Age of Provincial Wars of Japan. Part One.

I think Americans saw a news report that American politicians criticized Abe who mention about military prostitution. Japanese communist party also criticized him, saying Abe skews history. Abe seems said so to make a feint against North Korea and I don't think Abe was wrong in that he make much of historical fact. And he can't be attuned to North Korea's logic. As far as I know he just mentioned about uncertainty and insisted necessity of study. If Abe was wrong, the timing is off and he needed attention. When I was watching communist leader saying "Abe skews History" on TV news, I've said "You also too.".



Communist party's historical view is that person of power oppressed people in Japan. Their view is dual that bloodsucker and victim. Well, was there only this simple structure in the era? I don't think so. As I said before, Japanese school teachers were affected by communist thought. Historians also affected by it. They studied history from a view of power too much.



Resent Japanese historians have a different view. They regard lords as a part of social system and regard lords also were forced by the people and situation in the era.



Since I was a 9 years old, I've been very interesting in age of provincial wars. I read so many History novels before now. History novels are still very popular in Japan. But many of main characters are lords. Generally speaking, novelists tend to not to mention about one of the core system of the age.



It was village. Today I only mention about early 16th century.



Japanese village was a kind of nation state. There were several hundreds people or several tens people in a village. There was a shrine or temple in a village and it was a kind of assembly hall. It was a kind of a Capitol Hill. People gathered and they ruled with collegial system. The village was public. The public village has police authority, power to levy taxes, and other authorities. Sometimes the public forced people to join wars.



There were many villages side-by-side in Japan. Needless to say, each others, villages claimed ownership of resources that water and mountains which has fertilizer etc. Often it has become war.



Medieval times in Japan was a famine era. Often disasters hit Japan. You know typhoon, earthquake, flood, mudslide, cold summer damage and so on. Japan in the era didn't have enough irrigation plants. People often suffered from mighty famine and epidemic. (It is said such situation in Japan has relation with that buddhism was accepted by people.)



They fought with sword, bow, spear and gun(after that we started to make guns). Middle-aged men conduct the troops, and younger people followed the command. Sometimes enemy(other village troops) invaded into the village, then women and old people also fought. Women held a shield and they support the war. I need to mention many other things but I skip them.



Village allied itself with other villages. When 2 villages fought, many villages had a war. They need to be allied to survive.



I read about a case in Oumi province(近江の国), current Shiga prefecture. The war brought into court of 室町幕府(Muromachi Shogunate) in Kyoto and it was resolved but a village which was invaded had to pay so much money for the case, and paid so much rice and etc to allies. Those budget made the village run into debt. In the era, interest rate was 50% to 60%.



Lords sometimes join the wars between villages. I'll mention about how those village made lords soon.



It is a photo of Ishiyama temple in Shiga prefecture.