No surprise that most death and injuries was caused by Yari spears, second place was Arrows from the Yomi and third was katana swords. Teppu death was on 4th place as not many lords in the early to middle stage of Sengoku used it. Forgot to mention that sengoku period also made the samurai took up new "hobbies" and culture, like appreciating tea ceremony culture and made it their own Japanese style due to Sen No Rikyu
@@shinsenshogun900 I think it mostly due to that Heart of Irons is much more recognizable as it is WW2. I mean Japanese Sengoku period is still a "niche" market or a specific interest to people like us and like Shogunate interested in.
The spear and pike worked for the Greeks, Macedoneans, Romans and Swiss. Collectively that's what, 1K years of battlefield superiority? And since they were opposing similar armor and weapons, it had to be the case in Japan.
@@recoil53 Spears and pikes (and any sort of piercing pole arms) works well against cavalrymen and defenseless lightly armored infantries, but is it well worth wielding such cumbersome weapons in any situation and setting of the battlefields, such as naval boarding actions or cramped siege assaults in tight alleys? And Roman legions are more renowned to wield short swords and towering shields more than being remembered bearing lances against barbarian horsemen in their final imperial years in the west. The Chinese are renowned to be a civilization with a vast array of pole-arm types and martial arts, yet how did that fare well after centuries of internal infighting and external invasions? Weapons alone cannot prove who stands tall in the end of battles, it’d be wit, luck, intelligence, and sheer power to even render entire hegemons and empires effectively ruined, such as Sparta’s, Macedon’s, Rome’s, Switzerland’s, China’s, and any old empires’ many demises.
I agree wholeheartedly with number one, but I do think we should take it the easiest on this one and not let it ruin artistic romanticizing of the period provided we recognize the romanticizing for what it is. With the spread of Confucian ideals that came married to Chinese Buddhism, and despite the weak nature of the Ashikaga clan, there surely was a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding politics. I would imagine any warlord who did not publicly shy away from any sort of ambition in the direction of becoming Shogun would have been seen as defying the will of the heavens and chided by court daimyo, immediately finding himself on the receiving end of the machinations of the ruling clans (plural because, puppet dictator behind an even more puppet emperor). While such actions could not guarantee a warlord from expanding, they could potentially create alliances of smaller regional warlords to halt it or at least make it more challenging, expending resources and making one think twice before coming for Kyoto. All that being said, I feel as though many of the stories of this Sengoku age are so romanticized, though, because of parallels to Sangokushi (Three Kingdoms period of the fall of the later Han) stories that would not have been entirely foreign to these warlords. While it is noble that clans like the Mori and Hojo never set their sights on Kyoto, Liu Bei never set his on Luoyang, either...until he did. I highly doubt any warlord capable and ambitious enough to expand their region would throw away the opportunity if a path opened to ascension without upsetting the political balance in an insurmountable way, so maybe we can cut a break to number one.
golly,the dedication of that map is just incredible. Would love to see it being translated into english.😮 or bite the bullet and start learning kanji i guess,whichever one is quicker🤣
The number 1 is a myth I actually never thought of until now. It's interesting than number 2 is originated rather by a matter of practicity (That map! I think it could have take weeks or even months to complete it!). In number 3... for reason, I don't imagine naginata as the primary spear weapon, but the jumonji yari XD XD Probably because of Yukimura. I think there is a misconception about Japanese spears as well: I think much people imagine spears being less than 2 meters long, when in reality it was normal seeing spears surpass that length, and even 6 meters long spears were so common! But I don't understand what it could be the case: it's difficult to imagine how such a overly long weapon can be practical in the first place, but that is because they have many uses apart from being just a weapon.
It's difficult to imagine an 18 ft pike is practical? Alexander built an empire around a core of Macedoneon pikemen and the Swiss did well as mercenaries with them. If my reading is correct, the debate in the sengoku period was if the 2 meter or 6 meter spear was better. If you think about it, all the tactical elements are the same as the Eurasian fighting - the technology is roughly the same level. And it's been shown that organized groups of spearmen hold their own against cavalry, good armor does well against archers, and swords are mostly a secondary weapon.
There are two types of spears, short one and longer one. The short one is for stabbing and is easier to imagine. The longer one is mainly used to hit the enemies by holding it high over the head.
Why was the Naginata phased out? I have no idea personally, but if I were to guess: it has more emphasis on cutting and slashing rather than thrusting. Making it useful for a single person perhaps, but for a unit of soldier in formation, they don't have the same room to do big, slashing movements, making the yari more optimal.
Thrusting is easier than slashing with a polearm, which is a big deal when the main focus of warfare moves away from warrior nobles to peasant foot soldiers.
I really enjoy watching your videos on Japan’s history. Not much is taught in school on Japan and it was the one country I wanted to know about. The disciplines of the sexes and what is expected over the years is so interesting and how it shows up in the arts and hand crafts that were made.
6:09 I can't believe Zelda's Dad's clan used to rule part of Japan. It sounds like Sengoku Japan was basically just like the Holy Roman Empire, but somehow even less tidy
I feel like every one of these myths could apply to pretty much every part of the world during the Medieval period, from Western Europe to the Middle East to everywhere else. Especially Myth 5, 2 and 3.
If I may add one more misconception, Sengoku Jidai is one of the eras when the Japanese population increased. although it was the era when people tried to kill each other.
Point 2: It's been a while since I delved into period history but weren't the governors usually appointed from the clans that were predominant in that province? And wasn't there a governor in the capital and an assistant governor who actually governed in the province who had all the power in reality?
Not especially, most claims to the land were nobles who were appointed by the Ashikaga Shogunate as protectors of a province or district and then when the Ashikaga shogunate began to lose power those clans that had been appointed protectors just said, "this is my land now, what are you going to do about it?" In simple terms. A famous example governers of a district in one lord's province being allied with a lord in another province is the Hachisuka clan who lived in Oda's Owari province but were loyal to Dosan Saito of Mino province. They fought in the Saito civil war on Dosan's side and fought on Oda's side when Nobunaga invaded Mino due to their grudge with Yoshitatsu. They then continued to fight on Oda's side but were technically an independent kokujin in Owari Province who were eventually officially appointed Awa province.
@@S4ltyTar0 I thought the shogun appointed governors but those governors stayed w/ the shogun in the military capital and his 2nd was sent in the governors name to actually directly govern. And the gist of the sengoku jidai was that these assistant samurais sensed weakness and seized power in the provinces.
People seem to think it would be uncool to consider the presence of firearms in Japanese history. On the contrary, the relationship of Japan with firearms is way cooler and more interesting than its relationship with swords could ever be.
Japan had a custom of keeping records of soldiers' wounds and causes of death on the battlefield. Thomas D. Conlan created statistical data from many records. His statistics conclude that katanas and spears killed more and bows and arrows hurt more. Naginata is a swinging weapon, so in group battles naginata will hurt allies. After the 14th century, the naginata was not often used in mass battlefields. The period when spears were popular on the battlefields of Japan was from the late Sengoku period (around 1540) to the peace after Genna era (1615). During the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, Nobunaga Oda first used guns as his main weapon. In the Edo period, the Neo-Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan (1583- 1657) argued that guns were not suitable for samurai philosophy and that guns were the weapons of low-ranking soldiers, and forced the samurai to abandon their guns. There are many records of katana in China and Korea. Chinese Ming Dynasty General Qi Jiguang (1528-1588)" It is difficult to approach with my soldier's sword, it is too late with a spear, and if we encounter them, everyone will be cut off and killed. This is because their weapons are sharp and they are free to use powerful and heavy swords that can be swung with both hands. " "For Japanese, a fowling gun from a distance is effective. But the Japanese have absolutely no fear and charge at point blank range where they can attack or stab. It also takes time while our gunners load their bullets, That's why Our soldiers often allow them to approach. We cannot stop their momentum. Japanese swordsmanship is light and long, Our gunners move too slowly after allowing them to approach. Therefore, we should equip ourselves with Japanese-style long swords." 明 戚继光 纪效新书 此自倭犯中國始有之。彼以此跳舞、光閃而前、我兵已奪氣矣。倭善躍、一迸足則丈餘、刀長五尺、則丈五尺矣。我兵短器難接、長器不捷、遭之者身多兩斷、縁器利而雙手使、用力重故也。 今如獨用則無衛、惟鳥銃手賊遠發銃、賊至近身再無他器可以攻刺、如兼殺器則銃重藥子又多、勢所不能、惟此刀輕而且長、以備臨身棄銃用此。況有殺手當鋒、故用長刀備之耳。 Korean History Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty (1413)"Japanese soldiers wielded their long katanas and rushed sharply left and right, their sharp attacks invincible." 朝鮮王朝実録 天兵短劍、騎馬, 無火器, 路險泥深, 不能馳騁, 賊奮長刀, 左右突鬪, 鋒銳無敵。
The easiest takeaway I've learned about the Samurai and Bushido is that they really did like associating with the ideas of Bushido and general honor amongst warriors. However, as with most things in life, hardly any of them walked the walk and almost all of them took down their enemies by any means necessary no matter how dishonorable. The only real way to live by a code of honor as a military who didn't provoke war is to set forth some fair ground rules to the enemy as a final threat. If they don't respect an honorable way to settle things in a fair fight, even if it's to the death, or they cheat, then that threat must include the ultimatum of brutal slaughter without mercy down to the last resistance no matter what. That way, if and when the enemy uses dishonorable means, you can go full ham on them without a shred of restraint and maintain your own honor.
Why would the yari be considered more versatile than the naginata? Both can thrust, while the naginata has greater use in sweeping attacks from horseback and more use than the yari in closer combat.
I'm interested in learning about women roles throughout feudal Japan's history. What did they do during wartimes or eras of peace? What notable individuals or groups are there? What activities did they enjoy? And this curiosity applies to any class, including peasants. I think it's important to shed light on what the other half of the population was doing.
Hey bro - quick question about #2: didn't those minor families swear some sort of fealty to a powerful local diamyo anyway? Wouldn't they have just been gobbled up?
My favorite myth of the Sengoku period has to be Takeda blocking Kenshin's blow with a fan. There's even a famous monument of this moment. But real life tells me that a fan has not the strength in mass nor material to block a melee weapon. The fan would be cut clean or even in the case that this fan was made of metal, the poor size and mass would twist the recipient's wrist and the follow through would be as if there was never an object in the path. Even more so, samurai had two swords at all times. Not just in war, they even slept with them. So there's no way that the commander of the opposite army can reach the most important, distant and protected figure on this battlefield, so lighting fast, that he couldn't even unsheathe his sword and had to recur to his fan. This moment in history is a total lie.
I get where you're coming from, but I recommend you watch two videos from the channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" on the subject of tessen. Obviously they would be used in self defense rarely and I agree that the clash between Shingen and Kenshin was likely to be at the very least sensationalized, my point is just to not dismiss the use of metal fans completely.
I do not know if the story is true or not but I can say this. That was an iron-ribbed fan used not for inducing an airflow for cooling but was used as a military leader's fan.
@@NachtKaiser666 I must correct you on that, with a Katana and a Wakizashi attached to your belt at all times, a fan is NEVER used as a self defense item. It's plain stupid, these fans were used for signaling attacks and so. Aside from being against logic, is also against physics, Energy of a blow ( damage ) = Mass x Acceleration. Just do this little experiment. Go to the hardware store, buy a big metal pipe. Cut it into parts, one the size of a Katana and one the size of the fan. Now, put the short one right next to your face and tell someone to swing the long one right into it without holding back. That would give you a idea of how things work on the real world. One of the things I like so much about this channel is how the host is against romanticizing the unreasonable and tries to keep history as accurate and realistic as possible.
Not all Daimyo had the ambition to unite Japan?? So the Japanese warring states was indeed different from the real Warring States Period of ancient China.
I suspect a lot of the Samurai just wanted to stabilize their own little bit of the land and leave something for their heirs,running the whole damned country was probably the last thing on their minds if even at all. Weapons....let's not get into the katana since I grew up in the 80's and was right there when all the bullcrap about that weapon came about LOL! Every other one,yea they like everybody else used spears and bows as the main weapon and the sword was a back up or used for dualing and honor ,later on I'd bet you'd find smaller clans using bows over guns just because they couldn't afford them and maybe even some didn't or wouldn't trust firearms which always happens with new tech. In the end like any period of great change you had people doing things for their own reasons,some were mundane,others roamed into the epic with grand schemes and even grander dreams...and you had the blasted weirdos who probably nobody had a clue what they were up to. What makes history like this fun,you learn,you enjoy and sometimes you wonder just WTF where they doing?
Sengoku means "Warring States" in Japanese so Sengoku Jidai means "Warring States Period". Names for periods/eras sort of just randomly appear and just stick for example WW1 was called the "Great War"(because it was the biggest and most destructive war in history) but then WW2 happened which was way more destructive and "Greater" than WW1 so people started calling the Great War WW1 and the second war WW2
@@TheShogunate The first time i saw it, i got little perplexed. That is something that was never shown or mentioned in pop history, and it was only your videos that i noticed them. Were there any other adornments that we could have missed?
@@TheShogunate- We're those straw capes I keep seeing for warmth? Or protection? Worn over the armour people must have died from heat unless they were located at Hokkaido.
@@TheShogunate - Oh, I see. That makes sense! Now I remember a vintage pic of two little kids wearing braided straw capes on a rainy day. They looked too cute! Thanks for the quick reply and your channel is awesome!
@@jeffreygao3956 is donned armor, adopted and participated in feudal pastimes and customs, gained combat experiences, definitely a samurai retainer of Nobunaga
Nobunaga treated him well simply because he was exotic, no-one had ever seen a black man in Japan before, not because Yasuke himself was a good fighter or anything like that. After Nobunaga's death Yasuke was sold back to the Portuguese.
Three questions 1. What is the meaning of the prefix "go" have seen this in Korean context eg "goryeo and go goryeo"? 2. How well could these castles design by nobunaga withstand sieges? 3. Why were Japaneses introduced to firearms by Europeans and not some Chinese or Korean merchants as they had been using them for some time? Denial of firearms tech to the Japanese.
First we had the myth that samurai were primarily swordsmen. Now we have the myth that samurai were first archers, then moved on to firearms. What actually happened was samurai moved from bows to spears, to swords and finally to firearms. Throughout the entire sengoku most samurai used a spear despite the wide spread availability of firearms and not for any social reason, samurai had no problem using matchlocks and would often practise with them, they'd just usually use a spear over any other weapon, it's only by the 19th century that firearms far outdated spears or bows that samurai always used guns as a primary weapon.
![True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/deV34RTyPO8/mqdefault.jpg)
Something I want to add to point 4: another reason for this misconception is simply the fact that wooden castles and fortifications would deteriorate faster, leaving an impression nowadays that all castles were these huge stone structures. Azuchi ruins can still be seen nowadays for example. This is something European history suffers with as well, probably most lower class nobles would simply have wooden forts/keeps as that's all they could afford, none of these exist now however as they have all rotted away by now leaving nothing behind.
Should also remember that even Stone castles have wooden extensions to them, that have deteriorated with age. When modern people try to restore old castles, they often forget to rebuild wooden sections of those stone castles, or make them extremely simplified compared to how they probably actually were.
Wooden castles made more sense for Japan too. Prone to earthquakes, a wooden castle would likely have a bit more flex to it, whereas a pure stone castle would likely have collapsed.
Europe didn't have to deal with earthquakes to such an extent as Japan so their stone castles had a greater chance to remain standing
Exactly. Considering also from stories like Sunomata Castle, legend has it that Hideyoshi manage to build it within days and shock the Saito retainers. If you think rock castle it what they build. Yes you would think that was really impossible. But if it is a simple wooden fortification. While still a heavy task, it still plausible to do that
To this day, Norwegian Stave churches still remain as *SOME* of the most well kept wooden structures in history. They even have a few design similarities with Samurai Castles, lol.
@@pitaalfereti58 they are so pretty I love them, it's a shame so few exist but they must be costly to maintain so that's understandable
Weebs: Nooo guns are dishonourable
Based Ashigaru reloading his matchlock: Nani?
what a misconception of "Bushido" does to a mf
Not all the Daimyo we’re trying to become Shogun clearly because they were NPC factions not player controlled factions.
As always I get entertainment and education in equal measure with your videos. I enjoy learning stuff about this period of Japanese history and well you always deliver.
The idea that all Daimyo wanted to be Shogun is probably the most misunderstood. They all started off as wanting to be a big fish in a small pond. However, if circumstances presented themselves they choose to become the big fish in a bigger pond. Imagine Toyotomi Hideyoshi the peasant, saying I'm going to be Kampaku of Japan. Some lowly samurai would have ended his existence for such arrogance, long before he ever gained any power.
The biggest myth was loyalty to one's lord was absolute. It was, until it wasn't, as all of the major samurai changed loyalties when it suited them, or they felt forced to. There were some who at some point in their lives decided their oath of loyalty was more important than their lives, which made them famous because it was so rare.
I agree with you but when it comes to loyalty, we should remember that most of the time the low-rank and poor samurai did follow their lords. Their lord could betray his master (lets say a general who betrayed a daimyo), but his average rank and file soldiers would follow him in his betrayal because they were directly subordinate to him, not to his former master.
Bro thank you for making this video. There are still a lot more myths and misconceptions.
💯
Misconception 2: You did not mention that you have the same effect for maps of Europe: Germany was several hundred individual princes and thousands of little imperial knights. France was not one conglomerate but about a dozen larger things that had the same king. Only england was *kind of* monolithic.
Misconception 3: GUNS! the late Sengoku Jidai is all about guns.... and spear, because naginata was outdated.
Misconception 4: Castles are often not to scale... because outer ramparts are lost first. That happened too in Europe. On the other hand, the rise of plains castles compared to mountain castles *also* can be seen in Europe: the rise of Starforts in flat terrain was a direct result of gunpowder...
Misconception 5: The sengoku jidai was a row of individual wars, not one great free-for-all. Some areas did not encounter war for decades, especially the island and northern provinces, others did not get much calm time, especially the Kanto region.
"and spear, because naginata was outdated."
The naginata was NEVER outdated. It is however MORE EXPENSIVE than a spear. It was a common practice to use the blades from broken katanas just to make naginatas less expensively.
Generally, a naginata is on the contrary superior to a spear. However, while used en masse by formations of soldiers, unless the soldiers are highly trained, much of the advantage of the naginata is minimized or outright nullified by the tight formations required(while optimal use of a naginata needs a slightly looser formation), leaving the troops with a weapons with only a tiny advantage, in return for being much more expensive to make, especially if there is a lack of recent wars to pick up broken katana blades from.
"GUNS! the late Sengoku Jidai is all about guns...."
Yes, but also sort of no. Under the right commander, guns could be very effective, and in some battles absolutely were very much so.
Guns did not however rule uncontested. And there are examples of even commanders that were good with musketeers, that were caught out in bad circumstance, mostly by an opponent who refused to fight until it was a rainy day, making it extremely hard for gunners to keep their powder dry or even shoot at all at worst.
OTOH, Japan had the advantage of learning from what later essentially became the Dutch/Swedish school of musket warfare, which were ahead of their time, and they did so to a large extent by seeing Oda Nobunaga pioneer their use very effectively despite the many issues the new weapons had, especially early attempts at massproduced guns by Japanese weapon makers. They simply did not have the preceding knowledge needed, and the problem with Japan's overall poor quality iron deposits only made matters worse.
So, while they had some of the best musketeer tacticians in the world at the time, they also commonly had some of the absolute worst muskets.
There was also a strong cultural issue. The very basics of musket and cannon warfare is that everything can be massproduced. The guns can be massproduced, the power likewise and the bullets are so simple to make that troops often remade bullet over campfires.
But most importantly, training a decent musketeer took a few months, while training a decent archer took several years.
Musket warfare was literally like made to be fought by the nonwarrior classes of people.
Yet at the same time, many samurai were very interested, which ended up resulting in tinkering, generating all kinds of weird adaptations of firearms, like guns with several barrels, IIRC the most extreme one i've seen had 7 barrels in a rotating arrangement, around a doublesized "mini-cannon" in the center. How anyone could fire the center weapon is a mystery, but all kinds of similar strange variants were built.
So, there was a definite bit of "muskets are for peasants, THESE are for warriors" thing.
Oh, and another reason why it was not all about guns is simply because while trade with Europeans brought in large numbers of muskets as well as spread more knowledge about how to make them effectively and reliably(not to mention how to make black powder in large amounts without blowing themselves up in the process), the simply fact was that the above mentioned problems with domestic production meant that guns were never as "cheap" as they were in Europe.
The sengoku jidai somewhat APPEARS to be "all about guns" because the increased trade(and hence a greater availabbility of imported guns) and more and more Japanese smiths figuring out increasingly more about what was needed to make guns reliably, which resulted in a distinct drop in price(they were still expensive, just not nearly THAT expensive) coincided to generate a great increase in guns in the Japanese armies over a comparatively short time. Basically, they changed how much of each type of equipped weapons their troops had in less than 50 years, as what it took Europe something like 150 years at minimum and possibly even more than 300 years.
But in the end, a large portion of all armies remained the common and basic ashigaru spearman.
Worth noting that some daimyo did try to slimline their troops by cutting away as much as possible of other troops. They found out the hard way that this was a bad idea.
My favorite myth is that Tokugawa Ieyasu died because he ate too much tempura😂
So basically fried food => cholesterol => heart attack?
A death to emulate Chen Deng’s… (fatal seafood hours)
This is also one of reason there are conspiracies such as the shadow shogun (Kagemusha) or something. Since many believes that Ieyasu was quite strict in terms of meals
Lucky him I take one bite and I'm dead 🤣
This is the wildest myth I ever heard so far. Lol
I’m so glad you brought up how the spear, not the sword, just like in all cultures was king on the battlefield (except maybe Rome). I honestly believe if the sengoku jidai had gone on for more decades than it had, Japanese warfare would’ve looked exactly like European pike and shot
You could argue that even for Romans, the most important weapon was the pilum, not the sword.
There are cultures though which placed more emphasis on bow than the spear, like Parthians, Koreans, pre-Sengoku Japanese and basically everyone from the Steppes.
I agree, spear was important, heck recently someone (one of those vids where a specialist is analyzing historicall accuracies and inaccuracies in movies) mentioned that swords were not that popular as movies try to convince us. Spear was great for common soldiers, knights on horsebacks were equipped liek smore armouries, with hammers and maces etc to get through the layers of steel. But sword fights are more cinematic :) PS: I am definitely sure that I might be still incorrect in my statment, but it definitely made me think more about how warfare loked like and how many weird or false ideas i have them as a simple amateur.
When you think that logicaly,, best weapon is the one that can kill enemies afar while not harming yourself. I would say that, of course Pikes, Bows, and Guns are actually the most popular comparing to say, sword.
Basically, sword to Samurai is like Pistols to today's army. It's a backup weapon and You will use it when you really had no options
@@Dfathurr "Basically, sword to Samurai is like Pistols to today's army. It's a backup weapon and You will use it when you really had no options"
No. The sword for a samurai was a status symbol first of all.
The origin of samurai is the armored mounted archer. That was THE way samurai began. But both the armor and the horse are expensive to aquire and maintain. While to be an effective warrior like that, took great skill, requiring lots of training, leaving little time for other things.
Hence came the bushi warrior class, who became rulers of tiny fiefs in return for always being ready to provide a heavy mounted archer to their liege lord.
The sword(s) was a way to show that they were one of the few privileged elite warriors. Becoming expert users of said swords came as a result of basically not wanting to be useless with the very symbol of their superiority.
The bow however mostly remained the primary weapon.
Likewise, the spear became the common weapon of war, while the sword became the weapon of personal honor.
It's important to distinguish reality from fiction, in order to gain a truly objective view.
I think a huge reason why simplified maps are used, is what strategy gamers call 'Border Gore', the more realistic maps are just not pretty to look at.
#1 is really a matter of nuance, it's still essentially where the clans wanted to "be" the Shogun, by puppetting whoever was in charge. They didn't need to hold the title directly.
I have heard that warrior monks using naginata might be a modern myth, or rather a missunderstanding. The famous sohei with headscarf and big naginata is taken from artoworks of the 12th-14th century mainly, and dissapear after that. It is likely that ikko ikki and other later warrior monks did not look like this. But using the few remaining medieval artworks left, people created a false image of what Sengoku era warrior monks were like, or so it seems.
Thank you for the great information & I hope a lot of people appreciate it as well.
Of all you mentioned
What interesting me most is no 1 & 2
I hope you cover more details of them in future
Great video man! I feel like I need more of this stuff thanks to things like Dynasty/Samurai Warriors.
Thanks man!!
that would be cool if you made a video on the myths of nagashino. like how the Takeda samurai charged on foot and not on horseback, and that there wasn't many guns there.
Yeah, Nagashino was not won because of the guns nor thr number of how many but because of Nobunagas quite extensive field fortifications which drove the Takeda into making mistakes, it also helped that the weather before Nagashino covered his armies movements from the Takeda.
Please cover the historical battle between Lu Bu and Tadakatsu Honda during the Orochi Wars.
After watched the 4th misconceptions. May I suggest The Shogunate to cover about Sengoku iconic castles? Such as Odawara, Osaka, or Ueda. To know the facts and characteristics about those castles, more we can comprehend the historical occurence like the Sanada defence againts Hidetada's troops
Best UA-cam channel I wanted your sengoki Jidai Siries 6 times!
wanted?
@@sengokusanada2690 watched*
@ point #1. i heard hideyoshi asked yoshiaki to formally adopt him to be the 16th ashikaga shogun, yoshiaki adamantly refused however
I never get tired of seeing those castles
omg i looked away for 2 seconds and then thought the video was over because you were suggesting other videos lol.
Could have shortened the video
"Anything Americans thought/put in media from 1970-2005"
Probably lol
Some of those illustrations are from the Osprey books on Samurai and made me give a nostalgic nerd squee.
I think there is ONE strategy game that attempt to use the Francisco1530 map. A game called "Sengoku Jidai" by Paradox Interactive (who is famous for making grand strategy games), it basically a resource gathering game and will take almost forever to play it.
Honestly, spears has always been the main weapon in all culture and countries, it not only with the Samurai favorite weapon, even European knights, Middle Eastern warriors, African tribal warriors and of course Asia as well.
Spears is basically what we call "Rifle" in modern warfare while sword is your pistol.
I think I saw a graph from another website where they put the list of weapons that most soldiers died during Sengoku. No surprise that most death and injuries was caused by Yari spears, second place was Arrows from the Yomi and third was katana swords. Teppu death was on 4th place as not many lords in the early to middle stage of Sengoku used it.
Forgot to mention that sengoku period also made the samurai took up new "hobbies" and culture, like appreciating tea ceremony culture and made it their own Japanese style due to Sen No Rikyu
Shame that PDX somewhat treated Sengoku like Imperator:Rome… defunct and definitely as underrated as the painful March of the Eagles
@@shinsenshogun900 I think it mostly due to that Heart of Irons is much more recognizable as it is WW2. I mean Japanese Sengoku period is still a "niche" market or a specific interest to people like us and like Shogunate interested in.
The spear and pike worked for the Greeks, Macedoneans, Romans and Swiss. Collectively that's what, 1K years of battlefield superiority?
And since they were opposing similar armor and weapons, it had to be the case in Japan.
@@recoil53 they have a whole list of organized spear tactics like Phalanx
@@recoil53 Spears and pikes (and any sort of piercing pole arms) works well against cavalrymen and defenseless lightly armored infantries, but is it well worth wielding such cumbersome weapons in any situation and setting of the battlefields, such as naval boarding actions or cramped siege assaults in tight alleys?
And Roman legions are more renowned to wield short swords and towering shields more than being remembered bearing lances against barbarian horsemen in their final imperial years in the west.
The Chinese are renowned to be a civilization with a vast array of pole-arm types and martial arts, yet how did that fare well after centuries of internal infighting and external invasions?
Weapons alone cannot prove who stands tall in the end of battles, it’d be wit, luck, intelligence, and sheer power to even render entire hegemons and empires effectively ruined, such as Sparta’s, Macedon’s, Rome’s, Switzerland’s, China’s, and any old empires’ many demises.
The map reminds me of the Clans in Scotland. In their political make-up. I enjoy learning Samurai history on your channel.
I agree wholeheartedly with number one, but I do think we should take it the easiest on this one and not let it ruin artistic romanticizing of the period provided we recognize the romanticizing for what it is. With the spread of Confucian ideals that came married to Chinese Buddhism, and despite the weak nature of the Ashikaga clan, there surely was a lot of pomp and circumstance surrounding politics. I would imagine any warlord who did not publicly shy away from any sort of ambition in the direction of becoming Shogun would have been seen as defying the will of the heavens and chided by court daimyo, immediately finding himself on the receiving end of the machinations of the ruling clans (plural because, puppet dictator behind an even more puppet emperor). While such actions could not guarantee a warlord from expanding, they could potentially create alliances of smaller regional warlords to halt it or at least make it more challenging, expending resources and making one think twice before coming for Kyoto.
All that being said, I feel as though many of the stories of this Sengoku age are so romanticized, though, because of parallels to Sangokushi (Three Kingdoms period of the fall of the later Han) stories that would not have been entirely foreign to these warlords. While it is noble that clans like the Mori and Hojo never set their sights on Kyoto, Liu Bei never set his on Luoyang, either...until he did. I highly doubt any warlord capable and ambitious enough to expand their region would throw away the opportunity if a path opened to ascension without upsetting the political balance in an insurmountable way, so maybe we can cut a break to number one.
golly,the dedication of that map is just incredible. Would love to see it being translated into english.😮 or bite the bullet and start learning kanji i guess,whichever one is quicker🤣
The number 1 is a myth I actually never thought of until now.
It's interesting than number 2 is originated rather by a matter of practicity (That map! I think it could have take weeks or even months to complete it!).
In number 3... for reason, I don't imagine naginata as the primary spear weapon, but the jumonji yari XD XD Probably because of Yukimura. I think there is a misconception about Japanese spears as well: I think much people imagine spears being less than 2 meters long, when in reality it was normal seeing spears surpass that length, and even 6 meters long spears were so common! But I don't understand what it could be the case: it's difficult to imagine how such a overly long weapon can be practical in the first place, but that is because they have many uses apart from being just a weapon.
It's difficult to imagine an 18 ft pike is practical? Alexander built an empire around a core of Macedoneon pikemen and the Swiss did well as mercenaries with them.
If my reading is correct, the debate in the sengoku period was if the 2 meter or 6 meter spear was better.
If you think about it, all the tactical elements are the same as the Eurasian fighting - the technology is roughly the same level. And it's been shown that organized groups of spearmen hold their own against cavalry, good armor does well against archers, and swords are mostly a secondary weapon.
There are two types of spears, short one and longer one. The short one is for stabbing and is easier to imagine. The longer one is mainly used to hit the enemies by holding it high over the head.
Why was the Naginata phased out?
I have no idea personally, but if I were to guess: it has more emphasis on cutting and slashing rather than thrusting. Making it useful for a single person perhaps, but for a unit of soldier in formation, they don't have the same room to do big, slashing movements, making the yari more optimal.
Thrusting is easier than slashing with a polearm, which is a big deal when the main focus of warfare moves away from warrior nobles to peasant foot soldiers.
Pretty awesome
The Shogunate woke up and chose violence on people spreading misinformation about the Sengoku Jidai!
I really enjoy watching your videos on Japan’s history. Not much is taught in school on Japan and it was the one country I wanted to know about. The disciplines of the sexes and what is expected over the years is so interesting and how it shows up in the arts and hand crafts that were made.
6:09 I can't believe Zelda's Dad's clan used to rule part of Japan.
It sounds like Sengoku Japan was basically just like the Holy Roman Empire, but somehow even less tidy
That detailed map looks really cool. Do you have the full picture? Can't find it anywhere
I would suggest just searching for that user on Twitter since they are all from him
I feel like every one of these myths could apply to pretty much every part of the world during the Medieval period, from Western Europe to the Middle East to everywhere else. Especially Myth 5, 2 and 3.
If I may add one more misconception, Sengoku Jidai is one of the eras when the Japanese population increased. although it was the era when people tried to kill each other.
Toei's Feudal Japan equivalent to Toho-Towa's Lensman aka Toei's first CGI film
A shame that the 4th great unifier Date Masamune was skipped over here.
(Great video as always)
Point 2: It's been a while since I delved into period history but weren't the governors usually appointed from the clans that were predominant in that province? And wasn't there a governor in the capital and an assistant governor who actually governed in the province who had all the power in reality?
Not especially, most claims to the land were nobles who were appointed by the Ashikaga Shogunate as protectors of a province or district and then when the Ashikaga shogunate began to lose power those clans that had been appointed protectors just said, "this is my land now, what are you going to do about it?" In simple terms.
A famous example governers of a district in one lord's province being allied with a lord in another province is the Hachisuka clan who lived in Oda's Owari province but were loyal to Dosan Saito of Mino province. They fought in the Saito civil war on Dosan's side and fought on Oda's side when Nobunaga invaded Mino due to their grudge with Yoshitatsu. They then continued to fight on Oda's side but were technically an independent kokujin in Owari Province who were eventually officially appointed Awa province.
@@S4ltyTar0 I thought the shogun appointed governors but those governors stayed w/ the shogun in the military capital and his 2nd was sent in the governors name to actually directly govern. And the gist of the sengoku jidai was that these assistant samurais sensed weakness and seized power in the provinces.
Nobunaga's Azuchi Castle tower is said to be based on Hisahide Matsunaga's Tamonoyama Castle.
People seem to think it would be uncool to consider the presence of firearms in Japanese history.
On the contrary, the relationship of Japan with firearms is way cooler and more interesting than its relationship with swords could ever be.
Your background music is so distracting…only bc i use the same music 😅 good job
Japan had a custom of keeping records of soldiers' wounds and causes of death on the battlefield. Thomas D. Conlan created statistical data from many records. His statistics conclude that katanas and spears killed more and bows and arrows hurt more. Naginata is a swinging weapon, so in group battles naginata will hurt allies. After the 14th century, the naginata was not often used in mass battlefields. The period when spears were popular on the battlefields of Japan was from the late Sengoku period (around 1540) to the peace after Genna era (1615). During the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, Nobunaga Oda first used guns as his main weapon. In the Edo period, the Neo-Confucian scholar Hayashi Razan (1583- 1657) argued that guns were not suitable for samurai philosophy and that guns were the weapons of low-ranking soldiers, and forced the samurai to abandon their guns.
There are many records of katana in China and Korea.
Chinese Ming Dynasty General Qi Jiguang (1528-1588)" It is difficult to approach with my soldier's sword, it is too late with a spear, and if we encounter them, everyone will be cut off and killed.
This is because their weapons are sharp and they are free to use powerful and heavy swords that can be swung with both hands. "
"For Japanese, a fowling gun from a distance is effective. But the Japanese have absolutely no fear and charge at point blank range where they can attack or stab. It also takes time while our gunners load their bullets, That's why Our soldiers often allow them to approach. We cannot stop their momentum. Japanese swordsmanship is light and long, Our gunners move too slowly after allowing them to approach. Therefore, we should equip ourselves with Japanese-style long swords."
明 戚继光 纪效新书
此自倭犯中國始有之。彼以此跳舞、光閃而前、我兵已奪氣矣。倭善躍、一迸足則丈餘、刀長五尺、則丈五尺矣。我兵短器難接、長器不捷、遭之者身多兩斷、縁器利而雙手使、用力重故也。
今如獨用則無衛、惟鳥銃手賊遠發銃、賊至近身再無他器可以攻刺、如兼殺器則銃重藥子又多、勢所不能、惟此刀輕而且長、以備臨身棄銃用此。況有殺手當鋒、故用長刀備之耳。
Korean History Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty (1413)"Japanese soldiers wielded their long katanas and rushed sharply left and right, their sharp attacks invincible."
朝鮮王朝実録 天兵短劍、騎馬, 無火器, 路險泥深, 不能馳騁, 賊奮長刀, 左右突鬪, 鋒銳無敵。
The easiest takeaway I've learned about the Samurai and Bushido is that they really did like associating with the ideas of Bushido and general honor amongst warriors. However, as with most things in life, hardly any of them walked the walk and almost all of them took down their enemies by any means necessary no matter how dishonorable. The only real way to live by a code of honor as a military who didn't provoke war is to set forth some fair ground rules to the enemy as a final threat. If they don't respect an honorable way to settle things in a fair fight, even if it's to the death, or they cheat, then that threat must include the ultimatum of brutal slaughter without mercy down to the last resistance no matter what. That way, if and when the enemy uses dishonorable means, you can go full ham on them without a shred of restraint and maintain your own honor.
Why would the yari be considered more versatile than the naginata? Both can thrust, while the naginata has greater use in sweeping attacks from horseback and more use than the yari in closer combat.
I'm interested in learning about women roles throughout feudal Japan's history. What did they do during wartimes or eras of peace? What notable individuals or groups are there? What activities did they enjoy? And this curiosity applies to any class, including peasants.
I think it's important to shed light on what the other half of the population was doing.
I love Minamoto no Yoshitsune.
Hey bro - quick question about #2: didn't those minor families swear some sort of fealty to a powerful local diamyo anyway? Wouldn't they have just been gobbled up?
My favorite myth of the Sengoku period has to be Takeda blocking Kenshin's blow with a fan. There's even a famous monument of this moment. But real life tells me that a fan has not the strength in mass nor material to block a melee weapon. The fan would be cut clean or even in the case that this fan was made of metal, the poor size and mass would twist the recipient's wrist and the follow through would be as if there was never an object in the path.
Even more so, samurai had two swords at all times. Not just in war, they even slept with them. So there's no way that the commander of the opposite army can reach the most important, distant and protected figure on this battlefield, so lighting fast, that he couldn't even unsheathe his sword and had to recur to his fan.
This moment in history is a total lie.
I get where you're coming from, but I recommend you watch two videos from the channel "Let's ask Seki Sensei" on the subject of tessen. Obviously they would be used in self defense rarely and I agree that the clash between Shingen and Kenshin was likely to be at the very least sensationalized, my point is just to not dismiss the use of metal fans completely.
I do not know if the story is true or not but I can say this. That was an iron-ribbed fan used not for inducing an airflow for cooling but was used as a military leader's fan.
@@NachtKaiser666 I must correct you on that, with a Katana and a Wakizashi attached to your belt at all times, a fan is NEVER used as a self defense item. It's plain stupid, these fans were used for signaling attacks and so.
Aside from being against logic, is also against physics, Energy of a blow ( damage ) = Mass x Acceleration. Just do this little experiment. Go to the hardware store, buy a big metal pipe. Cut it into parts, one the size of a Katana and one the size of the fan. Now, put the short one right next to your face and tell someone to swing the long one right into it without holding back.
That would give you a idea of how things work on the real world. One of the things I like so much about this channel is how the host is against romanticizing the unreasonable and tries to keep history as accurate and realistic as possible.
@@sandroclemus doesnt matter if you are right, if you are an absolute prick about it, no one cares what you say. Get a clue.
Anyone find that absurdly detailed map from Fransisco1530 at 5:25 ?
Not all Daimyo had the ambition to unite Japan?? So the Japanese warring states was indeed different from the real Warring States Period of ancient China.
Some just wanted to chill.
@@mgsxmike for the First Emperor of China Qin Shihuang Di … the unification of China was a sacred mission.
I thought Swords are like a back up weapon. Like a pistol for the modern army.
Man, I would love to find an English translation of that Fransisco map
Imma need the link/source to that first image of the video
I suspect a lot of the Samurai just wanted to stabilize their own little bit of the land and leave something for their heirs,running the whole damned country was probably the last thing on their minds if even at all.
Weapons....let's not get into the katana since I grew up in the 80's and was right there when all the bullcrap about that weapon came about LOL! Every other one,yea they like everybody else used spears and bows as the main weapon and the sword was a back up or used for dualing and honor ,later on I'd bet you'd find smaller clans using bows over guns just because they couldn't afford them and maybe even some didn't or wouldn't trust firearms which always happens with new tech.
In the end like any period of great change you had people doing things for their own reasons,some were mundane,others roamed into the epic with grand schemes and even grander dreams...and you had the blasted weirdos who probably nobody had a clue what they were up to.
What makes history like this fun,you learn,you enjoy and sometimes you wonder just WTF where they doing?
Where does the name Sengoku comes from? How is a name chosen to name a era? Does anyone know?
Sengoku means "Warring States" in Japanese so Sengoku Jidai means "Warring States Period". Names for periods/eras sort of just randomly appear and just stick for example WW1 was called the "Great War"(because it was the biggest and most destructive war in history) but then WW2 happened which was way more destructive and "Greater" than WW1 so people started calling the Great War WW1 and the second war WW2
Watched*
Often in the art that you show, Samurai are displayed with fur on their sword scabbard. Would you elaborate on that?
I believe that was a popular style for some to have fur/pelts adorning their Saya in older times. Usually seems to be only for Tachi as well
@@TheShogunate The first time i saw it, i got little perplexed. That is something that was never shown or mentioned in pop history, and it was only your videos that i noticed them. Were there any other adornments that we could have missed?
@@TheShogunate- We're those straw capes I keep seeing for warmth? Or protection? Worn over the armour people must have died from heat unless they were located at Hokkaido.
@@saymyname2417 They are usually worn to protect from rain
@@TheShogunate - Oh, I see. That makes sense! Now I remember a vintage pic of two little kids wearing braided straw capes on a rainy day. They looked too cute!
Thanks for the quick reply and your channel is awesome!
8:18 *Indo-Portuguese firearms
Wait! What about Yasuke? Was he even a real samurai or not?
He's real.
@@mgsxmike Of course but was he a true samurai or just someone who wore fancy armor?
@@jeffreygao3956 is donned armor, adopted and participated in feudal pastimes and customs, gained combat experiences, definitely a samurai retainer of Nobunaga
Nobunaga treated him well simply because he was exotic, no-one had ever seen a black man in Japan before, not because Yasuke himself was a good fighter or anything like that. After Nobunaga's death Yasuke was sold back to the Portuguese.
Sengoku Jedi
Three questions
1. What is the meaning of the prefix "go" have seen this in Korean context eg "goryeo and go goryeo"?
2. How well could these castles design by nobunaga withstand sieges?
3. Why were Japaneses introduced to firearms by Europeans and not some Chinese or Korean merchants as they had been using them for some time? Denial of firearms tech to the Japanese.
Regarding firearms, what the Portuguese sailors introduced, in both Japan and China, were firearms with the matchlock mechanism.
I think “Go” means previous
@@Thug_Shaker in the case of use as in like "go-hojo", it means ”後北条", and 後(go) means later.
@@atramp8999 Lol I just realized I said it wrong, Go in Japanese is "later" and Korean I thought it was "before"
What about the massive undead uprising in nioh? 🧟♂️ 🧟♂️ 🧟♂️ 🧟♂️
🗿👍🏿
A.k.a. History isn't shallow. Duh.
Sunyt
Heh, next you're going to try to tell us that most of Samurai fighting during this period were not big-titty school age girls. Shake my head.
Just skip the first 2 minutes. Annoying waste of time.
I NEED THAT COMPLEX MAP 🤤
If only it was in English for my ADHD ass 😅
Like. [★]
So sengoku Japan was more like the medieval holy Roman empire.
First we had the myth that samurai were primarily swordsmen.
Now we have the myth that samurai were first archers, then moved on to firearms.
What actually happened was samurai moved from bows to spears, to swords and finally to firearms.
Throughout the entire sengoku most samurai used a spear despite the wide spread availability of firearms and not for any social reason, samurai had no problem using matchlocks and would often practise with them, they'd just usually use a spear over any other weapon, it's only by the 19th century that firearms far outdated spears or bows that samurai always used guns as a primary weapon.