Mounted Pre-Samurai
April 14, 2011 by beerogre
I'm no Japanese history buff... my knowledge of Japanese history extends to watching the Seven Samurai and the classic of modern Japanese cinema... the Twilight Samurai (if you haven't seen it, it's well worth a watch).
However, Khurasan Miniatures have released some 15mm pre-samurai... erm... Japanese warriors I suppose.
These guys are mounted and there's a command and an archery unit, as well as loads more of the range on their website.
I'm sure some of historical buffs can give us a bit on a explanation as to the time period and some of the background.
BoW Andy
Samurai is basically what we all know them as. Well trained elite individuals. Otherwise you were a ronin, simply meaning an armed man. troops/soldiers/units,which is a basic soldier hired to serve the regions lords. Or even a conscript, drafted in from the general public in times of crysis.
Ronin was the name for Samurai without a master. The ordinary troops had various names but were commonly called Ashigaru.
The term samurai first appears in about 1000AD. These figures represent Japanese troops of about 800AD.
The history of Japan is very tricky, the farther it goes back the trickier it becomes, in fact its earliest history is mostly in mythic format with gods and goddesses instead of rulers. Because of this it is hard to tell what actually accrued at that time from records. what we do know is that early Japan unsuccessfully intervened in Three Kingdom Korea against Silla and their Tang allies and that the early Japanese where constantly fighting the indigenous Japanese tribes and each other.