Written by
Stephen Turnbull on March 01, 2001
To the popular mind the notion of 'the samurai' never seems to change throughout Japanese history. My book Warrior 29: Ashigaru 1467–1649 (Osprey, 2001) shows how wrong this idea is...
Written by
on March 01, 2001
On the banks of the River Avon, overlooking the town of Warwick lies Warwick Castle, possibly the finest example of a medieval fortification in England. This has been a place of power and influence from before the Norman Conquest up until the final years of the 19th century...
Written by
Stephen Turnbull on January 01, 2001
Greater differences between knights and samurai arise when we turn from the technology of the military revolution to its more personal expression...
Written by
Stephen Turnbull on November 01, 2000
In my book Men-at-Arms 105, The Mongols I made the comment that, because of the vast extent of the Mongol conquests, the Teutonic Knights of Germany and the samurai of Japan had in fact fought a common enemy, even though it was to be three more centuries before the two martial societies became aware of each other's existence...
Written by
Stephen Turnbull on May 01, 2000
The siege and battle of Nagashino in 1575 together make up one of the pivotal events in samurai history. The army of the Takeda clan, who had been besieging the tiny but stubbornly defended fortress for nearly ten days, abandoned their siege lines to assault the army sent by Oda Nobunaga to relieve Nagashino...