But the most interesting in "Dzhohyo monogotari", perhaps, is the medical section, which clearly proves that in the samurai army, the wounded and sick were treated and looked after, and by no means abandoned to the mercy of fate and did not force them to do hara-kiri.
Ashigaru with a samurai horse. Drawing from Dzhohyo Monogotari.
“If you have trouble breathing, always have dried plums in your bag. It always helps. Remember, they will dry your throat and keep you alive. Dried plums will always help you with respiratory ailments. " (It is interesting that I read about this advice in "Dzhohyo Monogotari" back in 1998 and tried to eat prunes when my throat was sore or with a cold, and what do you think - it helped, moreover, the medicine was practically not taken! Then I read there that you need to chew the dried inflorescences of cloves and since 2000, no matter how many students sneeze at me and cough at me, the pain has ceased. It turns out that this is a powerful natural antiseptic!)
Two ashigaru archers. Rings (spools) were used to store a spare bowstring.
“When it's very cold, a felt or straw cover may not be enough. Then, both in the morning in winter and when it is cold in summer, eat one pea of black pepper - it will warm you, and you can also chew dried plums for a change. A good way to rub the red pepper from your thighs to your toes will keep you warm. You can also rub your hands with pepper, but only then do not rub your eyes with them. (I tried to do this, but … I forgot and stuck my finger in my eye. What happened later does not make sense to describe, but whether this method worked or not, I don’t know - it was not up to it!).
Ashigaru on the hike. As you can see, even a horse adorns the clan flag!
A very interesting advice from Dzhohyo Monogotari regarding the treatment of snake bites on a hike: “If you are in the forest or mountains, and if you are bitten by a snake, then do not panic. Put gunpowder on the bitten area and set it on fire, after which the symptoms of the bite will quickly disappear, but if you hesitate, it will not help. Then there are tips on how to heal wounds received in battle: “You need to stir horse manure in water and put it on the wound, the bleeding will stop, and the wound will soon heal. They say that if you drink horse blood, it can also help reduce bleeding, but you can't eat horse dung, it will only make matters worse.
Ashigaru hara-ate armor.
If your wound hurts, urinate into a brass helmet and let the urine cool. Then rinse the wound with cold urine and the pain will soon subside. If you get burned, urinate on the burned area immediately and relief will come soon! (Checked - it is!) If the blood has the color of persimmon, it means that there is poison in the wound. If you are injured in the eyeball area, wrap a strip of soft paper over your head and sprinkle it with hot water."
An officer and a private arquebus gunner.
As you can see, some of the tips are rather strange, but others work well and have been tested in practice.
Perhaps the most bloody description of Dzhohyo Monogotari is the process of extracting the arrowhead that hit the warrior in the eye: “The wounded should not turn his head, so you should tie it tightly to the tree, and only when the head is tied, you can get down to business. The arrow must be pulled out slowly, not paying attention to anything, but the eye socket will fill with blood, and there can be a lot of blood."
Removing an arrow from an eye was a very bloody affair!
Well, finally, we note that "Dzhohyo monogotari" allows us to find out exactly what an ashigaru infantryman of the Azuchi-Momoyama era (1573 - 1603) might have looked like. On a campaign, he had to go both in a helmet and in armor in order to join the battle at any surprise.
After weapons, his main concern was a rice ration of cooked and dried rice, which was packed in a long sleeve bag and tied so that each ball-shaped compartment contained the daily ration of rice. The sack was called hei-ryo-bukuro and was thrown obliquely over the shoulder and tied at the back of the back. The water flask was called take-zutsu. It was made from a hollow bamboo knee.
The ashigaru also carried various tools and work equipment: knives, saws, sickles, axes, and a roll of rope - tenawa about 3 m long and with hooks at the ends to use it to climb the walls. It was imperative to have a gozu straw mat and a bag of kate-bukuru for equipment, including spare braided sandals - waraji. The uchi-gae pouch was used for food. There they kept bean curd, cheese and dried seaweed, also pods of red pepper and grains of black. The medicine box was called inro, and the strip of cotton cloth was called nagatenugui, and it was used as a towel. The uva-obi belt was supposed to be removed during meals and at rest and, folded, laid on the goza mat. Chopsticks - hasi were kept in a special yadate case. But they should have eaten from a wooden lacquered van cup.
One ashigaru instructs the other how to properly don the hara-ate armor.
Both the samurai and the ashigaru should have had a kintyaku purse and flint in a hiuchibukuro bag. Eating utensils were placed in a mesigori box. That is, everything, absolutely everything, was laid out by the Japanese soldiers in pencil cases, boxes and bags. As for clothing, the ashigaru was worn on top of a kimono, haori or awase, and underneath, hitoe. At the same time, it was customary to sew on aijirushi signs on the haori sleeves, which served for identification.
However, it should not be forgotten that at the time this work was written, the requirements for ashigaru were completely different than, for example, in the era of the "Warring Provinces". Then their weapons and armor could be the most variegated mixture you can imagine! For example, one of the historical documents from 1468 describes a very strange crowd of 300 people who moved near the Uji Jinmeigu shrine. Each carried a spear, but some even had gilded helmets on their heads, while others had ordinary bamboo hats. Some wore only dirty cotton kimonos, bare hairy calves glistening under the hem. Not long before, there was a rumor that a god had descended from the sky at the Uji shrine, and this strange ragged band had clearly come here to pray at the shrine for good luck.
Another drawing of putting on a hara-ate.
That is, then the military leaders who used ashigaru did not even think that they should somehow dress up and arm them with the same weapon. It all came later! And at first, ashigaru were completely deprived of the samurai notions of pride and honor, and they easily went over to the side of the enemy, did not hesitate to plunder, set fire to both temples and houses of aristocrats, so for those who used ashigaru, it was a rather dangerous weapon, since they had to be held in hand all the time. But since they allowed the samurai to save their lives, the generals put up with the fact that under their banners, in addition to noble warriors, many landless peasants, suspicious vagrants, fugitive temple servants, or even just outlaw * who were fleeing from the law were fighting. However, that is why they were sent to the most dangerous places.
At first, ashigaru were hired for a fee, but then a strong bond developed between them and the heads of the military families, so that now they were little different from the samurai. Ashigaru fought with the daimyo as soldiers of the regular army, and began to receive from them both the same weapon and armor. So it was the “Age of Warring States” that laid the foundation for the appearance of the first soldiers of the new regular army in Japan, who were not samurai here (although poor samurai also went to ashigaru!), Namely the ashigaru infantry.
* A person outside the law - English.
