True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY

this is what a battle between feudal Japanese armies of the sangoku jidi would have looked like it is a quite alien sight for audiences used to the blocky formations of modern strategy games like total war or the freefor all style engagements of Hollywood films and yet the model scene here does a far better job of bringing to life the nuances found on contemporary Japanese screen paintings which depict such armies in battle delving into its details will therefore do much to allow us to better understand the actual nature of militaries of this era from the structure of Ado's military organization to a Clan's system of recruitment its unit types its Banner systems its headquarters its Army for formations and more this is the true size of a samurai Army of the sangoku ji it's been a blast researching and eventually constructing an army of the soku ji and I hope you guys appreciate and learn from this reconstruction but you can set foot in the setting for yourself with Assassin's Creed Shadows thanks to Ubisoft for for sponsoring this video for me the Assassin's Creed series has been a dream come true when it comes to basically transporting yourself into the past and exploring it in person for a long time now we've actually been using discovery mode to provide historical tours of places like the Library of Alexandria the Parthenon in Athens and the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and AC Shadows promises to provide an equally engaging and faithful rendition of feudal Japan to this end the game has leveraged historians and experts to craft an authentic World from cities and castles to civilians and soldiers this includes interacting with great historical figures like Oda Nobunaga and AI mitsu as they take part in the Epic unification of Japan you'll experience this action through a main story line with dual protagonists a Shinobi assassin and a legendary Samurai each offers a unique perspective and gameplay style to learn more check out the Assassin's Creed trailer for yourself and pre-order the game on Xbox or PlayStation 5 enjoy [Music] this episode is set in the late 1500s During the period of the soku jidi when the desperate Warlords of Japan sought to consolidate their power in a growing struggle to seize ultimate control of the land but the seeds for this conflict were were planted long ago and will be worth briefly reviewing for context in the 8th Century ad the hyen period had enjoyed a prolonged period of Peace such stability saw its large conscripted armies replaced by mercenary troops meant to take on smaller scopes of policing and emergency response the creation of these forces led to the rise of the busy whom we in the west know as Samurai by the mid 10th century the maturation of private military recruiting networks led by local leaders greatly reshaped Japan this decentralization gave way to an Era wherein power was organized along the relationships between Lords vassals and thiefs it was here that the samurai began to emerge as a distinct social [Music] cast by the late 12th century the samurai came to control many important aspect effect of government a century later the turmoil of Mongol invasions and Civil Wars saw the strength of the Imperial Court erode ever further this in turn allowed the local Lords known as dios to fill the vacuum gaining important judicial and economic powers on top of the military ones they had already possessed these figures competed with one another often violently culminating in the simultaneous outbreak of a succession crisis with many major Clans and the Shogun family in the late 15th century the separate struggles exacerbated by famine finally culminated in a general state of civil war known as the sangoku [Music] jidi it is the armies of this era which we shall seek to model yet given the decentralized and rapidly shifting nature of the period it is impossible to present a one-size fits-all description we will therefore attempt to present you with some broader Trends while increasingly narrowing our Focus to the point that a singular Army can eventually be fielded [Music] for starters we can consider a typical Daio military organization or kashin Den at the top of the structure would have been the rolling Lord himself directly beneath him was the ichiman or first group of vassals which consisted of blood relatives and trusted hereditary retainers such high ranking men sat on the Lord's Council held top administrative positions managed castles and commanded major military units beneath these men would be additional layers of major and minor vessals most would have been kishu or landed gentry who were organized into Regional groups others would have been the shinzan Shu or new people who hailed from Outer territories recent conquests or semi-independent allies all such men were of the Samurai cast often receiving land Andor payments from their lord so as to afford their gear and to employ personal retainers at the lowest levels of the organization were the members of the general population including rural Samurai and villagers who would be caught up for war in a variety of ways let us now briefly cover these methods of recruitment [Music] in days past systems of mask inscription had been used though mandatory registration did still exist in some form it was now generally the case that military mobilization was more selectively based on the assessed production of one's Cho or land this was measured in terms of coku or roughly 150 kg of rice which was enough to feed a man for a year it is this latter system which proved more dominant and was ultimately standardized in the ensuing Edo period during the soku era the exact ratio of troops to koku would have varied but we can get some indication of the scale we are talking about here by turning to the 1581 mobilization rate records of Aki metsu who required six men for every 100 koku here is the data which lists contributions up to 1,000 koku regulations from the Edo period about 50 years later give us a better sense of scale for even higher levels to pick a few data points a vessel with 1,000 koku brings 23 men 5,000 Kaku brings two men 10,000 koku brings 235 men and 100,000 koku brings 2,155 men the general trend is that the Richer The Vessel the higher the percentage of guns mounted men and support staff he is supposed to bring as can be seen in these lists there were a variety of troop types being mobilized let us review these now [Music] [Music] now here distinctions can be made in terms of class and weapon type starting with class we have the Samurai and the non-s samurai the former were wealthier members of the hereditary military nobility who were well-armed when well trained and often mounted the latter meanwhile were either Warrior servants who fought as light foot soldiers known as ashigaru or were peasants who served as non-combatant porters the ashigaru were generally less well equipped and trained than their Elite peers though this Gap was noticeably reduced by the later years of the soku era the other means of classifying troop types was by their weapon Spears such as the roughly 2 m Yari appear to have been most commonly used by both Samurai and ashigaru troops a variant the nagar Yari actually extended its length out over 5 m and was an increasingly popular tool of specialized ashigaru units swords meanwhile were also quite ubiquitous though these tended to serve as secondary weapons contrary to popular belief Battle depictions of the era indicate that both Samurai and ashigaru could have worn paired swords this included both a long and a short version such as the katana and wakizashi though higher end models were more likely to be found among the samurai class in terms of ranged weapons the Yumi Longbow was most commonly fielded by both foot and horse archers of both classes its more modern counterpart was the Teo or matchlock aquabus which came in a variety of calibers and was also wielded by both Samurai and ashigaru alike however the latter seemed to have been more likely to have been granted this new technology as it greatly improved their Battlefield Effectiveness allowing dios to quickly mobilize ever larger sves of their populations now let's see how these basic troop types were grouped together and assigned to their officers the first thing to note is that while soldiers may have mustered under a particular leader according to the koku system we previously described they were often reorganized under a new structure when it came time to actually form an army the exact system being used varied widely by time and place for our episode today we will be assuming an idealized model which captures some of the broad trends of the era as a quick guide an army can be roughly broken up into groups similar to Modern systems of squads platoon companies and battalions in the case of feudal Japan the equivalent would have been the go the Kumi and the son whose variance spanned the functions of a company or Battalion again however please note that these names and these groupings were not Universal for all armies for the most part asaru troops made up the bulk of these forces with Samurai serving as their officers this was especially true in later years when Clans fielded increasingly large and professionalized forces while there were still concentrated units of Samurai infantry and Cavalry these were diluted and often even outnumbered by accompanying asaru [Music] retainers with this overview in mind let's reconstruct a feudal Japanese Army in [Music] size the smallest unit would have been that of a squad siiz G of about 5 to 10 men led by a Kashira or small leader most were senior ashigaru who functioned as corporals though some Clans such as the deada appear to have occasionally filled this position with a junior Samurai to designate this officer's rank we have chosen to depict them with slightly more decorated armor and for melee squads a sashimono banner featuring relevant colors and Coats of Arms Spear and Pike asaro go may have tended to feature a higher Soldier to officer ratio given the relative abundance of this basic troop type but for the sake of Simplicity we have assumed five men for our one Kira Archer and gun asaru go on the other hand are quite regularly seen to have five men for every Kashira such ranged squads may have been composed of all archers all Gunners or a mix of the two in earlier times the pure Archer units would have been more prevalent as guns became more readily available though entire squads might have been armed with them however it was found that a proper balance of the two was best after all while guns were theoretically deadlier they had long reloading times thus the faster shooting archers were actually quite useful in providing cover fire and rounding out the Tactical flexibilities of the team in such squads the kosir would have been expected to not just command the men but also to assist them in their duties for instance special batons would have been used to gauge distances and determine the right time to shoot officers also carried ammunition with them which was to be distributed to the men in combat an Archer Kashira might be hauling bundles of anywhere from 50 to 100 arrows a gunner Kashira meanwhile carried extra Ram rods spare Munitions and a bundle of burning fuses wrapped around his arm which could be used to quickly replace those of his subordinates which may have burned out when it comes to Samurai G their definition will prove a bit more difficult as previously mentioned Samurai were commonly dispersed across an army as the officers of asaru units in the cases where they did pull together into more elite units this appears to have been done with even less standardization than their asaru peers for our model we will assume that a samurai G is composed of one Samurai and several foot soldier retainers the samurai serves as the squad leader proudly bearing a personalized sashimono Banner meant to Rally his men and allow higher ups to easily identify him in combat for post battle rewards wealthier Samurai could afford to ride a horse to battle and were accompanied by around four followers such men were either rural Sou samurai or ashigaru who may have spoted swords Spears pole arms bows and even guns we will assume the standard team manifests as two Spearman one Archer and one Gunner poorer Samurai on the other hand went to war on foot and likely only had one to two followers with more basic weapons such as a spear at the next level several ashigaru go came together to form a platoon-sized Kumi of about 10 to 30 men led by a Kumi Kashira in our case the spear ashigaru Kumi has been assumed to feature just two G for a total of 10 soldiers and two Kashira officers while the pike ashigaru Kumi with whom they were often grouped has been assumed to have three go for a total of 15 soldiers and three Kashira the range ashigaru Kumi meanwhile follow the more common tradition of having five G for a total of 25 soldiers and five Kashira officers as before these feature a mix of bow and gun armed ashigaru either in their own squads or mixed together zooming in to one of the Kumi command units we see it is led by a samurai officer most would have held the title of kumik gashira though some specialized units such as the pike ashigaru may have been led by higher ranking bugio given their status such officers would have been mounted worn better gear and doned a sashimono banner with more personalized details they also would have brought with them their own retainers in this case we have assumed a group of five retainers which included soldiers Squires and banman likely in the same manner as the asaru several Samurai G rolled up into a platoon size Samurai Kumi led by a senior officer whose title we have kept generic as a Kumi gashira as with the samurai G we have modeled both Cavalry and infantry units though again this has more to do with their wealth and access to horses then a fixed Battlefield role to generalize our Cavalry Samurai Kumi will feature 10 of our previously defined GA for a total of 10 Samurai one of whom act as Kumi gashira and 40 retainers of which 20 are Spearman 10 are archers and 10 are Gunners an odd composition for a Cavalry unit yet ultimately a practical one given the relative lack of horses in Japanese Warfare at the time the idea was that such Samurai Riders often dismounted for battle joining their retainers on foot to form a mixed infantry formation when they did ride into combat the retainers would run after their masters to screen their operations or to engage in combat while this may have limited some of the mobility of such forces it greatly increased their tactical flexibility our Samurai infantry Kumi will be assumed to field more go about 15 owing to the greater pool of men which inhabited this lower tier of the economic pyramid however for the resulting 15 Samurai they bring with them only 25 total retainers all of whom we assume are spearmen this makes for an overall smaller and less diverse Kumi than their richer Cavalry peers at the next level several Kumi units would have been grouped into a company or battalion ized Force known as a sonier these were led by a tao or even the Dao himself in the case of HQ units their size and composition varied greatly in terms of size this ranged anywhere from a few hundred to upwards of 1,000 though the typical strength seems to have been around 700 in terms of composition son usually acted as tactical units which host did a combined arms force of skirmishers infantry and Cavalry in addition these were reinforced by a command unit a banner unit and a baggage train military theory of the later Edo period provides some specifics in terms of what may have been considered more or less standard for instance a 50 kir was based around the idea of deploying a core of 50 cavalrymen around which was wrapped the other elements adapting the text slightly to match our prior definitions yields the following combat units two ashigaru skirmisher Kumi two ashigaru spear Kumi two ashigaru Pike Kumi five Samurai Cavalry Kumi two Samurai infantry Kumi as a quick side note the six ashigaru units would likely have been raised used by the TAA himself while the remaining Samurai units were his vassals who had raised their own troops altogether these added up to about 150 skirmishes 286 melee infantry and 50 Cavalry for a total of 486 soldiers now however we must add the command banner and baggage units the command group could be quite elaborate for great Lords but in our case we will assume that it is a more modest version befitting a vassel whose son is but one part of a larger Army in such a case it would have been led by a TAA who was often Seated on a stool to manage his Force his horses and grooms were located nearby in case the need arose to remobilize directly beside the TAA were 10 or so trusted vassals and staff officers meant to offer advice confer status and act as bodyguards in case of emergencies among them might be a few honored valet who were young Samurai in training close at hand were several ashigaru signalers these used instruments such as bells drums and conch trumpets to transmit orders raise morale or Mark the time smoke signals and whistling arrows are even tested to as means of communication near them might also be found important Messengers known as the tuai ban in keeping with the Edo period records we will assume four of these are present each with a handful of followers such mounted Samurai were greatly honored for their loyalty bravery and efficiency in quickly relaying communication across a battlefield to identify these men from a distance and to prevent Friendly Fire they often dawned unique gear such as this vibrant red horor cloak which inflated in the wind a few other miscellaneous members of the command Group which were likely to have been on call for the TAA included Pages scribes priests and doctors finally we must mention the Medcare such men were typically agents of the overall Army's ruling Dao who policed and supervised his vassals importantly the mea would report on the performance of units and individuals for post battle rewards such matters were taken quite seriously and investigations with court proceedings were not unheard of as means to ascertain the true chain of events leading to claims of Bravery or cowardice as a result we have chosen to assign the Meda to two retainers for assistance in his duties the next major element which made up the sunay was the hatag Gumi or Banner group composed of about 15 ashigaru under the command of a hat buio most of its members would have carried large rectangular banners known as Noor noata these were used as signals between sonir through the synchronized raising lowering and wavering of the flags two smaller groups of men meanwhile were tasked with upholding the Uma jirushi which was a large Standard Bearing the personal identifiers of the commanding TAA its purpose was to orient the entire force raise morale and most importantly to make clear the presence of a powerful man both on the March and in battle the sheer quantity and ubiquity of such Banner units in fudal Japanese armies should be an important indication of both their military and cultural importance the last major element of the sonay was the Kida or baggage train led by a Kida bugo its purpose was to handle the logistical needs of the battle group for the most part this meant carrying food drink weapons and armor materials for construction repair air Siege craft wound care hygiene cooking entertainment and personal use could also be found one very common item would have been general purpose wooden boards used interchangeably as flooring Roofing tables barricades and Battlefield cover carrying all of this would have been Porters and pack animals with drivers for our model we can once more lean on the Edo manuals to assume that it consists of 150 Porters 15 pack horses and 15 drivers employed by the various Samurai in addition to the taaw own 20 Porters five pack horses and Five drivers while civilian non-combatants made up a large percentage of the baggage train it should be noted that this unit was often subject to tight military oversight which Limited the presence of non-essential camp followers that might otherwise threaten to slow down and bloat an Army on campaign with all the parts of the 50 k a now combined we can review its total composition roughly 90% of the beings here are human and 10% are animals slicing by class we can see that 14% are Samurai and 86% are non-s Samurai further breaking things down by combat role we see that about 26% are peasant non-combatants 20% are skirmisher ashigaru 40% are melee ashigaru 3% are Samurai officers 4% are Samurai infantry and 7% are Samurai Cavalry yet such figures should be taken with a grain of salt as they represent an approximation of just one recorded incarnation of a Sona such units after all could feature all kinds of troop mixtures to meet the needs of a given campaign some had more ashigaru While others had more Samurai Eastern sonier featured more Cavalry while western son a featured more guns there simply was no standard for additional context we can now deploy our son into one of the more common battle formations to described in Warfare manuals of the roughly contemporary Edo period here we see the force drawn up in a series of layers in the outermost layer lie two Kumi units of archers and Gunners whose job it will be to Skirmish With the Enemy in such a capacity they may have been accompanied by T or pavis style Shields and other Deployable imp placements once combat was to begin manuals recommended the Gunners should start shooting at 110 M while archers Loos at 55 M with alternating volleys these ranged units would weaken a defensive position or disrupt an oncoming assault if such skirmishing dragged on Porters helped keep them resupplied but should these front ranks face too much pressure they would fall back to the second rank here were deployed two Spear and and two Pike ashigara Kumi in a roughly 80 strong long line just one or two men deep their job was to Halt an assault against infantry the Pikes may have been raised High into the air and dropped down upon enemy troops for increased impact otherwise Pikes were simply held out in front of the soldier to stab at or fence with opposing troops when facing Cavalry the Pikeman apparently knelt down planted their weapons into the ground and raised their head to a horse's chest height effectively turning their position into a static [Music] barricade behind them awaited the third rank composed of two Samurai infantry Kumi these roughly 80 men would be used to help Shore up a faltering defense or help a promising attack break through while the samurai were Keen to Sally out and gain Glory good officers kept them on a tight leash to properly time their engagement Behind these three layers would be the commanding TAA he helped direct the flow of battle using Messengers Bananaman and signalers of critical importance would be the deployment of five Samurai Cavalry Kumi which surrounded him as both bodyguards and Reserves at 250 men strong they constituted a considerable pool of maner power to enable their fast deployment each unit stood at the ready in marching order facing the enemy the mixed soldiers of each Kumi would have already pre-arranged themselves into files of skirmishers ashigaru and dismounted Samurai as such they were ready to fight in miniature versions of the front three ranks we previously described should the situation call for it the dismounted samurai could quickly rush to their near by horses remount and ride out while these Cavalry Kumi may have been sent out to assist in skirmishing during the opening stages of a fight it was more common to keep them as reserves to deliver shock assaults on weak parts of an enemy line to intercept opposing Cavalry or to run down retreating units thus we see how a sonier could function as an Army in miniature ready to operate on its own in a highly Dynamic manner akin to Napoleon's future Army Core system this appears to have been a reflection of the rugged terrain of Japan which favored the use of small mobile forces when entire armies assembled they would have done so by Fielding multiple son here we have deployed eight such units for a roughly 6,000 strong force manuals seem to indicate that these son a would often have been deployed in a checkerboard pattern the front units acted as the Vanguard followed by the middle guard flank guards and rear guards who protected the Consolidated baggage train at the center of the army likely a top high ground would have been the overall commander soner known as the honin [Music] it would have been the largest of the army contingents with many household units composed of hatamoto or direct vassals of the Daimon at its heart lay the jinmu or Camp curtains which helped reduce wind and provide privacy for the Dao and his Entourage around him was arranged an even larger command unit with all manner of important sounding positions and protocols to follow also of notes would have been the Lord's own personal banner and overall Army flag known as the a umaa jushi such items were of extreme significance in the same manner as Roman legionary Eagles protecting them came at all costs and to seize one from the enemy was a huge Mark of pride looking across the battlefield we can observe how the Dao's Central position allowed him to quickly interpret the visual and Audio Communications being sent from his subcommanders across the [Music] field this attests to a far higher level of command and control for the armies of this era than most people give them credit for but study of these systems and tactics shall have to be covered another time for now we hope you have appreciated this deep dive into the true size of a samurai Army's organization each and every episode is a labor of love which takes countless hours of work to produce ad revenue is never reliable and if you want to ensure that we can keep making these episodes please consider supporting us directly on patreon or YouTube memberships a big thanks to the current fans who support the channel and a special shout out to the researchers writers and artists for making this episode we couldn't have done it without this team and this community if you've enjoyed this episode be sure to like And subscribe for more content and check out these other related videos see you in the next one

Channel: Invicta

Views: 223,535

Keywords: invicta, invicta history, samurai, samurai army, samurai battle, shogun battle, sekigahara battle, the last samurai, total war shogun, true size, true size of a samurai army, samurai army organization, samurai documentary, sengoku documentary, sengoku explained, japanese history documentary, samurai army explained, samurai army documentary, ashigaru, ashigaru soldier, the last samurai battle, samurai charge, samurai tactics

Id: deV34RTyPO8

Length: 36min 5sec (2165 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024