Historical Ronin at Osaka Question

[Goliad]

I know at the siege of Osaka the Western army had large number of Ronin in its ranks but I wonder what these Ronin would have looked like versus daimyo Samurai. There seems to be a "movie" impression of Ronin as the unkempt, unarmoured warrior but it seems to me that in 1615 there would have been less to differentiate Ronin from Samurai. Over time I can imagine Ronin equipment falling into disrepair and with no income for replacements they would have evolved more towards a poorer more unkempt look but how far along was this process by 1615? Is there any portion of the Osaka screens that show Ronin?

[OSHIROmodels]

They most likely would've been a mixed bunch of raggedyness and fairly well to do.

There is a good chance that they would've been given a commanders (possibly either Ishida or Mori) sashimono to help identify them on the field (even though they were part of a siege). They could've also kept their original sashimono or just been without

They would've been fed, housed and had the opportunity to fix or replenish their armour in the time leading up to the siege depending on what was available.

For gaming it would probably work best if they are more unkempt than possibly they were in reality, just to give it a little bit of flavour 

Mix the armour colours more than you would do normally to help with the impression of them being 'cobbled' together.

cheers

James

[Goliad]

Thank you very much!

[carlos13th]

Black hats armoued ronin would work well as rag tag looking armoued ronin.

[sepoy1857]

Good question Goliad! I've often wondered that myself. How did the High Command deal with the large number of Ronin? Were they just parceled out to various commanders?

I have a bunch of books on Samurai, but none of them address this (not even Turnbull!). I would assume they would wear the Sashimono of whatever commander they were under (?). A number of the Daimyo used blank coloured Sahimono and Nobori so maybe the castle had stocks of plain banners (?) or had them made on site for the troops (?). Too many questions.

I know Mori Katsunaga's force was made up largely of Ronin...but were the rest made up largely of Ronin as well? There were other leaders there on the toyotomi side that didn't really have their own "Clan forces" either like Ban Naoyuki (Ban Naotsugu), Chosokabe, Kimura Shigenari, and Goto Mototsugu that I know of - there may have been others too. It's a very interesting question, and hopefully someone somewhere knows.

[Goliad]

Sepoy, I did find a thread on Samurai Archives that suggested the same as you - that maybe the large number of plain sashimono in the Osaka army were made with materials to hand to quickly "brand" and organise the ronin coming in. This makes sense and Jimbibbly's observation that the Osaka forces had time to repair equipment and equip (Toyotomi Hideyori had some cash on hand too) fits that pattern. I wonder now about the type of men coming in - I would not her surprised if the Osaka Ronin were not just former samurai but also former ashigaru along with a hodge podge of "adventurers" looking for fame and fortune. Accounts suggest ronin firing muskets precipitated the final battle which could point to "Ronin" filling out the ranks of samurai and ashigaru found in a more organized daimyo army. Anyway Osaka seems a fascinating campaign - the last gasp of the Sengoku period.

[sepoy1857]

Yes exactly! Fascinating. I wanted to game some of the battles so was doing some research on the battles. I am a member over at the Samurai Archives Forum - there's a lot of good info over there. There's a VERY talented guy (from Canada also!) that has drawn a lot of the sashimono etc. He did some for some of the Osaka Generals too, especially some of the more obscure ones!

I think (and this isn't backed up by any research) these Ronin Volunteers would have crossed the spectrum of Samurai, Minor Daimyo, and Ashigaru, etc. There were a lot of Lord-less un-employed warriors in Japan thanks to all the constant fighting! There must be some Japanese source book or article somewhere that talks about the Ronin at Osaka..who knows.