C. SEKIGAHARA 1600
In
the year 1600, after 150 years of perpetual warfare, Japan’s warlords
united behind two rival factions triggered by the death of the great
warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The
two contenders for power were Ishida Mitsunari
and Tokugawa leyasu.Their
contest was finally settled by a huge force of arms in a small
mountain valley in central Japan.
By
the end of that day, on 21 October 1600, 40,000 corpses from both
armies lay dead across the grass of the small valley as Tokugawa leyasu became the undisputed master of Japan.Within three short years the Emperor
himself would grant him the ultimate title he sought… Shogun.
This
particular battle and the warriors who
fought it are the focus of this colouful
new and exciting King & Country series that captures the unique
military style and fighting techniques of medieval Japan alongwith the Samurai and Ashigaru warriors who took
part in this mighty struggle.
HOW DID THIS SERIES COME ABOUT?
Back
in 2005 King & Country was commissioned to design and produce a
whole series of single, 1:30 scale, all-metal, hand-painted figurines
of Japanese of the Samurai period by Del Prado Japan.
For
the previous 5 years K&C had already been designing and producing
several historical series of figures for Del Prado in
Spain.
This
had begun with ‘Soldiers of the 20th Century’,
a range of over 100 individual figures depicting soldiers from
different armies of the world wearing the weapons, uniforms and
equipment from various wars that stretched from the Boer War in
1900 up through both World Wars to smaller but no less
bloody, conflicts in Vietnam and The Middle
East.
Following
that success we went on to develop two more successful series
covering the different European armies of the ‘Napoleonic Era’…
both Infantry and Cavalry with 120
figures in each series.After that our next
Del Prado project was one K&C actually suggested to them… ‘Firemen
of The World’.Like the last two series
this was to comprise 120 individual ‘Firemen’ with
the very first in the range to be a New York City Fireman from
the 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001.
While
still working on this series one of D P’s Asian subsidiaries, Del
Prado Japan requested we work with them on a series of
figures depicting Samurai warriors as well as the lesser-known
‘Ashigaru’ soldiers who were the more
common and more numerous foot soldiers of that period.
Now,
jump forward 20 years to 2025 when myself and my wife, Liza went
on a walking tour of central Japan with a group of friends.
Each
day we would hike for 10-15km. and each evening would stop at a
traditional Japanese Inn to eat and sleep in the Japanese style
before beginning a different walk the next morning.
During
this tour we had the opportunity to visit several amazing Japanese
castles which often would have life size figures of traditional ‘Samurai’
warriors and ‘Ashigaru’ foot
soldiers.
One
particular castle even had ‘live’ versions of these
figures walking around or standing guard for visitors to take photos with.It was truly
inspiring and I was duly inspired seeing them!
While
I was doing all of this I also discovered that at each of the castles
we came to had ‘Gift Shops’ for visitors to purchase mementos
of their visit – Postcards, Tablemats, Drinks coasters and all
kinds of nice little ‘nicknacks’ but,
alas, not one miniature figurine!?!
Once
back in Hong Kong I took a closer look at what some of our
competitors had produced and was nicely surprised to see some
excellent figures but none that wanted to tell this story in the same
way K&C want to tell it.
And
so, here is the first little ‘peek behind the kimono’ to
show you what we plan on releasing.
Our
simple, straight-forward concept is to offer a wide range of action
figures that in the case of the rank and file ‘Ashigaru’ foot soldiers we will offer
each individual figure in the different colour
of the two opposing armies.A range of
single Samurai warriors and leaders will also be
included in this series.
A WORD ABOUT THE ‘ASHIGARU’
In
medieval Japan the great mass of low-ranking foot soldiers were known
as ‘Ashigaru’ or ‘light
feet’ and began to be adopted into the ranks of most
feudal-period Samurai armies towards the end of the 15th century.
Very
rudimentary sets of basic designs of armour
known as ‘Okashi Gosuka’ or ‘Light
Armour’ were often produced in bulk
to be issued to these ‘warriors on foot’.
Among
their primary weapons were long lances or spears called ‘Yari’ which could be as
long as nine feet in length.
Other
large formations of ‘Ashigaru’ were
comprised almost exclusively of ‘Arquebusiers’, a
matchlock predecessor of the musket and, of course, ‘Archers’.
In
addition to their primary weapon virtually every ‘Ashigaru’ also carried a long sword (called a
‘Tachi’ or ‘Katana’) and sometimes also a
smaller sword called a ‘wakizashi’.
Here
is just the first small installment of our fighting ‘Ashigaru’ warriors belonging to the ‘Western
Army’ of Ishido Mitsunari (1560-1600).
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