Glenning's East Asian adventures(A bunch of questions added 17/3)

[Cordvane]

Those pirates look like a despicable bunch of ner-do-well's. 

[sepoy1857]

Quite nice!

[glenning]

Thanks guys - working on some more atm! I got sidetracked by the new Cadians from GW but I did manage to finish a bunch of 'red' Ashigaru w/teppo:

[Metternich]

The Ashigaru are marvelous, but too well armored and uniform for Wakko.

[glenning]

Yes, these will be used as regular Ashigaru. However, some of my Wako will be pretty well armored, as some actually were - here's Spanish governor Gonzalo Ronquillos account on the matter:

"The Japanese are the most belligerent people here. They bring artillery and many arquebusiers and pikemen. They wear body armor. All provided from the works of the Portuguese, whom they have shown to them for the detriment of their souls [sic] ..."

[OSHIROmodels]

They look good 

There were a couple of clans that were basically wako in all but name, Murakami being the biggest I believe.

[glenning]

Thanks! Aaaah, very interesting!!

[glenning]

Just got these Kato Kiyomasa transfers from Perry and as usual I've got a couple of questions:
1) Disc as well as stripes for Ashigaru sashimono?
2) Only disc for samurai sashimono?
3) I'm thinking about skipping the mon for the hats and armor - would that be authentic?
4) Will these transfers work for Sengoku as well as Imjin?

Thanks in advance!

[Osmoses]

'Wako' were multi-ethnic pirates who ranged from Japan and Korea down to South-East Asia. They could be Japanese, Korean, Chinese, any other Asian or even European. So their equipment could be a mix of pretty much anything available.

The pirates of Japan are usually called 'kaizoku.' These were very different insofar as in almost all cases they would have a 'daimyō' patron, or operated as de facto daimyō themselves (such as the Murakami). So they were much more connected to prevailing power structures in Japan, and as such operated with a much more limited range than wako. Given that, they would have looked much like other Japanese warriors, though perhaps with some more exotic touches.

A good study of such 'kaizoku' is:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lords-Sea-Violence-Commerce-Monograph/dp/1929280815