The nature of warfare in fourteenth-century Japan: The record of nomoto tomoyuki

Although the "rise" of warriors in Japanese history has generated considerabfe scholarly attention, the wars that propelled these men to prominence have not received the same scrutiny. Recent scholarship has revealed, however, that warfare was instrumental to change rather than merely expressive of it. The outbreak of war in 1331 and destruction of the Kamakura bakufu in 1333 were catalysts for profound transformations in Japan; to understand the changes in state and society, we must first explore the nature of the warfare that was endemic in this period. This essay reconstructs the experience of Nomoto Tomoyuki, a fourteenth-century warrior, in order to examine the nature of warfare.