Ashigaru

Ashigaru wearing armor and jingasa firing tanegashima (Japanese matchlocks)

Ashigaru (足軽, "light of foot") were infantry employed by the samurai class of feudal Japan. The first known reference to ashigaru was in the 14th century,[1] but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ashigaru became prevalent by various warring factions.[2]

  1. ^ Warriors of Medieval Japan, Stephen Turnbull, Osprey Publishing, 2007 p.99
  2. ^ War in the early modern world, Jeremy Black, Taylor & Francis, 1999 p.59