Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the barricades (Campaign, 69)

as described

Without cracking open material written in Japanese it is quite difficult to get a good telling of the battles of 16th century Japan. Western scholars tend to put more emphasis on sweeping social reforms and personalities, and for the most part scholarly books gloss over battlefield specifics. Stephen Turnbull however, brings with his myriad of books, the battles to the front lines. Japanese scholars have spent lifetimes reconstructing battles and sifting through the old folk tales to try and reach the truth (if there ever was one to find), but we are lucky to have an abridged form in English that presents enough information as to feel complete. Without inundating the casual western historian with all that goes into these complicated interpretations, Stephen Turnbull writes a straightforward battle account without unnecessary scholarly debate, or, conversely, generalizations of characters. Turnbull occasionally trips up while arguing the fine details, for example armor types, something which feels a bit like name dropping in contrast to his shortened account, but for the most part this is an easy to follow narrative through one of the most surprising battles in Japanese history.Important information that is included in this book are the sizes of the opposing armies (something that is important in that these numbers can appear exaggerated in historical accounts), major troop movements, motivations for war, reasons for defeat, mindset of those fighting, and stories of individual bravery.This book sets out to be a readable narrative of one of Japan's most important battles of all time, and generally achieves that goal. I denied it five stars only because the number of illustrations became a bit of a distraction. Although visualizing the battle is important for those not familiar with Japanese weapons and fortifications, the 7 large photos of the rather mundane Nagashino battlefield today seems a bit excessive. Also the book is fleshed out with many 2 page spreads that seem a bit much. Still other photos are only loosely connected to what's being written, and appear to just be adding pages to the book. The map illustrations by Howard Gerrard are great! A wonderful view into an important Japanese battle.

A fine book that covers one of the major early battles in the career of the first of the three Great Unifiers of Japan, Oda Nobunaga. It sets down the groundwork of the campaign and its background, the careers of the commanders on all sides, the sort of weapons and training given the troops, and small personal bits here and there involving the actions of the men involved in the battle.It also has a good if brief section on Torii Sune'emon, the samurai who sneaked out of besieged Nagashino Castle and was able to bring word to Nobunaga and get his promise of help Upon returning Torii was captured by the Takedas (the clan laying siege to Nagashino) and given the chance at high rank and wealth if he betrayed his fellows. What follows is a rather heroic episode, one that as a boy I read reflected 'the truest spirit of self-sacrifice, the real flower of Bushido'. Suffice to say that it's handled very well here.I also like the attention paid to just how Nobunaga used and ordered his arquebus-armed ashigaru to help crush the Takeda, as well as relying on the ground, his knowledge of what the Takeda wanted to do and actually could do, to win the battle. The future of Japanese military history was decided here in a haze of gunfire and by the cunning of Oda Nobunaga.

Like all other books by Turnbull, this one is well-written and highly informative, but it's let down by an uncharacteristic sloppiness with regard to names and numbers. The most glaring mistakes are on page 69 (3,000 gunners can only fire 3,000 bullets, not 8-9,000, at one loading!) and page 73 (the caption mentions 12,000 horsemen - the actual number, as Turnbull himself stated elsewhere, was only a third of that). Turnbull does not explain how he derived the figure of 655 arquebusiers on the Takeda side. Nor does he account for how Baba Nobuharu could have 700 men in his vanguard (p. 77) when he was earlier only allocated 120 (p. 64), or how the Sanada brothers could lose 200 men out of a force of 250 to musket fire alone, or just what units constituted Naito Masatoyo's "initial command of 1,000" (p. 79) when he was leading a vanguard of just 250.For that matter, Sanada "Nobuteru" (p. 77) should be Masateru, as correctly named on pages 63-64. And the descriptions of Takeda Nobutomo and Nobumitsu on page 65 are a jumbled mess, clearly a victim of poor editing. Osprey ought to correct these mistakes in future editions. I also agree with previous reviewers that the binding tends to spoil the artwork of the 2-page battle scene paintings. Osprey's strength has always been in 1-page colour plates, and I wouldn't mind them reverting to that format, with smaller paintings but more of them, in the Campaign series.

Another great book by Mr. Turnbull. If you're interested in Samurai battles of the Sengoku Judai period, then give this a looksee. The battle wasn't a "classic" samurai battle in that arquebus (musket) fire is what won it for the Oda clan, but it is important and worth learning about nonetheless. More importantly, from a general strategy perspective, it demonstrates how it is wise to "Know thy enemy" and predict what they are going to do... An unfortunate blow to the Takeda clan that ultimately led to their demise....

Turnbull's description of the events leading up to this important Japanese battle are excellently presented. In a Japanese world of intrigue and deception Turnbull makes it very easy for the reader to follow and above all maintain interest. His description of the battle and the maps and charts provided make it very easy for the to follow. If you enjoy Japanese history and do not have this book, I recommend you pick up a copy.

The book gives a very good overall account of Nagashino and the siege that came just before it. Included good accounts of the armies and generals of both sides. War-game rules are there for those interest. I found this book in particular had almost an overabundance of Japanese terminology which was difficult to keep up with at times.

5/5.Toujours parfait. C'est un réel plaisir de découvrir ces ouvrages. Un seul regret : si Osprey pouvait é éditer ses ouvrages en français le plaisir serait décuplé car il faut le reconnaître, le vocabulaire ne fait pas toujours partie de l'anglais courant.

Being interested in feudal Japanese history (not to mention a Kurosawa fan), I downloaded this book for kindle. All in all I found it gives a good, comprehensive picture on the historical background, process and aftermath of this somewhat mythicised conflict, even if I am aware that some of the facts stated, e.g. the number of casualties on the Takeda side, are somewhat controversial among historians. Stephen Turnbull's clear style and obvious expertise in the subject matter make the book very readable and informative, even to those relatively unversed in Japanese history. The historical images and illustrations also help visualise the nature of warfare in 1570s Japan.As has been mentioned in several other reviews, the main negative point of this book has to be the maps. While they would have been very good if left intact, the fact that they have been rather clumsily split up over several pages makes it very hard to get a proper picture of the geographical and chronological layouts of the campaign and its battles. If the editors had at least left the map legends on the same pages as the events they describe, it would have saved me a good deal of flicking back and forth between pages.In the end, however, the negatives do not detract too much from the book's general quality, and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in Japanese military history.

A useful reference book. Dispatched on time. No complaints.

Vous aimez les histoires du Japon médiéval et vous avez adoré le film Kagemusha, alors, si vous lisez l'anglais, passez un bon moment grâce à la lecture de ce livre qui explique les enjeux stratégiques de la bataille concluant le film Kurosawa. Ce petit ouvrage historiques montre comment, par une des premières utilisations des armes à feu sur un champ de bataille au Japon , les armées du grand et mythique défunt Takeda Shingen, menées par son héritier Katsuyori, ont été défaites par la coallition des forces d'Oda Nobunaga et Tokugawa Ieyasu. C'est bien fait, facile à suivre. Profitez en !