Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the barricades (Campaign) [Paperback]

Stephen Turnbull (Author), Howard Gerrard (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Campaign | Publication Date: March 25, 2000

Osprey's examination of the campaign at Nagashino in 1575. When Portuguese traders took advantage of the constant violence in Japan to sell the Japanese their first firearms, one of the quickest to take advantage of this new technology was the powerful daimyo Oda Nobunaga. In 1575 the impetuous Takeda Katsuyori laid siege to Nagashino castle, a possession of Nobunaga's ally, Tokugawa Ieyasu. An army was despatched to relieve the siege, and the two sides faced each other across the Shidarahara. The Takeda samurai were brave, loyal and renowned for their cavalry charges, but Nobunaga, counting on Katsuyori's impetuosity, had 3,000 musketeers waiting behind prepared defences for their assault. The outcome of this clash of tactics and technologies was to change the face of Japanese warfare forever.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Highly visual guides to history's greatest conflicts, detailing the command strategies, tactics, and experiences of the opposing forces throughout each campaign, and concluding with a guide to the battlefields today.

About the Author

Stephen Turnbull is the world's leading English language authority on medieval Japan and the samurai. He has travelled extensively in the far east, particularly in Japan and Korea and is the author of The Samurai - A Military History and Men-at-Arms 86 Samurai Armies 1550-1615.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (March 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1855326191
• ISBN-13: 978-1855326194
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.3 x 9.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,346,290 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Work by the Don of Samurai Military History, April 18, 2000

By 

jemmus (Syosset, NY United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the barricades (Campaign) (Paperback)

In Nagashino 1575, Stephen Turnbull again makes a valuable contribution to the limited body of works on samurai military history available in the English language. As in his earlier books, Mr. Turnbull gives as detailed a strategic and tactical account of the battle of Nagashino as is possible from the limitations of the historical sources. As in his earlier works, however, the author is careful to give a fair appraisal of the accuracy of the source. The book also balances the details with a overview of the events leading to the battle, as well as a general introduction to the players who will be well-known to samurai history fans, but likely unknown to anyone else. In addition to an interesting narrative, like other the volumes of Osprey's two Campaign and Men-at-Arms series, this book is full of illustrations and descriptions of the arms and equipment of the armies involved. The book's only defect is in its binding; the inner edges of the large 2-page illustrations disappear into the crease and hide the center portion of the image. Nevertheless, this book's many color and black-and-white illustrations will prove very useful to miniaturists and its maps an excellent resource for wargamers. This is a 5-star book for anyone with an interest in samurai warfare.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Important Samurai Battles Reviewed, October 11, 2001

By 

T Kibatullin (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the barricades (Campaign) (Paperback)

Stephen Turnbull is one of the best known scholars and active writers on the subject of samurai history. His book on Nagashino battle is probably a demonstration of what Dr. Turnbull does the best - case study.

The Nagashino starts with with historical background and goes thoroughly through the description of opposing armies, personalities of commanders and other key figures (including among others Okudaira Sadamasa, whose determined resistance to Takeda army in Nagashino castle played its part in making Takeda Katsuyori accept the challenge to fight the fatal for the clan of Takeda battle). Further the author describes in detail the structure of armies, tactics and strategy of Takeda and Oda/Tokugawa forces, the battle itself and aftermath.

Those interested in samurai loyalty will be interested in description of a famous incident when one of Tokugawa samurai, Torii Sune'emon captured by Takeda warriors and offered to serve the new lord. Sune'emon defied Katsuyori's orders and was killed. However, he was admired by both armies alike and one of the commanders of Takeda army was so impressed by Sune'emon's deed that he adopted a picture of the brave samurai on his banner!

The book is full of colour plates, maps and pictures of the battleground and provides wealth of information on the one of the most important battles in Japanese medieval history. During Nagashino Oda Nobunaga introduced volley arquebus fire, which forever changed the samurai warfare burying the old school of cavalry charge (Takeda army was famous for its cavalry attacks) of elite mounted warriors. The impact of Nagashino was felt by samurai commanders through Sekigahara.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Clash of Tactics & Technology in Medieval Japan, June 7, 2000

By 

R. A Forczyk (MD, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nagashino 1575: Slaughter at the barricades (Campaign) (Paperback)

The strengths of this Osprey Campaign series title are its excellent art work and maps, very detailed order of battle data, numerous modern photographs of the battlefield and the author's intimate knowledge of Japanese 17th Century warfare. The description of both the siege of Nagashino Castle and the battle are well-written. However the author falls a bit short in the area of military analysis. The Takeda Army was renowned for its cavalry - about 27% of its army - and Turnbull makes great effort to show the defensive measures that Oda Nobunaga and Ieyasu Tokugawa took to stop this cavalry. Yet Turnbull provides no detailed information on Japanese Samurai cavalry tactics or why the Takeda cavalry was so formidable. Turnbull does provide good detail on the arquebus corps and how it was used. Finally, the entire rationale for the Takeda attacking a relief force that was three times its size is never explained. In this account, it appears rather foolhardy and almost suicidal. The bibliography is quite sparse and the wargaming notes (not written by Turnbull) are the usual silly 'matrix' and 'disguised scenario' sort. This is a good complimentary work on a less known battle, but it could use a little more depth and a little less "fluffy" artwork.