Sengoku No Bushido

For centuries Japan had been torn by civil war, finally reaching its height in the 15th and 16th centuries. The surrounding sea left the people isolated, and their culture rather unique as a result. Peasant fought peasant, samurai fought samurai and Daimyo fought Daimyo in a civil war that would forever change Japan’s politics and history; giving birth to the island’s most powerful and last Shogunate dynasty.​

 

By the year 1543, the very first westerners arrived in Japan in the form of Portuguese merchants and Jesuit missionaries. With them they brought many things, including new armour ideas, Christianity and lucrative trade. But most important of all, they brought gunpowder. All of this meant the Samurai of this period had a wide range of equipment and experiences available, much more than before. Both war and art flourished in this period, with war often being the first priority of noble and commoner alike.  

 

From 1540-1600, two states rose to fully unite Japan under one banner; the Oda and the Tokugawa clans. Both fought together, however the famous general Oda Nobanaga was betrayed by one of his generals and lost his life, leaving his semi-united Japan to once again plunge into chaos. It was after this that the brilliant Daimyo and tactician, Tokugawa Ieyasu, rose to power and after many battles and sacrifices became the Shogun, military ruler of all Japan. The Emperor remained as a ceremonial ‘divine head of state’, but real power ever after was held by the Tokugawa Shogunate for more than 200 years. 

 

This period, Azuchi-Momoyama, showed a very different Japan to the popular imagery presented by the Edo era afterwards all the way through to now.