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Abstract
This dissertation explores the use of original, unexplored primary source materials to develop a more sophisticated understanding of Japan's latter Sengoku Period during the years of unification in the final decades of the sixteenth century. Whereas many historical works focus on the political and economic aspects of unification, by focusing on the experiences of people and utilizing the eyewitness accounts that some of them left, the dissertation hopes to develop more sophisticated understanding of what it was like to live in late Sengoku Period Japanese society.
Two primary objectives bind the project together thematically. The first objective is to highlight the activities of a previously unrecognized group of people, the Men of the Fields, who emerged to play an integral role in Oda Nobunaga's early attempts to expand his territories that initiated the unification process. An investigation into their activities during several important battles illuminates the critical importance of good intelligence work and detailed logistical planning in battlefield success. These men were not samurai, but merchants, rural elites, and rōnin whose ability to provide intelligence and logistical support to Nobunaga's armies made them a critical component of the genesis of the unification process. In addition to analyzing the ways in which the Men of the Fields bolstered Nobunaga's administration, the nature of this previously unrecognized group shall be explored.
The second objective is to gain insight into the chaotic nature of the Sengoku Period itself, particularly, the ways in which the country was unified after over a century of civil war. The age was characterized by treachery and betrayal where violence was so commonplace that it was unremarkable. Even greater violence had to be exercised in order to unify the country and establish peace, a system of national governance, and the administration of justice. Secondarily to this, the dissertation aims to open a window into the psyches of the men that were charged with carrying out tasks that even though they were in the public interest, often involved the infliction of horrific violence.
