History of Asia

From Nobunaga to Hideyoshi and Ieyasu ... The purpose and status of the separation of soldiers and farming

Generally separation of soldiers and farming Is Toyotomi Hideyoshi Taiko Kenchi, Sword Hunt, Population Census It is often written about policies that clarify the identity of the person, but the basic thing is Nobunaga Oda * . Thinks, Hideyoshi Developed by Ieyasu Tokugawa in the Edo period Will complete.

Today I would like to think about the separation of soldiers and farming.

Before Nobunaga, the line between soldier and farmer status was not clear.
Many of the samurai were in the village, and when the war broke out, they themselves engaged in farm work. For that reason, I had to pull soldiers once during the farming season.

Nobunaga's plan to separate soldiers and farmers

Therefore, Nobunaga intends to create a system that enables long-term battles anytime, anywhere. If military commanders and soldiers are stationed in the castle regardless of the farming season, you will be able to do that.

Separation of soldiers and farming As a measure, Nobunaga hired soldiers with money to regular soldiers (mercenaries) . Was terminated in the castle. He also considered his own vassals to live in the castle so that they could form soldiers who would not be caught during the farming season.

Regular soldier Another reason why he needs it is because of Nobunaga's fighting style.

Nobunaga's tactics are developing operations that effectively use spears and guns. It requires military training. Especially for new weapons such as guns, specialized military training Difficult to use in practice without.

Prior to other Sengoku daimyo, it seems that a specialist specializing in them was needed to introduce a large number of new weapons, such as guns, and to win the battle with the use of those weapons and innovative tactics.

That said, at the beginning, Nobunaga's army was also regular soldier . There are not many records of fighting during the farming season because the proportion of the fish was small. Separation of soldiers and farming It seems that the progress was made when the land that was not in contact with foreign enemies was created in the territory of Oda to some extent after the Ikko-ikki of Nagashima.

By carrying out unprecedented military reforms in this way, it will be called the most organized and tactical army in the Warring States period.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi's sword hunting order

This system was Toyotomi (Hashiba) Hideyoshi after the Honnoji Incident. Will be inherited by.

However, as the number of cases where farmers abandon fields and become mercenaries has increased, there has been a shortage of people engaged in agriculture. So Hideyoshi returns the former farmers who became mercenaries to the village to engage in agriculture, and picks up weapons from the farmers so that they will never leave the fields.

This is [ sword hunting 】is.

At the same time, we started Taiko Kenchi . is.

Kenchi ⇒ Land survey for the purpose of farmer control and collection of annual tribute

At Taiko Kenchi, by allocating farmland to farmers one by one,

  1. Separated from soldiers and agriculture, soldiers do not engage in agriculture
  2. Samurai move away from the village to the castle

Hideyoshi also 1591 Population Census I made a law.

Population Census

Law prohibiting samurai from becoming tradesmen or peasants, or peasants from becoming merchants or craftsmen

In this way, the number of households and population will be investigated and determined by samurai, tradesman, peasant and occupation.

As a result, the status of each person will not change and the status will be clearly determined.

Separation of soldiers and farmers under the Tokugawa administration

Under the Tokugawa administration, the shogunate will skillfully promote the separation of soldiers and farmers.

The samurai were gathered in the castle town, and the craftsmen and merchants who supply the samurai with armor and daily necessities also moved to the castle town. This separated the producer and the consumer.

This was to isolate the samurai, who are professionals in combat, as the samurai class and keep them under the control of the shogunate, and to engage the farmers only in production.

These measures in the early Edo period focused on creating a system to prevent the world from becoming a turbulent world again.

Summary

  • Until now, it was a style in which people who normally work in farming were convened during the war to fight, so it was not possible to fight during the busy farming season. Therefore, by dividing the labor between the samurai and the peasants, the samurai could work hard on their daily training, and the peasants could concentrate on their farm work.
  • By picking up weapons from farmers, you can prevent rebellion and solve the labor shortage to abandon fields and become mercenaries.
  • In order to improve the dominance of the samurai, we tried to create a samurai society in which the samurai stand on top of the peasants by clarifying the distinction between the samurai and the peasants.
  • In the Edo period, the samurai and peasants were separated, and producers and consumers were separated.

In particular, Hideyoshi was from a farmer, so he knew the horror of the farmer, so it is thought that he made many policies.