ABSTRACT
Since the warriors (bushi) of the early modern (kinsei lli iit) period of Japanese history were by nature combatants, let me begin this essay by sketching some of the major differences from a military point of view between the kinsei period and the preceding medieval period. (I shall, in the latter instance, focus primarily on the last stage of the medieval period, the Sengoku era.)
In both periods society was composed of various groups or communities: villages, towns, artisans' and merchants' guilds (za ~), partnerships (nakama 1* F1m, associations (kumiai *J:l. il); religious communities of Shinto priests, Buddhists monks, mountain ascetics (shugenja 1~ ~ :::J!t), sorceresses (miko ZE -j;I:), etc.; outcasts' (kinin ~j;; A.) communities; dainiyo ::k :Zr and bushi houses. People often belonged to more than one such group, but in both the kinsei and medieval periods individuals could survive only by affiliating themselves with one or the other of these groups.
