Ashigaru

Ashigaru first began to emerge during the Onin War. This war marked the beginning of the Age of the Country at War, during which their numbers continued to increase. The ashigaru were warriors who usually came from peasant backgrounds, and who had only become warriors because the violent conditions of the time created a need for more fighting men. Since they were not career warriors like the samurai, they were not trained in the use the sword or the bow. Rather, they were equipped with naginata and spears for weapons and wore only light armour, hence the name ashigaru which means "light feet". In the Edo Period, when the class system grew more rigid, the ashigaru were counted among the samurai class, albeit as the least among this class.

Gunmen

When the first Portuguese traders arrived in Japan, they brought with them a pair of guns, which attracted the fascination of all who saw them. The local lord bought these for an enormous sum of gold, and sent them to his master swordsmith Yatsuita Kinbei to duplicate. Understandably, Kinbei was completely was at a loss. A few months later a gunmaker from Portugal arrived offering lessons in the art of gunmaking; Kinbei learned these secrets well, and was soon creating guns of his own. The lessons did not come for free, however; for payment the Portuguese man took Kinbei's 17-year old daughter. Thanks to Yatsuita Kinbei's sacrifice, the craft of gunmaking spread across Japan, and daimyo everywhere now had yet another factor to consider in their military strategies.

At this time, Japan was going through the finale of an era of extensive civil war. Daimyo everywhere were looking to expand their armies, and the gun presented a fantastic opportunity. Any peasant could be pulled off the street and, within a few days, be taught to fire a gun with relative accuracy. In contrast, it took years to master the use of the bow. In 1571 the shrewd general Takeda Shingen wrote: "Hereafter guns will be the most important weapons."

The gun was not without its fair share of disadvantages, however. First of all a skilled archer could shoot with much greater accuracy than any gun of the time. Another disadvantage was that the guns of this era did not have a very good firing range. Also, guns were much more expensive than any other weapons, and they were in short supply in most armies. Yet another problem was that guns could not be used effectively in wet conditions, as moist gunpowder would sometimes fail to ignite. Lastly there was the issue of firing rate; the complex process of loading a gun made them several times slower than the longbow, in terms of time elapsed between shots.

Still seeing the potential in using firearms, many daimyo employed clever strategies to minimize these disadvantages. Shingen advised his generals to administer marksmanship tests to the troops, and to accordingly distribute the limited supply of guns to the best shooters. At the 1575 Battle of Nagashino, Oda Nobunaga took this strategy further and split 3,000 of his best marksmen into three equal groups, then lined them along the battlefront. He told these men to rotate the firing between the groups; while one group unloaded fire, the other two would be furiously reloading. The gunners were also instructed to hold their fire until the enemy was in close range. These commands overcame two main weaknesses of the gun: long loading time and short firing range.