Japanese Fortified Temples and Monasteries AD 710–1062

Osprey Fortress #34

by Stephen Turnbull, Peter Dennis (Illustrator)

From the 10th century onwards the great Japanese monastic foundations of Nara and Mount Hiei maintained large armies of warlike monks. The tempestuous political rivalries that developed between the different orders of monks and religiously inspired laymen ensured that their temples and monasteries had to be securely sited and robustly defended. This books recreates these enormous fortified monasteries and temples, tracing their development from the 10th century through to the Sengoku Jidai period and the rise of the power of the shogunate under Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Genres: History, Military History, Japan, Japanese History

64 pages, Paperback

First published August 10, 2005

About the author

Stephen Richard Turnbull is British a historian specializing in eastern military history, especially the samurai of Japan. His books are mainly on Japanese and Mongolian subjects. He attended Cambridge University where he gained his first degree. He currently holds an MA in Theology, MA in Military History and a PhD from the University of Leeds where he is currently a lecturer in Far Eastern Religions. He has also written a number of books on other medieval topics. He is semi-retired but still holds the post of Visiting Professor of Japanese Studies at Akita International University in Japan.

Reviews

[Joe Krakovsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

JAPANESE FORTIFIED TEMPLES AND MONASTERIES AD 710 - 1602 taught me how much different these fortifications were from those in Europe. While those in Europe were often made of stone, those in Japan might have a stone base, but were usually all made of wood. The Daibutsuden (Great Buddha Hall) of Todaiji is the world's largest wooden building. Because the pagodas have an inner core of a long vertical mast sunk deep into the ground to absorb the shock, they are the most earthquake resistant buildings in Japan. These fortifications were often on mountain tops that had been leveled. Some actually lacked defensive walls which were only raised when needed.

This book was hard for me to follow as I was unfamiliar with the names and terms which were naturally in Japanese. A glossary was thoughtfully included, but sometimes I was just too lazy to use it. I have several books by this author. He knows his stuff.

I am unfamiliar with ancient Japanese history, but I will try to explain it as it relates to this book. Japan had two main religions: Buddhism from China and the indigenous religion of Shinto. While these two religions coexisted, it was the different sects of the Buddhists who began raiding each other's temples. Thus you had defensive features built into the temples and the raising of warrior monks. Now there was a slight difference between the monks who prayed and the monks who fought. Some of these warriors were actually samurai. (Samurai were the warrior class.) So they would raid each other's temples and burn them to the ground.

In time, many of the lower classes of the Buddhists became adherents of the Judo Shinshu (the True Pure Land sect) who were known as the Ikko-shu. They had their fortified temples and towns. When Oda Nobunaga was conquering all of Japan he found it necessary to wipe out the Ikko-shu and burn down their temples. There were many bloody battles and it was the use of firearms by the Ikko-shu that gave Oda some of his worst defeats. But he learned from those defeats and used his own firearms to win his victories. During the sieges, fire was often used to burn out the defenders as their walls and temples were made mostly of wood. Many of Japan's historic shrines and temples were thus turned to ashes. By the way, centuries later, when the US Air Force was firebombing Japanese cities, attempts were made to avoid certain areas that contained some of these surviving places of Japanese legacy.

There is one final comment that I will make as it has been repeated throughout history. Once Oda snuffed out the power of the Ikko-shu he began his own sword hunt. Weapons had to be turned in or else! The people were then tied to the land and had to farm it. The great nobles owned the land. The people thus became serfs.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative and interesting.