nemandawara jo 2014
TRANSCRIPT
Nemandawara-Joa samurai slaughter from ‘Bayko Baron’
• Toranaga Isi has been tasked to take the castle
• His first attempt at negotiation having failed…
• … Toranaga must besiege the place – but that won’t take long with the new-fangled cannon the Portuguese have given him
• Built largely of wood the keep will not resist for long
• Word arrives that the famed Takeda cavalry are on the way to break the siege
• Toranaga lines up his men, they are ashigaru, inferior to true samurai – but they are also teppu-tai (matchlock men)
• The Takeda arrive
• Seeing the inferiority of their enemy they launch into an immediate charge
• Across the field the ashigaru sweat and wait as the ground thunders under them
• Their terror disappears in a sheet of acrid smoke
As the smoke settles the ashigaru watch their enemy and their fears run for their lives – the code of bushido has finally met the
Age of Gunpowder
• Crisis over the cannon go back into action
… and shortly Nemandawara begins to burn
• Refusing to be burned to death the castellan – Hideaki – leads his men in a last banzai charge
Taken alive before he can commit seppuku, Hideaki takes his place in the final ceremony – the headcount. While Toranaga congratulates himself that the endless
in-fighting is now over.