When is this Movie Set?
I'd just like to know.
shareI'm thinking early "sengoku jidai", or the era of warring states, since back then Japan was all little independent areas constantly fighting each other and such circumstances could definitely have occurred. Early judging by as most samurai are still riding horses. Toward the end of the era and the beginning of the Tokugawa reign cavalries were mostly replaced by foot soldiers. Anyway, I'd say around 1500.
shareI dont think so. they wariors all have the classic japanese wepons, but they also carry guns. The 1500's wouldnt work because japan wasnt intoduced to guns untill the late 1800's early 1900's. I think the mixing of the elemnts of the times is a way for Kurosawa so show that the themes used in his movie are timeless.
shareActually, Japan was introduced to matchlock firearms in the 1540's. In Kurosawa's film "Kagemusha" he depicts the Battle of Nagashino in 1575, where the Oda-Tokugawa army's musketeers rout Takeda's cavalry by keeping up a constant barrage of fire. In the 1600's, technological advances in firearms slowed considerably, but when the ports were reopened for foreign trade in 1854, there was renewed interest in firearm technology and importing. This is just a guess, but are you basing your thoughts off "The Last Samurai" which makes it seem like the Japanese had never seen a gun before Tom Cruise shows up?
sharebrandoniak-1 is correct. Oda Nobunaga made great use of the weapon in the 16th century, improving and expanding on the use of firearms. Crude firearms were introduced to Japan in the late 1400s.
Japan was introduced to firearms when the Portuguese made first western contact in 1542. The Japanese didn't start by employing muskets in regimented formation right away; instead they used them for sniping (because they were often rewarded personally for each enemy casualty.) Conscripted peasant soldiers were organized into loose musket units used to break up enemy ranks as early as the battle of Nagashino 1575 (I think this battle was depicted in Kurosawa's 'Kagemusha'.) However, near the end of the feudal period Samaria were used to form more professional and aggressive musket units, or dragoons (to use the British term). This was first recorded in the battle of Sekigahara in 1600. So, if we see individual samurai using muskets, if must be between 1542 and 1575 (roughly, of course.) If peasants were using them it would have been after 1575 (these units were not disbanded as quickly as one might think, many samurai thought muskets were against the warrior code; bushido. It was considered a 'dirty' way of fighting and was left to the peasants, yes, like in 'Last Samurai'.) So, if it were organized samurai musketeers, like in Kurosawa's 'Ran', in would have to be some time after 1600. Or, it could be that Kurosawa didn't pay that much attention to being as historically accurate; in which case it could be whenever and I just waste my time... lol.
shareThe story would have taken place after 1549 and before 1586. Type of armour, sashimono, the ragged appearance of ashigaru, the use of guns and more importantly, the war between 'independent' clans. All fit between 1549 and 1586.
By 1586 most clans had submitted to Toyotomi Hideyoshi. By 1591 Hideyoshi completed the unification of Japan. Battles between 'independent' clans were over and a thing of the past. All clan armies served only the Taiko Hideyoshi. His 'Separation Edict' in 1591 made all part-time peasant soldiers, the ashigaru, permanent full-time footsoldiers, recognized officially as lower-rank samurai. They became well-trained and fully-equipped footsoldiers.
Firearms were first used at the Battle of Uedahara in 1548, the Murakami used Chinese arquebus against the Takeda. The first use of Portuguese firearms was at the siege of Kajiki in 1549 by the Shimazu, but Japanese pirates, the 'wako', were already using Portuguese firearms against coastal targets in mainland Asia the year before.
Many daimyo were sharpshooters. Oda Nobunaga practiced with the gun as a form of martial arts. Nobunaga's generals, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the future shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, fought as matchlockmen while covering Nobunaga' retreat in one campaign. The great daimyo of Sendai Date Masamune equipped all his troops with bulletproof Sendai-do armour. At Osaka castle in 1615 he personally shot his own exhausted men when he mistook them for being cowards.
Nobunaga's use of volley fire at Nagashino 1575 was not his first. He first used rotating volley fire at the siege of Muraki in 1554. He knew first-hand the effect of massed gunfire by being on the receiving end. Nobunaga's most bitter enemies were the Ikko-ikki, a fanatical sect of peasants and warrior-monks well-armed with guns who defeated him in many battles prior to Nagashino.
At the siege of the fortified cathedral of Ishiyama Honganji in 1570, Nobunaga's army was stunned by the novel use of controlled volley firing by 3,000 Ikko-ikki matchlockmen. At the sieges of Nagashima in 1571 and 1573 Nobunaga's samurai were again shot to pieces by the Ikko-ikki, a bullet narrowly missing Nobunaga's ear in 1573. Nobunaga suffered more setbacks against the Ikko-ikki in 1576. An Ikko-ikki gunner wounded him in the leg at Mitsuji. Nobunaga's navy was defeated by the Mori navy who were supporting the Ikko-ikki. Both navies using large numbers of matchlockmen aboard ships. It wasn't until 1580 that Nobunaga finally crushed the Ikko-ikki.
After Nagashino, ashigaru arquebusiers were in all clan armies, taking part in all major battles afterwards. More samurai armed themselves with the gun. During the invasion of Korea (1592-98) ALL samurai and ashigaru reinforcements sent to Korea were being armed as matchlockmen, a total of 110,000 armed with guns. In naval battles against the navies of Korea and the Chinese Ming Dynasty, hundreds of samurai and ashigaru matchlockmen manned the decks. The Japanese navy were defeated in most of their battles. Sekigahara, the largest land battle in Japan at the time, the two opposing armies had between them 80,000 matchlockmen. In the last battle between samurai armies at Osaka castle 100,000 were armed as matchlockmen. Thousands of samurai matchlockmen on foot and units of mounted samurai arquebusiers, dragoons who dismounted to fight, took part in these last battles. Many samurai armour had began to look 'European', even incorporating European parts, which were more bullet-resistant.
Kurosawa knew his history, and a fictional story of 'independent' clans ruled by powerful daimyo who answered to no one, like 'The Hidden Fortress' or 'Ran' would fit before Toyotomi Hideyoshi's rise to power.
Good book on the subject is 'Giving up the Gun' by Noel Perrin. Lot's of good info in Stephen Turnbull's books too.
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