Battles Of The Samurai Trivia

[Tatsunoshi]

Yes, boys and girls, it’s time for ‘BATTLES OF THE SAMURAI’ trivia, the game that challenges your knowledge of armed conflicts in pre-modern Japanese history! We’re even throwing in battles from before the time of the samurai, just because…well, darn it, you’re special. Yes, pretty much everything from the early conflicts in Korea (in Ancient Japan) to the tomfoolery of the Bakumatsu will be hosted here in the Kamakura/Sengoku forum for convenience…and because those are the time periods when the REAL SAMURAI were active. The rules follow the standard SA format-
I) Only one question, right or wrong, can be answered per 24 hour period.
II) Copy the question along with the choices when giving your reply.
III) Guesses are not only accepted but encouraged.
IV) Feel free to provide as much additional background and/or justification for your answer as possible (although you don’t HAVE to).
V) Adding your own questions is encouraged, but try to keep the numbering consecutive and wait for any prior rounds of questions to be answered first.
VI) All answers not adhering to the rules will be mercilessly disregarded and probably ridiculed by the god-like judges (that’s me). Or not.

The first round of questions is pretty basic and can be found on the net with little effort. I’m your host Tatsu, assisted by the lovely and talented Ayame. So without further adieu let’s move on to…
BATTLES OF THE SAMURAI!


1) Which of the following officers in the service of the Shogunate was brought down by a peasant with a rock during the Shimabara No Ran (Shimabara Rebellion) of 1638?

a) Matsudaira Nobutsuna
b) Miyamoto Musashi
c) Ishida Ganryu
d) Itakura Shigemasa


2) In the Zenkunen Kassen (Former Nine Year’s War), what was one of the results of Minamoto Yoriyoshi’s successful siege of Abe Sadato’s Kuriyagawa Stockade?

a) dozens of women inside were given to the victorious troops and raped
b) Yoriyoshi petitioned the Imperial Court for rewards and was denied
c) Yoriyoshi’s men stopped to partake of the sake stores and failed to pursue the Abe-who shortly after returned and burned down the stockade, killing virtually everyone inside
d) while fleeing, Abe Sadato’s horse toppled into a crude pit lined with bamboo stakes-killing him with his own defences


3) This detail comes from a painted screen depicting what battle?





4) Based on recent archaeological findings, whereabouts did the majority of the 1281 Ghenkou (Mongol invasion) fleet go down as a result of the ‘kamikaze’?

a) off Takashima
b) off Iki
c) off Tsushima
d) off Komota


5) Perhaps the most effective fighting force on the Korea/Chinese side during the Bunroku/Keicho No Eki (Korean invasions) of 1592-8 were the Korean Buddhist monks who organized into fighting units in order to win concessions for Buddhism in the highly Confucian Korean state. Whether fighting alongside regular Korean or Chinese troops, Righteous Armies, or on their own, the warrior monks always gave a good account of themselves-so much so that they became the inspiration for visual depictions of Japanese ‘sohei’ during the Edo period. About how many monks were mobilized?

a) 73,500
b) 51,500
c) 19,500
d) 8,500


6) Which of Nobunaga’s commanders indicated to the Takeda that he would defect at Nagashino when the battle commenced?

a) Sakuma Nobumori
b) Akechi Mitsuhide
c) Gamo Ujisato
d) Yamauchi Kazutoyo


7) A Toyotomi general lost his fort to a Tokugawa assault during the Osaka Fuyu No Jin (Winter Siege of Osaka) in 1614 because he had left his post and was passed out drunk in a brothel at the time of the attack. He later redeemed himself by fighting fiercely and giving his life at the battle of Domyo-ji during the Osaka Natsu No Jin (Summer Siege) in 1615. Who was he?

a) Hayami Morihisa
b) Hotta Masataka
c) Susukida Kanesuke
d) Brick McBurly
e) Yoshida Yoshikore


8 ) What happened after Nasu No Yoichi took up the Taira’s archery challenge and shot the folding fan from one of their ships at the battle of Yashima?

a) another Minamoto archer, Chiba Tsunemori, shot the woman holding the fan
b) a Taira clansman emerged from the ship and performed a celebratory dance on deck
c) Yoichi collapsed in the saddle and fell into the water, presumably due to heat and stress
d) the fan was recovered from the water by a Minamoto servant and given to Minamoto no Yoshitsune


9) What item(s) did troops from Satsuma and Choshu bring into battle at Toba-Fushimi that is generally credited with destroying the morale of the pro-Shogunate forces they faced?

a) the heads of several Shogunate officials executed in Kyoto
b) a riverboat armed with a battery of heavy Western cannon
c) forged Imperial standards
d) captured banners featuring the Aoi crest of the Tokugawa


10) Historian Thomas Conlan believes that in battles conducted shortly before the onset of the Onin No Ran, one clan pioneered tactics that led to a revolution in Japanese warfare-foot units armed with spears operating as a cohesive unit. Which clan?

a) Shiba
b) Hosokawa
c) Hatakeyama
d) Rokkaku

[owari no utsuke]

I am going for No. 6.

Which of Nobunaga's commanders indicated to the Takeda that he would defect at Nagashino when the battle commenced?

A) Sakuma Nobumori
B) Akechi Mitsuhide
C) Gamo Ujisato
D) Yamauchi Kazutoyo

The answer is (A) Sakuma Nobumori.

Nobumori wrote that he sent a messenger to the Takeda that he indended to defect from the Oda. This was false and the Takeda bought the trap.

Answer found in Thomas Conlan's book Weapons and Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior, p. 174.
_________________
You'll Never Walk Alone!

http://www.otsuke.blogspot.com

[Tatsunoshi]

[leakbrewergator]

[Shisendo]

[heron]

Question 3:

I think this is from a folding screen depicting the Battle of Osaka Castle: this part shows the Summer campaign.

[Obenjo Kusanosuke]

4) Based on recent archaeological findings, whereabouts did the majority of the 1281 Ghenkou (Mongol invasion) fleet go down as a result of the ‘kamikaze’?
a) off Takashima
b) off Iki
c) off Tsushima
d) off Komota


I'd say the answer is a) off of Takashima. They've made some truly remarkable discoveries there over the past seven years or so. Among the ship wreckage and debris, they have even found small explosive shells that were filled with shrapnel and gunpowder. This evidence reputes Conlan's theory that pictures of these little bombs that appear in the Mongol Invasion scrolls were added later. It seems that these little grenade-like bombs did exist after all, but rather than being always made of iron, the outer shell was often ceramic.
_________________

Heee heee! Shita iro! Shita iro! Here comes his lordship, Baka Tono!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rekishinotabi

[Dash101]

[Bethetsu]

8 ) What happened after Nasu No Yoichi took up the Taira’s archery challenge and shot the folding fan from one of their ships at the battle of Yashima?

a) another Minamoto archer, Chiba Tsunemori, shot the woman holding the fan
b) a Taira clansman emerged from the ship and performed a celebratory dance on deck
c) Yoichi collapsed in the saddle and fell into the water, presumably due to heat and stress
d) the fan was recovered from the water by a Minamoto servant and given to Minamoto no Yoshitsune

b) From Heike Monogatari (Sadler's translation):
And when they saw the scarlet fan gleaming in the rays of the setting sun as it danced up and down, rising and falling on the white crests of the waves, the Heike in the offing beat applaudingly on the gunwales of their ships, while the Genji on the shore rattled their quivers till they rang again. Unable to restrain himself in his excitement over the enjoyment of this feat, an old warior of some fifty years...sprang up on one of the ships just in the place where the fan had been and began to dance...

Yoichi then shot and killed him, being told "it is our lord's command," but most [I think most of the Genji, though it is not clear] shouted disapprovingly.

[Tatsunoshi]

Wow! Glad to see everyone's been busy while I've been sleeping!

[owari no utsuke]

I am going for No. 10.

Historian Thomas Conlan believes that in battles fefore the onset of the Onin no ran, one clan pioneered tactics that led to a revolution In Japanese warfare-ffot units armed with spears operating as a cohesive unit. Which clan?

A)Shiba
B)Hosokawa
C)Hatakeyama
D)Rokkaku

The answer is (C) Hatakeyama. Weapons&Fighting Techniques of the Samurai Warrior, p. 95.

"In the mounatins of Kii Province, the Hatakeyama first trained groups of men fighting as units of pikemen."
_________________
You'll Never Walk Alone!

http://www.otsuke.blogspot.com

[Shisendo]

[Tatsunoshi]

[Obenjo Kusanosuke]

5) Perhaps the most effective fighting force on the Korea/Chinese side during the Bunroku/Keicho No Eki (Korean invasions) of 1592-8 were the Korean Buddhist monks who organized into fighting units in order to win concessions for Buddhism in the highly Confucian Korean state. Whether fighting alongside regular Korean or Chinese troops, Righteous Armies, or on their own, the warrior monks always gave a good account of themselves-so much so that they became the inspiration for visual depictions of Japanese ‘sohei’ during the Edo period. About how many monks were mobilized?
a) 73,500
b) 51,500
c) 19,500
d) 8,500

I'm going with d) 8,500 based on the 'number of above 8,000' that Samuel Dukhae Kim quotes in his Columbia University doctoral thesis Korean Monk Soldiers in the Imjin Wars: An Analysis of Buddhist Resistance to the Hideyoshi Invasion, 1592-1598.

And I also know the answer to question 2....
_________________

Heee heee! Shita iro! Shita iro! Here comes his lordship, Baka Tono!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rekishinotabi

[heron]

[Tatsunoshi]

[heron]

Maybe you did not see my edit

[Tatsunoshi]

[Bethetsu]

[Tatsunoshi]

Most of the painted screens that survive were done during the Edo period, and many of them were paired like that-occasionally, even done in a set of 4. Screens of Kyoto might show winter on one screen and summer on the other (with the east on one screen and the west on another). They would be set one on each side of the observer. For battle screens, it was pretty common to show the entire timeline of the battle on one screen or (as in the Osaka screen) done over two. Of course, most battles were fought in rural areas so the aftermath would generally just show one army or the other running off and being pursued-in the case of one screen this would usually be on the left side. Osaka, of course, was a densely populated city so the 'aftermath' portion of the second screen in this instance is much more noticable with all the regular citizens fleeing as well as the soldiers.