Monks, Mercenaries and Muskets

A historical account of warrior monks, mercenaries, and Buddhist confederates who used firearms to challenge samurai dynasties across two centuries of Japanese warfare.Monks, Mercenaries and Muskets chronicles a series of little-known campaigns where armies of warrior monks, mercenaries, and fanatical Buddhist confederates, who had gained early expertise with firearms, challenged Japan's elite samurai over nearly two centuries.The samurai, who evolved over many centuries into a unique military class, were never Japan's only warriors. Several alternative groups existed, some of whom fought under the banner of a sacred three-legged crow and cherished legends of holy men appearing in the sky or riding into battle on the backs of giant octopuses. Yet whatever fantasies they embraced off the battlefield, in the mundane reality of Japanese warfare, these warriors were among the first to deploy firearms in anger and were almost certainly the first to use them effectively. Some had been...

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More by Stephen Turnbull

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