"Perry Samurai "Red Regiment"" Topic

Hi, you can see the famous red regiment of Takeda Shingen in my blog.

link

I like them – well done sir!

Raglan

Very nice indeed.

Outstanding work.

Very nice indeed.

Excellente!

I like alot! Very well done, seeing nice figures like these only spurs my interest in a new period

Pretty stuff! Richard

Beautifully painted indeed.

I noticed pics of my earlier Takeda heraldry from the Samurai Forum in your blog. I'm afraid some of them need updating. I will concentrate on the Takeda 'Red Regiment'.

Below represents Takeda Shingen's personal bodyguards, his hatamoto. The human shield around Shingen's HQ.

Below is the heraldry of Obu Toramasa, commander of the Red Regiment. These are the flags of Shingen's feared vanguard.

Obu Toramasa died in disgrace, accused of treason and forced to commit suicide. His younger brother Yamagata Masakage took command of Toramasa's men. These men in red armour would form the front lines of Masakage's 'Red Regiment'. But they would not use Toramasa's red flags. Instead they would fly the black flags of Yamagata Masakage. Below, men in red armor with black flags would be the final appearance of Takeda Shingen's 'Red Regiment'.

The Takeda flags above are well represented in Japanese heraldry books and most can be seen used today by the reenactors and participants of the Takeda Warband for the Shingen ko and Kawanakajima Festivals. The two Yamagata nobori can be seen in the Nagashino screen, Masakage's men falling in front of the wooden fences.

Muy bonito, sí señor.

@EValerio: What is your URL, please?

Thanks for your kinds comments!
Evalerio, thank you very much for this pictures! This help me enough!
If you don't mind I would like to publish these pictures in my blog. Any release date for your Takeda heraldry book?

Skeptic,

Is this what you are looking for?
link

Rokurota,

Commissions make me put aside the work on the Takeda Heraldry book from time to time. Right now I am working on Napoleonic artwork. New information on heraldry still come across my desk, so I am still correcting or updating the Takeda illustrations.

You can use the illustrations above on your blog. I cringe when my outdated illustrations appear whenever I google.

Below is another one. Ichijo Nobutatsu corrected.

Based on the flags used by the Takeda Warband during the Shingen ko and Kawanakajima Festivals. NOTE: Not all the contingents portraying the Ichijo sport the golden fan on their flags. I have also located a very elaborate uma-jirushi in the Kawanakajima screens. I haven't confirmed it yet as an Ichijo uma-jirushi.

Japanese filmmakers often take artistic license in regards to samurai heraldry to help audience identify the opposing sides on the cinematic battlefield. Most people don't know the various flags to tell one side from another.

Japanese reenactors in samurai festivals use the hata-jirushi to identify the various contingents as fighting for one side or another. The Takeda Warband use red, blue, white, yellow TAKEDA hata-jirushi alongside the uma-jirushi. The color usually similar to the contingent's color. A yellow Takeda hata-jirushi for the yellow Kosaka contingent as an example.

The Uesugi Warband use a white Uesugi hata-jirushi alongside the uma-jirushi for all their contingents.

The Hojo reenactors also have appropriatedly colored hata-jirushi. I can only assume right now that the various clans serving the Hojo might follow the same practice.
link

I can't confirm yet whether the practice was also used during the Sengoku period, but I have illustrated the Takeda, Uesugi and Hojo heraldry with the appropriate hata-jirushi.

Thanks a lot Evalerio!

@EValerio, any news on your Samurai book?

Most of the heraldry sets are done. I am working on about a dozen battlefield scenes to show how the flags were used or displayed on the field. This is what is taking the longest to do.

Since I am doing this on my own time, I've had to put the project aside from time to time to pay the bills. As mentioned earlier one of my commissions is doing Napoleonic artwork.

I frequently ask the assistance and guidance of the Samurai forum. The link below can show some of the WIP artwork.
link

NOTE: Can anyone make a guess on the last WIP artwork on page 1?

Maybe, Fourth Kawanakajima?

I have a question about ô-uma-jirushi and ko-uma-jirushi: for those daimyo who had both, did they have different roles on the battlefield?

Rokurota,

One of the WIP sketches for the night battle of Tedorigawa 1577. A very large army of Oda Nobunaga have begun crossing the Tedorigawa. Uesugi Kenshin's missile troops open fire, arquebusiers at the river bank blast away, fire arrows fly overhead.

This is just a small section of a larger artwork which includes Uesugi Kenshin directing the battle.

Skeptic,

The O uma-jirushi and ko uma-jirushi are often displayed together, indicating the location and identity of the daimyo. Depending on the combination displayed, they are often a way of telling the story or status of the commander.

Often the ko uma-jirushi identifies the clan, and the O uma-jirushi identifies the commander.

One way of getting both:

An unproven commander, son of a daimyo, could lead an army early in his career with an uma-jirushi to show his presence, but not his identity to friend and foe. If after proving himself on the battlefield, he later 'earns' the privilege of flying an O uma-jirushi, his original uma-jirushi becomes a ko uma-jirushi. If he succeeds his father as daimyo, he could 'inherit' the father's O uma-jirushi OR make a new one for himself.

This is one way of having an O uma-jirushi and TWO ko uma-jirushi. His first identifying the clan, his second identifying the commander, his third and last one showing him finally the head of the clan.

We often get the 'final' set of banners and standards for daimyo like Uesugi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen. But I've come across at least half a dozen combinations for the two great men, depending on the stages of their life. Takeda Shingen had at least 6 O uma-jirushi. He didn't display the old ones once he got the new one. Kenshin had different sets, as clan leader of the Nagao and when later adopted by the Uesugi.

In films like Furin Kazan (1969), Heaven and Earth, and Kagemusha, I don't see the correct sets identifying Takeda Shingen in any stage of his great career. Instead, I see Shingen displaying the set flown by Takeda Katsuyori, the 'final' set at the end of the Takeda.

Thanks, EValerio!