The Warrior Monks Who Mastered Firearms in Feudal Japan
In the 16th-century, the Negoro-ji temple in the mountains of the Kii (modern-day Wakayama), became both a spiritual sanctuary and army base. Its monks were not the first to take up arms and become holy warriors, but they were one of the earliest adopters of firearms in the country. In a time of blades, Negoro-jis clergy chose guns as their weapons and quickly became a powerful militant force. But their reign of faith and technology eventually went up in smoke. Where did they go wrong? Read on to find out.The Spark That Lit the Holy FuseStrings for Night Firing, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1855. Source: Wikimedia CommonsJapanese warfare was forever changed in 1543 when a Chinese pirate ship carrying Portuguese sailors came ashore on the island of Tanegashima. It was the first ever contact between Europeans and Japan. As a show of good faith, the Portuguese traded some of their matchlock firearms to the local lord at a time when the country was in the midst of a bloody civil war. It was a time when both the emperor and the shogun had lost all political power and regional samurai warlords fought each other for dominion over Japan.Those samurai were among the first to recognize the power of firearms, but Buddhist temples, which also had long maintained their own standing armies, were equally quick to adapt to the new technology. When guns appeared in Japan, the warrior monks saw in them both protection and opportunity. By the 1550s, temple foundries were producing Japanese copies of European matchlocks, and monastic armies were drilling with gunpowder weapons alongside traditional spears, bows, and glaives.No other place of worship took more to firearm technology than the Negoro-ji temple in Kii Province. They may have been followers of the Buddha, but a strategic and perhaps a little creative interpretation of their doctrine revealed that it was absolutely fine for them to shoot burning metal into the bodies of their enemies. Applying the devotion that once fueled their study of sutras towards gun production, the monks soon turned Negoro-ji into a temple of gunsmithing and lethal marksmanship.The Beginnings of Negoro-jis Sacred ArsenalShei (Fighting Monk) of Kamakura period, Military Costumes in Old Japan, Kazumasa Ogawa, 1895. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe roots of Negoro-ji go back to the 12th century, a turbulent time when Japanese warrior monks stopped mainly fighting themselves and became distinguished on actual battlefields like during the Genpei War. By the 1500s, the temple complex had grown into a vast religious city, controlling hundreds of sub-temples and vast estates. Negoro-ji had its own hierarchy, culture, impressive treasury, lands, and standing army. It was officially a monastery but operated more like an autonomous state, virtually indistinguishable from all the other statelets across war-torn Japan controlled by regional samurai warlords.The temples transformation into a fortress was unique among other congregations of Japanese warrior monks because it was the direct result of firearms arriving in Japan. When the Portuguese arrived on Tanegashima, one Tsuda Kenmotsu was a witness to the power of muskets, and duly obtained some and brought them to Kii. According to other sources (Turnbull, p. 40), he gave them to his brother Suginobo Myosan, a monk at Negoro-ji, whose monks got to work figuring out and copying the Portuguese design.Negoro-ji Temple, 663highland, 2007. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThey turned out to be really good at it. Before long, Negoro artisans were manufacturing large-caliber matchlocks characterized by their octagonal barrels and brass firing mechanisms. The temples warrior monks also made sure they knew how to use them. Some accounts claim that death during their drills was common and barely commented on (Turnbull, p. 48). That is probably an exaggeration but it carries a kernel of truth, in the sense that the monks undeniably dedicated themselves wholly to marksmanship. By the mid-16th century, Negoro-jis monks earned a reputation for themselves as Japans finest marksmen.It is worth mentioning, however, that not every Negoro-ji marksman was a full-fledged Japanese warrior monk or sohei. When Jesuit priest Gaspar Vilela visited their compound, he observed that many of the temples fighters had not taken the tonsure, and that military drills often replaced prayers at Negoro-ji. The temples culture mixed faith with pragmatism; a skilled sniper would not be turned away from this house of worship just because he was not that interested in Buddhism. This very practical approach produced an unmatched fighting force.The Roar and Fire of the BuddhaThe Battle of Ishiyama Hongan-ji, Utagawa Yoshifuji, 1869. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNegoro-ji controlled lands that rivaled the holdings of great samurai lords, giving it the economic base to support thousands of armed troops. Sources vary, but estimates put Negoro-jis fighting strength at well over 10,000 armed warrior monks, but the temple did not try to be an island and knew when to also make alliances.During the Ishiyama Hongan-ji War (15701580), they aided the Ikko-Ikki armies of Buddhist zealots, wielding matchlocks with devastating accuracy against the forces of Oda Nobunaga, the first great unifier of Japan. They later switched sides and fought alongside Nobunaga against the Saika Ikki, Hongan-ji fortress allies, further enhancing their reputation for marksmanship.Their changing allegiances may have been the beginning of their downfall. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second great unifier of Japan who inherited Oda Nobunagas power base after his death in 1582, already viewed armed monasteries as relics of an unruly past. Their unpredictable loyalties made him distrust the musket-armed monks even more. Yet Negoro-ji was no easy target. To suppress it would require not only overwhelming force but also a justification that would legitimize Hideyoshis quest to unify Japan under his rule. He soon found one.The Negoro-ji Guns Fall SilentKomaki Nagakute Kassen Zu Byoubu, Author Unknown, 18th century. Source: Wikimedia CommonsIn 1584, Negoro-ji joined Tokugawa Ieyasu (the third great unifier of Japan) at the Battle of Komaki and Nagakute, providing him with experienced musketmen against Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Their misstep gave him pretext to making them examples for other restless clerics (Totman, p. 211). In 1585, Hideyoshi turned his attention to the Kii Province in his quest to consolidate power by eliminating defiant religious and military enclaves. Negoro-ji, with its alliance to Tokugawa Ieyasu and pride in its independence, represented both a strategic and symbolic obstacle.Negoro-ji had guns, but for all their lethality, the weapons had too many limitations including a long reloading time and being rendered useless in the rain. Against a numerically superior force led by an experienced commander, Japanese firearms of the time did not provide that much of an advantage. Hideyoshi seemed to be aware of it. His strategy was to isolate, overwhelm, and destroy, first taking out Negoro-jis allies to make the temple more vulnerable. Next, Hideyoshi mobilized a massive force, perhaps 40,00060,000 strong by some estimates, and finally made his move.The assault that followed became known as the Siege of Negoro-ji but it was a very one-sided affair. Fires quickly consumed the vast temple complex, though whether it was by order, accident, or desperation remains unclear. In any case, the once-great monastic city of holy gunsmiths, marksmen, and snipers was reduced to ashes.Toyotomi Hideyoshi Portrait, Kano Mitsunobu, 1598. Source: Wikimedia CommonsThe scale of the devastation was immense. Though some structures of the compound like the pagoda survived, they were marked by bullet holes and other signs of the siege. Archaeological excavations at Negoro-ji have long revealed fragments of this violent past like lacquered armor pieces, musket barrels, and remains of the temples fortifications. They remind visitors today that this serene corner of Wakayama Prefecture was once booming with the deafening sound of gunfire. Negoro-jis complex was later partially restored during the Edo Period (16031868), long after the era of Japanese warrior monks had come to an end.Many of the warrior monks actually survived the Siege of Negoro-ji but that was not a blessing. In the aftermath of his victory, Hideyoshi outlawed armed religious orders, forcing the remnants of the Negoro clerics into exile or service under other lords. The destruction of Negoro-ji marked more than the fall of one monastery. It signaled the end of an era when temples wielded both spiritual and military authority. With Hideyoshis victory, centralized power replaced the patchwork of semi-independent fiefs and religious fortresses that had characterized Japans civil war period.Ashes of PowerAntique Japanese (samurai) Tanegashima (matchlock) muskets, ryochiji, 2010. Source: Wikimedia CommonsNegoro-jis story strangely mirrors Japans transformation during the Sengoku Period. The temple rose to prominence in a time of chaos, symbolizing the lack of a central authority that allowed a place of worship to command armies with muskets. However, while their embrace of the new technology did win them glory in the short term, it did not change the tides of history. Similarly, the Sengoku Period was definitely influenced by firearms but was not defined or ended by them.The fall of Negoro-ji reveals the limits of early Japanese firearms while also standing as a testament to the fact that, at one time in Japans history, the line between monk and warrior was as thin as smoke.SourcesTotman, C. (2016). A History of Japan, Second Edition. Blackwell Publishing.Turnbull, S. (2005). Japanese Fortified Temples and Monasteries. Osprey Publishing.
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