Osprey Essential Histories 46 : War in Japan 1467-1615

In 1467 the Onin War ushered in a period of unrivalled conflict and rivalry in Japan that came to be called the Age of Warring States (Sengoku Jidai). Stephen Turnbull offers a masterly exposition of the wars. Setting the scene, he explains what led to Japan's disintegration into warring states after more than a century of peace; the years of fighting that followed; and the period of gradual fusion when the daimyo (great names) strove for the power to reunite Japan under a new Shogun. In addition, he assesses the military developments that saw weapons change from bows and arrows to cannon, as well as the personalities and abilities of key leaders. It was a time that saw the disappearance from history of names that went back centuries to some illustrious ancestor, and their replacements by warlords whose only claim to fame was their own success in war. It began with an isolated Japan where the wars of continental East Asia had little influence, and ended with Japan trading with Europe and sending mercenaries to fight abroad. It began with a country fearful of the memory of foreign invasion, and ended with a country that dissolved into its final civil war after having been exhausted in a disastrous foreign invasion of its own. After almost 150 years of continuous warfare, peace finally returned to Japan with the end of the Osaka War in 1615, but only at the end of the most violent, turbulent, cruel and exciting time in Japanese history. Text by Stephen Turnbull.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chronology
• Background to War : Loyalty to the Shogun Collapses
• Warring Sides : Rival Samurai Armies
• Outbreak : The Age of Fission
• The Fighting : Samurai at War
• Portrait of a Soldier : Kato Kiyomasa
• The World around War : The End of the Farmer-Warrior
• Portrait of a Civilian : Sen Rikyu
• How the War Ended : The Triumph of the Tokugawa
• Conclusion and Consequences : Japan Closes its Doors