So I was just playing Shogun 2 for the first time and I don't

You probably one of those people who think Medieval warfare was conducted exclusively by knights.

Samurai weren't a strictly defined caste until the Tokugawa era, when the shogunate passed a number of laws delineating who qualified to be in the caste and regulations on their dress and behaviour.

The Sengoku period takes place before that, when social mobility was considerably higher.

>>1940847
You are a retard, this is a legitimate question

>>1940846
You are also a retard, since it can be answered by googling for 5 seconds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashigaru

>>1940851
Also to predict the inevitable follow-up - most ideals about a "samurai code" or "samurai duty" or "bushido" or other such ideals were generally written during the Edo period, and do not necessarily reflect the factual reality of how samurai behaved in the past. The "definitive" works of bushido like the Hagakure weren't written until the 18th century.

>>1940846
The Ashigaru had their origins during the Japanese Conquest of the North from the indigenous Emishi and other tribes that the Yamato considered "barbarian." Problem was: the Japs are afraid of them because they are good horsemen and deadly with a bow.

To jack up the invasion of the North, the Emperor increased the rewards of being a soldier: fiefs for generals, lands for warriors. And so the nobles and their coterie of professional warriors took up the call. Along the way however the warriors took any peasant volunteers willing to join them, and there were plenty since >Free land is a big motivator.

Well eventually much of the wild North was conquered and everyone settled in their new lands. Or went home to their former lands now freed up by all those migrants who followed the army. The warriors who followed their noble generals became the samurai. However the guys under the warriors pretty much followed their masters and in peace helped their samurai farm his land, but in times of war, accompanied their masters to war.

These peasant soldiers were the origin of Ashigaru. There wasnt no de facto frozen, clearly outlined warrior class prior Hideyoshis social reforms, ergo they were peasant at peace and soldiers in war

The ashigaru are basically militia/conscripts with some military training. The Samurai get all the glory but the Ashigarus are the ones storming castles, taking charges and garrisoning forts.

It would also interest you to know that katanas as a soul of the samurai came about AFTER major wars during a team of peace.

The Samurai at war were far more known for using bows, being horse archers, pole arms and were very strong advocates for guns.

>>1940846
Ashigaru made the bulk of the soldiers in a daimyo's army. They didn't properly rival the samurai in power until Nobunaga Oda put effort into his Ashigaru.

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>>1940852

Wasn't the sengoku jidai the sort of pike-and-shot era of japan? I mean, armies getting larger and using more firearms

>>1941229
AFAIK firearms played only minor role in the early SJ, but came to prominence towards the end.

>>1940846
There was really nothing that stopped people from being armed and joining wars before the end of the Sengoku Period.

The only difference between the Ashiggy and the Samurai were Samurai held land, trained professionally, and did nothing else but be as warrior as he can be.

The Ashigaru on the other hand initially started as a mix of levied peasants, tenant peasant moonlighting as armsmen, various mercenaries, and other non-professional part timer fighters. Their job basically was to be the potatoes to the samurai's meat: basically just to field a number of fighters on the quick without relying upon expensive samurai.

Initially they were seen as nothing better than jackals following samurai around to the sweet loot and seen as unruly, ill disciplined fighters. However the Warring States changed all that leading to the professionalization of the footsoldiers, lumping them into the Bushi class as professional, non-samurai soldiers.

>>1940871
>The Ashigaru had their origins during the Japanese Conquest of the North from the indigenous Emishi and other tribes that the Yamato considered "barbarian.

completely false

>>1940846
While various forms of light troops always existed, such as the akuso, ashigaru really did not begin appearing in any significant numbers until the 15th century, when independent lords finally had the wealth to organized armies in the thousands rather than the tens or hundreds.

Sometimes they were considered samurai, and the fought alongside lower class samurai, but in general they were considered below the lowest bar of the samurai cast.

Generally they were peasants or mercenaries hired or forced into military service. soldiers who should extraordinary skill or bravery could be rewarded with samurai status and even access to high office such as Hideyoshi

Some of you are alright. Don't go to Honoji tomorrow.