Hello,
you are correct that many armies did not have uniform
colors. In fact at that time so many different armies
would join forces and then split that the armies were
really just coalitions of different forces.
The sashimono was a device used buy a single samurai
to identify his position on the field. During this
period for the most part warrior attentandts had been
gotten rid of and the individual warrior would carry
his own sashimono on a ring and post on the back of
the armour.
Anouther form of device was the o uma jirushi. This
was the identifyibng device of a daimyo or high
ranking general in the army. This device was usually
positioned at the center of an army near were the
general was positioned. This position was usually the
point of the most conflict. The holder/holders of the
uma jirushi were considered very important and
honored.
Earlier in the e-mail I said that attendants were
mostly gotten rid of. This is true except ing the
case of the daimyo or some high ranking personages who
still had quite a few, dependant upon there income of
koku.
There are few books that talk about the actual
formatio ns and positions in early samurai warfare.
You can find some strategy maps and battle formations
in books like "sekigahara" by anthony J. Bryant.
"Nagashino" by stephen turnbull and the "Samurai
sourcebook" by stephen turnbull.
Well I hope that this has been helpful.
There are more identifying devices like religous
sayings such as namyo ho renge kyo but for the most
simple this is it.
Musashi
---
bnason@... wrote:
> Greets all!
>
> Just want to say that I'm thrilled to have found
> this list, even
> though I'm at best a pseudo-amateur historian of
> Japanese military
> history. My main interest in this group is that I'm
> an avid
> wargamer, and am putting together miniatures to
> recreate samurai
> conflicts from the feudal era (just ordered 800+
> miniatures).
>
> At first, I probably won't have a good mix of troop
> types to
> represent what would have appeared on the
> battlefield at any given
> time. I have a small contingent of monks, lots of
> mounted troops,
> and an assortment of ashigaru spearmen, bowmen, and
> some samurai
> retainers. While I have a couple ashigaru
> arquebusiers, my thought
> is that with all the mounted troops I'd best
> represent earlier
> periods of warfare (1300-1450ish or so).
>
> My conundrum is this: I'd like to paint the
> miniatures so that they
> reflect what a real army would have looked like on
> the battlefield.
> With only a few exceptions, such as Ii's Red Devil's
> in the later
> period of samurai warfare, I've run across almost no
> accounts of
> organized uniforms or the like. I've even having a
> hard time
> figuring out how sashimono's and other field
> standards would be
> used. Anyone mind giving me some tips on how they
> would be used, and
> what a typical army might look like? My guess is
> assorted colors,
> but I'm not sure. Like I said, I enjoy the history
> of the period but
> am not well versed in it.
>
> Thanks in advance!
> Ben Nason
>
>
>
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