Japanese Infantry (WW II) 1/32 Scale Plastic Model Kit Mars Figures 32015

Ashigaru (Japanese 足軽, lit. "light-footed", that is, "not covered by armor") - a type of light infantry in medieval Japan, from non-samurai, whose main weapon was yari, and from the second half of the 16th century - tanegashima arquebuses. Ashigaru was the name given to the common foot soldiers of the Japanese armies of the late Middle Ages, who were the largest part of the samurai armies and their actions on the battlefields largely determined the outcome of the confrontations between rival daimyo.
Emperor Temmu (673-686) made an unsuccessful attempt to create a national army, by the 10th century. Japan instead relied on individual landowners who fielded people. These horse-owning landowners were the initiators of the samurai class, and the men who worked the land for the landowners became common foot soldiers during war. These foot soldiers may have had longstanding connections and loyalties to the landowners that date back many generations.