



Firelances and handgonnes had been staples of East Asian warfare since the rise of the Song Dynasty and had arrived in use in the Middle east by the mid 1300s and in Europe by the 1400s. It was during the Southern Rebellion and fall of the Xin Dynasty (1582 to 1595) that these crude weapons would evolve into matchlock firearms*. These weapons spread from the mainland to the Japanese Isles fairly soon afterward and helped the Ishimoto Shogunate's rise to power and the conclusion of a two century long warring states period. Shortly after the home islands were unified they also played a major role in the absorption of the various Japanese colonies in the Americas under Japanese Rule.





While the army of the Ishimoto Shogunate was built around the Samurai Class which was required to train under arms and serve, but due to the necessities of fielding enough soldiers to garrison Japan's colonial empire commoners were often recruited as well to serve as sailors, yari armed pikemen, crews for cannons and matchlock armed arquebusier. Ashigaru were raised by both Daimyo and the Shogunate directly, with most individuals serving for two to four years (or during the duration of conflicts), with a few being retained on a more long term basis (mostly in the Shogunate Navy). Ashigaru were under the leadership of veteran NCOs as well as Samurai NCOs and Officers. Training, organization and procedures became more formalized from the forces of the Sengoku period. At first the Samurai had a near absolute right to execute Ashigaru on the spot, but after several mutinies in the 17th century this was eventually restricted. Excellence in military service was one of the more accessible routes to promotion to samurai status, especially for those of a peasant background. Most Ashigaru would carry a war Kama as a fallback anti armor weapon.







For the first half century of shogunate rule there was considerable armed conflict in the American Colonies. It took the better part of a decade for the disparate colonies to be united under one banner and for half a century afterwards there would be localized rebellions by colonial daimyo (who could muster their own forces of Samurai and Ashigaru that while less numerous and usually more loosely organized were generally battle tested) and peasants as well as conquering native populations, many of which had at least some access to iron and steel weapons and armor of either Japanese, Norse or their own manufacture. Even after they were discharged from service many continued to serve the Shogunate's aims as loyal settlers in this new land. They faced fiercer resistance at the hands of the Tezemco Empire, a powerful native state which fought with the Shogunate and Japanese settlers in OTL Mexico. When confrontations against the Norse Kingdoms began in the 1700s, Ashigaru (like those pictured above) proved themselves favorable against the levied infantry that many of the kingdoms could field that made up the majority of their manpower, though they performed less well (on a man per man basis) against their guild companies, retained warriors, light horsemen and heavy cavalry.





*In truth, some were beginning to appear with stocks in china during the decades before this, but the basic matchlock mechanism did emerge during the conflict.

