The ashigaru were the rank and file of samurai armies but their worth wasn't valued until the second half of the Sengoku period or the 'Age of Warring States' (between 1467 and 1638) when they were armed with different weapons, notably the firearm which allowed them to literally blast an enemy to pieces as was the case at Nagashino in 1575 when Oda Nobunaga's ashigaru arquebusiers stood behind a row of wooden palisades and shattered the charge of the renowned samurai cavalry of the Takeda clan. At this time it was becoming commonplace for ashigaru to occupy the frontline of an army, a position traditionally reserved for their 'betters' the samurai, heralding a major change in attitudes to Japanese warfare. The ashigaru became fulltime professional soldiers by Tokugawa Ieyasu's period and had even become samurai, albeit very lowly ones.

But before the heady heights of the mid to late 16th century the ashigaru were little more than a rabble of armed peasants drawn from the fields or freebooters who attached themselves to the armies of the samurai in the hope of obtaining plunder. The meaning of the word 'ashigaru' meant 'light feet' on account of the fact that they were lightly equipped and often carried weapons and wore armour that they looted from their battlefield exploits. Sometimes ashigaru would appear in a samurai general's army without his knowledge and then fight, loot and desert to enjoy their gains. However, ashigaru soldiers were used effectively as archers in the Nanbokucho Wars of the 14th century and loosed thousands of arrows against enemy ranks, a far cry from the carefully targeted shots the mounted samurai favoured before hand, and these were the very tactics the samurai faced against the Mongols in the invasions of 1274 and 1281 respectively.

It became increasingly apparent that the daimyo of Japan needed to harness these lower class foot soldiers and get them to fight with discipline and to, above all, be loyal if they were to stand any chance of defeating their rivals. Both the elite samurai and the ashigaru needed to complement each other if battles were to be won. This was no more apparent than in the Sengoku period when the daimyo needed as many men as possible and often they needed to be raised from the farms and assume their role as part-time soldiers. They were needed to not only swell the ranks of their overlord's army but to also operate siege weapons and, of course, they were needed to fulfill the role of sailors and marines on naval vessels.

Some ashigaru were employed to carry the personal belongings of a samurai. Among them were sandal bearers or zori tori and spear bearers or mochiyari gumi. These were no menial duties but required the ashigaru to attend the samurai or even a daimyo. It was very important for a samurai to have someone carrying a good supply of sandals because as they were made of straw they did not last long and needed to be changed quite often. The sandal bearer of Oda Nobunaga not only provided this service but also kept his sandals warm in cold weather and this bearer was none other than Toyotomi Hideyoshi. No greater honour could be attached to the spear bearer who not only carried the lord's personal polearm but was also his bodyguard. There were also ashigaru who carried a number of other weapons including the bow, arquebus and naginata.

Another important duty allotted to some ashigaru would be operating the battlefield signalling devices and carrying the flags. Drums were frequently used either on the march or to muster the army; there was an established system for advance and assembly. Large drums were mounted in a wooden frame or built into a castle tower while smaller ones were carried on the back of an ashigaru while a companion stood or walked behind and beat it. Bells and gongs were also used to summon the army. The flag bearers carried long, vertical banners or nobori which were used to identify the location of a unit. Similarly an ashigaru would carry the personal flag or uma jirushi ('horse insignia') of a samurai which gave an indication that he was present. The great standard or o uma jirushi was possessed by the daimyo and tended to attract the most attention from the enemy. Some standards were three-dimensional and would require one or two, sometimes more, ashigaru to keep it steady by holding ropes fastened to it. Other banners were worn by ashigaru called ko uma jirushi or 'lesser standard'. These as the name suggests were smaller devices and were carried in a small leather container fastened to the ashigaru's belt and worn on the back.

A command system was gradually introduced as the daimyo began to realise the vital contribution made by the ashigaru to their armies. The overall commander of ashigaru units was invariably a samurai whose rank was known as ashigaru taisho and was just as respected as if he commanded just samurai units. The highest ranked ashigaru officer was the captain or ashigaru kashira and commanded a company. Below the captain were the lieutenants or ashigaru ko gashira and they helped delegate commands from the captain to the ordinary ashigaru. Arquebusiers (ashigaru gunmen) were led by an officer called a teppo ko gashira or lieutenant of the firearms squad.

It was possible for an ashigaru to reach the heady heights of a samurai but promotion was entirely dependent on performance in battle and how many heads were taken. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the son of a poor peasant and rose to become a prominent general, though because of these humble origins could not become shogun. Ashigaru that became samurai took on a surname, which was a privilege reserved for the latter. The surname would derive from that of his master or a valued ally. Yet, ironically, it was Hideyoshi that would make this miraculous rise virtually impossible by disarming the peasantry in the famous 'Sword Hunt' of 1588 and anyone, including some daimyo, whom he did not approve in his reunification of Japan. This followed in 1591 with the Separation Edict which forbade anyone from changing status so a farmer couldn't become an ashigaru and vice versa and if they were called up to serve their daimyo it was only as a labourer. Status was rigid and set in stone with the ashigaru coming best off because they were classed as samurai. The personal retinues and bodyguards of the daimyo would now cater for the need of military manpower.

Recruitment

Before the ashigaru became a professional foot soldier in the 1590s the daimyo had to muster them from their farms, as they mostly worked the fields on the daimyo's lands. The daimyo should know his territories well because they were retained by vassal samurai who in turn was required to bring with him to the muster a number of men, much like the feudal structure of medieval Europe, who also served him. Some of the men serving the samurai might be also be samurai who were related to him or had close family connections. The remainder would be jizamurai (landowners or village headmen) and farmers whose service to a samurai might be a tradition going back centuries.

From the 1590s onwards, after Hideyoshi's reunification of Japan, it was forbidden for peasants, i.e. the usual resource where the ashigaru were drawn from, to carry weapons. Ashigaru were now being retained permanently by the daimyo and although peasants were still mustered for various campaigns it wasn't in a military capacity but one of toil and labour. The ashigaru at this time, who were part of the permanent retinues of the daimyo and samurai, were themselves samurai. The realisation had set in that to win battles and campaigns well trained troops were needed and the old feudal drafts of centuries past, which swelled the armies, would be a hindrance rather than an advantage.

Sometimes it was necessary to muster the ashigaru quickly and one of the greatest daimyos of the 16th century, Takeda Shingen, established a system whereby a rapid call to arms was utilised. He erected a number of fire beacons or noroshi throughout his territories. These were three-storey wooden towers surmounted by a large iron bucket or cauldron filled with flammable materials which the watcher, an ashigaru, would ignite upon seeing the signal fire of another noroshi in the distance. This system of communication the Takeda capital, Kofu, to be kept abreast of what was happening on the borders. Scouts riding fast horses would then carry the call to arms so that the population of the Takeda territories could be mobilised for war relatively quickly, augmenting the small permanent garrisons of samurai and ashigaru and Takeda Shingen's large bodyguard of 3,000 troops.

Armour

As the importance of the common infantryman increased in the Momoyama Period so were the feudal lords more ready to equip them with the necessary protection. Basic cuirasses with attached kusazuri, protection for the arms in the form of kote (little more than armoured bags strapped onto the arms) and the cone-shaped jingasa helmet were the eventual ashigaru uniform in the 16th century. Before then the ashigaru, as part-time ashigaru soldiers, wore precious little armour and if he did wear any it was probably stolen or looted from the battlefield.

Before donning the armour properly, the ashigaru wore a simple loincloth and a long shirt with short sleeves. Next he put on a pair of close-fitting trousers and, if it was cold, would then put on a pair of tabi socks, but otherwise his feet would be bare. Footwear were the usual straw sandals worn by samurai and kiahan or gaiters would sometimes be worn. A belt would be worn to keep the shirt and trousers tight and a short sword or wakizashi would be thrust through the belt (the Separation Edict, however, allowed the ashigaru to wear the daisho, i.e. katana and wakizashi, because they were now classed as samurai). Next the ashigaru would comb his hair and tie it back after which a hachimaki or headband, in the same manner as the samurai, would be tied on. This made wearing the jingasa more comfortable to wear. The ashigaru would then strap on his kote or armoured sleeves.

Finally there came the do or cuirass. The ones worn by the ashigaru were invariably less ornate and sophisticated than those worn by the samurai. As the 16th century progressed the standard issue was the okegawa-do which was made from horizontal plates riveted together to give a smooth finish. Other armour were spawned from this which the ashigaru might wear including the hotoke-do (smooth-surfaced do, sometimes made from one plate), the tatami-gusoku (straw-mat armour made from sewing metal plates onto cloth) and the Yukinoshita-do worn by the ashigaru of Date Masamune. The front and back of the do bore the mon or badge of the clan the ashigaru belonged to. A sashimono, an identifying banner or flag proclaiming the ashigaru's allegiance, was worn in a socket on the back of the do.

The ashigaru, unlike the samurai, were expected to carry all their provisions and other supplies on their person. Rice would be carried in small bundles linked together so that it could be worn over the shoulders. A utility bad would also be carried which contained medicines, paper, writing brushes, a small knife, string as well as any other knick-knacks.

Weapons

In the early stages of their development the ashigaru answered the call to battle with little more than the weapons they could steal or loot from previous conflicts. Many would also carry farming tools, such as the sickle, and bamboo poles sharpened like a spear. At this time the ashigaru were only meant to provide the numbers to an army while the samurai did the real fighting. Certainly by the 14th century, as in the Nanbokucho Wars mentioned above, we see ashigaru armed with bows. The Hojo clan's call to arms issued in 1560 mentions 'men are to bring with them a gun, spear, or any kind of weapon, if they happen to possess one, without fearing to get into trouble'. The primary weapons of the ashigaru was the spear, longbow, and arquebus.

The spears carried by ashigaru were identical to those carried by the samurai and were wielded in the same way. However, by about 1530 the ashigaru spear lengthened to resemble something closer to a pike and was called a nagae yari or long-shafted spear. The length of the spear was usually three ken with one ken equal to about 1.6 metres, changing later to 1.8 metres - Oda Nobunaga's spearmen apparently carried spears 5.6 metres long. Now the ashigaru were trained to fight as a group and form up in several ranks while the samurai indulged in their pursuit of single combat and duels with worthy foes. The nagae yari consisted of an inner core of hardwood (usually oak) with a layer of bamboo laminated onto its surface. For protection against inclement weather the entire length of the shaft was lacquered.

The longbow carried by the ashigaru was the same as the version carried by the samurai. It was made from deciduous wood faced with bamboo and was reinforced with a binding of rattan to further strengthen the composite weapon together. Like the spear the longbow was also lacquered to waterproof it. The length of the weapon was considerable, just over two metres, and was bent in the shape of a double curve. The bowstring was made from a fibrous substance originating from plants (usually hemp or ramie) and was coated with wax to give a hard smooth surface and in some cases it was necessary for two people to string the bow. It took a lot of training to be proficient with the longbow because of the strength needed to draw it. Ashigaru archers often supplemented arquebus units and operated in their squads because their rate of fire was superior. Yet as time went on the arquebusier had to be just as highly trained once it became necessary to fire the weapon and reload quickly.

The arquebus came to Japan via the Portuguese in 1543 and was first used in open battle in 1549 by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma. The arquebus was approximately five feet long and was fired when a smouldering match fastened into a serpentine was dropped on to the touch hole and the process was operated by a sprung trigger. To prevent premature explosions a brass cover was fitted over the firing pan. As has already been mentioned above the disadvantage of the arquebus was its rate of fire compared to the longbow and the fact that the firearm's fuse was in danger of getting wet during inclement weather thus making it useless. But the arquebus was simple to use and had a maximum range of 500 metres although to cause casualties the range would be reduced to about 200 metres. Furthermore it was a useful weapon to use in sieges and against fortified positions. Extra training was needed to make the ashigaru arquebusier reload quickly and to fire in controlled volleys, a fact that wasn't lost on Oda Nobunaga in the battle of Nagashino (1575.) The arquebus was a weapon the Japanese adopted with enthusiasm and in fact for the invasion of Korea in 1592 the soldiers were told to only bring guns with them.

Further Reading

Nagashino 1575 (Osprey Publishing) - Stephen Turnbull.

Samurai Armies (Osprey Publishining) - Anthony J Bryant.

Samurai (World of the Warrior) - Stephen Turnbull.

Warriors of Medieval Japan - Stephen Turnbull.