午夜剧场

After studying Japanese medieval history at 午夜剧场, I became a high school teacher in my hometown of Tochigi Prefecture. However, encouraged by my late advisor Professor Masahiko Takahashi and my senior colleague Toru Urushihara (now a professor at Musashino University), I resumed my specialized studies in my second year of teaching. Eighteen years later, I was awarded a Doctorate in History from my alma mater's graduate school for my research titled "A Study of Shugo in the Eastern Provinces during the Nanboku-cho and Early Muromachi Periods." Since then, I have continued my research on medieval history, focusing on Shimotsuke. In the process, I began to have slight doubts about whether the results of analyses based on official documents—which make up the majority of the source material—truly capture the reality of history. Of course, I do not deny the importance of such profound and systematic historical research, but I have come to believe that we can catch glimpses of the shining truth of history within the fragmentary wording of these documents.

The medieval period was an era of warfare. To put it somewhat extremely, the Nanboku-cho and Sengoku periods were times when daily life existed within war. Usually, when discussing battles, the focus is on when and where they were fought, who the generals of both armies were, which side won, and how the outcome influenced the subsequent political situation. However, in this book, I have chosen to address the actual situation of procuring military provisions (hyoro) essential for warfare, the armor and combat methods used in battle, the realities of people in various positions other than the samurai who were formal combatants, and issues regarding encampments and fortifications. Microscopic examinations of war itself have actually become popular in academic circles in recent years. While these are detailed issues, I believe that considering them is actually effective for understanding the society of the Nanboku-cho period.

As a premise to these issues, this book also uses "performance evaluation" as a keyword to explain how the military achievements of medieval samurai were evaluated in the first place. Following the flow of procedures, I introduce and explain related documents such as military mobilization orders (gunzei saisokujo), arrival notices (chakutojo), reports of military merit (gunzhujo), recommendation letters (kyojo), letters of commendation (kanjo), and grant documents (atagaiojo), while also introducing recent research trends regarding these matters.

Kazuo Matsumoto

Ebisu Kosyo Sensho

196 pages, 1,800 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.