Samurai Swordsman - Stephen Turnbull

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upon each other, they grappled fiercely so that both fell from their horses... he gripped his adversary and pinned him down so that he could not rise. Thus prostrate beneath his foe, try how he would to shift him or draw his sword, he could not so much as stir a finger to the hilt, and even when he strove to speak, so great was the pressure that no word would come forth.45

      Two bows mounted on a bow stand with a quiver.

      A fine suit of armor laced throughout with white silk.

      The intervention of a third party caused a pause in the combat, but soon they returned to the fray:

      He suddenly sprang up from the ground and dealt Moritoshi a heavy blow on the breastplate with his closed fist. Losing his balance at this unexpected attack, Moritoshi fell over backwards, when Inomata immediately leapt upon him, snatched his dagger from his side, and pulling up the skirt of his armour, stabbed him so deeply thrice that the hilt and fist went in after the blade. Having thus despatched him he cut off his head.46

      In Shōkyūki we have a full account of a vivid encounter that begins with an archery duel and is concluded by a yoroi-gumi fight using tantō:

      Pulling an outer arrow from his quiver and fitting it to his rattan-striped bow, he drew the shaft to its full length and let fly. The arrow pierced the breast plate of Takeda Rokurō’s chief retainer, who was standing at the left side of his lord, and shot through to the clover-leaf bow (the agemaki) at the armour’s back, toppling the retainer instantly from his horse. Saburō shot again, and his second arrow passed completely through the neck bone of one of Takeda Rokurō’s pages. Then Rokurō and Saburō grappled together and fell from their horses. As they tumbled back and forth, Saburō drew his dagger and pulled the crown of Rokurō’s helmet down as far as the shoulder straps of his armour. Rokurō looked to be in danger, but just at that moment Takeda Hachirō came upon the scene, and pushing Rokurō aside, cut off his assailant’s head.47

      That was the reality of samurai warfare during the “golden age.” A samurai was primarily an archer, with the sword as a secondary weapon. Yet all had to be skilled at wrestling also. This is very different from the popular image of the samurai, but it was to change dramatically over the next few centuries, as we will see.

      A suit of armor of nuinobe-do style, typical of the sixteenth century.

      Armor with a distinctive checkerboard pattern woven into the breastplate.

      Chapter 2

      SWORDS IN SERVICE

      Following the conclusion of the Gempei and Shōkyū Wars, the Japanese sword began to acquire a new role and a new significance. Although in domestic conflicts the emphasis was still on the mounted archer, knowledge both of the samurai sword and of the swordsmen who wielded it spread abroad to other countries. The result was that the sword itself and the art of the samurai swordsman became exportable items. The process began with some very harsh lessons concerning the sword’s strength and efficiency, and developed into a situation where swords were for sale and the ideal of the samurai as primarily a mounted archer slowly began to fade.

      This development could hardly have been guessed at in 1192, when the samurai of the Minamoto family had achieved the establishment of a native military dictatorship by means of their superior Way of Horse and Bow. The Minamoto, however, whose personal supremacy seemed as well assured as that of the institution of the bakufu itself, did not have long to enjoy their power, for within three generations they were supplanted by the Hōjō family. The Hōjō, nevertheless, showed a surprising respect for the institution of the shogunate and ruled Japan until 1333 in the capacity of regents. It was therefore under the Hōjō shikken (regency) that the samurai swordsman began to export his wares.

      The Dwarf Robbers

      The first foreign country to suffer from the Japanese sword was Korea, and the means was provided by the wakō, the pirates of Japan.1 This word consists of two characters. The first, wa, can mean dwarf, and was also an ancient Chinese appellation for Japan. Kō means robber or brigand, making the compound that appears in Korean as waegu and in Chinese as wokou.

      The long and disgraceful career of the wakō began during the early thirteenth century. From 1218 onwards, the Koreans had been resisting attacks from the advancing Mongols in the north of their country, a long conflict that had denuded the southern coastal area of soldiers.2 Korea therefore lay open to pillage from the seas, and the wakō took full advantage of the situation, although drought and disastrous harvests in the area of Japan that produced the pirates have also been suggested as motives for their actions. The wakō heartlands were certainly poor, and this forced their inhabitants to seek sustenance from the sea, legitimately or otherwise.3 Mounted archery would have been impossible in seaborne raids, so the wakō, even those wealthy enough to afford horses, fought on foot. Bows and arrows would still have been seen in plenty, but swords and naginata were the weapons of choice in the circumstances of a raid.

      In 1223, two years after the Shōkyū War had ended, gangs of Japanese pirates launched their first attacks on Korea’s southern coast from locations on the northern coast of Kyūshū and the islands of Iki and Tsushima, which lie in the straits between the two countries. Further raids followed in 1225, 1226, and 1227, and are well documented in both Japanese and Korean sources. A Japanese description of the 1226 raid identifies the culprits as being from the “Matsuura gang” (Matsuura-tō), who were located in Hizen Province. This raid was a much larger attack than the raid by two ships noted for 1225, because “several tens of ships” were involved. Pirates from Tsushima acted as guides, and there was apparently some participation by unemployed samurai from elsewhere in Japan, the end of the Shōkyū War having left them without work. Nevertheless, so fierce was the Korean resistance that half of the raiders were killed, while the rest returned with valuables, having burned and plundered villages. In the 1227 raid, the Korean island of Koje was targeted. This time most of the pirates escaped during the night, without meeting resistance, but two of them were captured and beheaded.4 The two attacks of 1227 led to a protest from Korea, to which the authorities on Kyūshū responded positively by executing ninety pirates in the presence of Korean envoys.5

      The use of the samurai sword is demonstrated by Tominori Suke’emon Masakata, his sword raised with both hands, as a brazier and charcoal are thrown at him.

      Mounted combat between two samurai armed with swords. Each is wearing a horo, the ornamental cloak supposedly used as an arrow-catcher, which distinguished an important samurai, such as a messenger between allied commanders.

      These executions brought the raids to a halt for over thirty years. In 1259 the wakō returned to Korea, and again in 1263 and 1266, but by then the political situation in Korea had changed dramatically. By 1259, after a succession of Mongol invasions and the flight of the Korean court, the Mongol control of Korea was virtually complete. Korea’s fate was finally to be sealed in 1273 by a dynastic marriage between the Korean crown prince and a daughter of Khubilai Khan, but by then the considerable naval resources of Korea were already at the disposal of the first Yuan (Mongol) Emperor of China, as Khubilai Khan became in 1271. It was not long before these invaders turned their attentions towards Japan, and the pirate families of Kyūshū soon found themselves wielding their swords in self-defense.

      Two samurai fight the Mongols on the

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