The Muromachi era (1338-1573) is quite less popular. We supposed 3 reasons why this era was less popular in the previous article.
The 1st speculating is the severity of explaining the essence of this era. To put it plainly, the researchers' can't explain the rise of the Muromachi era amusingly. So, people misunderstand that this era is drab. However, we don't re-examine at the moment.
The 2nd speculating is that the opposite relationships at the rise of the Muromachi era were complicated. We examined this point. At the beginning of the examination, we regarded this was quite complicated in accordance with the guess. And we tried to compare the Muromachi era and the Azuchi-momoyama era (quite popular among today's Japanese). Then, in conclusion, we spotted the degrees of complexity of these eras were similar. So, we concluded this 2nd reason isn't true in the previous article.
The 3rd speculating is the lack of information of this era. We can hardly know the things happened in this era. Especially about Kassen (Japanese use "Kassen (合戦)" when they express "Wars" at that time). If you compare wars happened in the Muromachi era and these happened in the Azuchi-momoyama era, we haven't enough information about previous wars. And, we supposed that was an essential reason for unpopularity of the Muromachi era. It may not be so important the details of wars, but, we think, if there were deficiencies of information, you might not be interested in this era.
The Akasaka castle war
The background of this war:
This war happened because Kusunoki Masashige (楠木正成) who dissatisfied with the government of the Kamakura shogunate raised his army at the Akasaka castle. Before the raising of him, the emperor Godaigo (後醍醐天皇) asked several local regional warriors to rise against the Kamakura shogunate. At the same time, the emperor Godaigo escaped from Kyoto to the Kasagi mountain (笠置山). Kusunoki Masashige responded the emperor Godaigo's offer and he entered the Akasaka castle. He fought against the soldiers who belonged to the Kamakura shogunate side.
The scale of the battle:
According to a tale named "the Taiheiki", Kusunoki's soldiers were 500, and the Kamakura shogunate's soldiers were 300,000. The tale describes only 500 soldiers fought against 300,000 enemy soldiers during about one month. It's a saga, but we can't believe this heroic description, because it has a lack of reality. There is another estimate but also suspicious. According to this estimation, the Kamakura shogunate's soldiers were around 10,000. This estimation has more believable ring of truth, however, the Akasaka castle was in the deep in the mountains. Still suspicious to believe this estimation. It's difficult to gather 10,000 people there, even in the previous age when the traffic has become convenient.
About the expectations of the characters:
We think the emperor Godaigo's strategy was quite sloppy. He believed he was popular, and if he started the war against the Kamakura shogunate, many influential regional people would respond to his activity. However, in reality, only armed priests of the Enryakuji temple (延暦寺)and Kusunoki's army fought for him. In the long run, his sloppy overeager became the trigger of the overthrow of the Kamakura shogunate. If he had tried this risky action betting the danger of his death, it would be kind of strategy. These whole story looks like a story made later (in our opinion).
We would like to think about the situation the war had happened. The Kamakura shogunate placed their stationed troops in Kyoto. Because their headquarters was located in Kamakura city far from Kyoto. When the emperor Godaigo raised his army, the stationed troops of the Kamakura shogunate waited to start battles and requested reinforcements to make absolutely sure. After the arrival of the reinforcements, the stationed troops and the reinforcements started battles. The Kamakura shogunate amy got smooth victory in regular tactics. So, we think there weren't brave activities of the anti-shogunate armies. How come the Akasaka-castle-siege-saga exists?
The battle of Nagashino
The background of this war:
Takeda Katsuyori (武田勝頼), one of strong Sengoku warriors raised his troopers to occupy Totoumi (遠江) and Mikawa (三河) region. And Oda Nobunaga (織田信長) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康) battled against him to avoid his invasion. However, there are several explanations why the Takeda army invaded the Nagashino castle which located in the mountainous Mikawa region.
The scale of the battle:
It is said that the Takeda army had 15 thousands people, the Nagashino castle had 5 hundreds, the Oda army had 30 thousands, and the Tokugawa army had 8 thousands. There would not be a big difference between the ratio of these armies. Some researchers present new ideas even now. Although we don't think the silliness in these numbers we felt when we saw the difference in the size of the armies of the Akasaka castle siege.
About the expectations of the characters:
It is said that the reason the Takeda army attacked was an imitating of his father's strategy. His father had had a strategy to advance to Kyoto and govern whole Japan. There is a new theory which was born recently. He knew the difference in the size of the armies realistically, and he aimed to destroy the Tokugawa army relatively small scale. And there is an another theory. The difference in the size of the armies would change in a disadvantageous direction year after year. Furthermore, his allies were destroyed one after another. So, he decided all-or-nothing trial, because the sooner the better.
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By the way, the difference of around 250 years gave people many changes in the idea of recording battles. Reporters lived around 1575 knew the incorrectness of the describing way of "Taiheiki" style or tale style. The way of describing historical tale made the records incorrect and deliberate. So, they recorded the fact and didn't describe their imaginary story. These changes made the records more correct and more detailed. Furthermore, number of people who intended to record experience of battles increased in the end of the Sengoku period compared with the beginning of the Muromachi period.
Even though 450 years had passed after the battle of Nagashino, there are still incorrect and vague descriptions of historical records. There are many records nowadays, however, still uncertainty remains.
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Now, let's return to the story of unpopularity. We supposed the reason of unpopularity of this era is uncertainty of information about wars happened in this era. We conclude that uncertainty of information causes the lack of interest. However, we think it doesn't cause the unpopularity of the Muromachi era.
We supposed the 3 reasons, and found 2 of 3 weren't true. Then, how about the 3rd one, namely, severity of explaining the essence of the Muromachi era? We can't conclude with conviction, but we believe this is the reason of unpopularity of this era. We feel difficult to expand our understanding of this era. And we can't feel familiarity, and we come to think unpopular.
In the Kamakura period, people in the administration had strong willing to record their own history. Because the Kamakura shogunate was the 1st administration governed by samurai people. On the other hand, people in the administration of the Muromachi shogunate had less passion to record their history. Because they believed the emperor Godaigo govern smoothly at first. But, his administration failed very soon. So, the 2nd administration governed by samurai was born quite unavoidably. The birth of the shogunate made the people in the administration played by ear. Furthermore, they had to battle restlessly, so, they couldn't have the perspective they had to record their history correctly.
Finally we expect someone to reconsider this era and reconstruct the explanation of the Muromachi era. Current explanation of this era isn't attractive! Someday someone explains this era attractively. Then, people will reconsider the Muromachi era's popularity. We expect the arrival of the day and finish this article.
