Nagashino Video

 

I recently watched a documentary on the Battle of Nagashino and was quite impressed.  First, it covered the mishaps at the Battle of Mikatagahara and Takeda Shingen's death.  Second, the video does a great job on the horses used during the Sengoku Era.  They were pony sized horses and they used one of them in an experiment with with a mounted samurai in armor.  As for the rifles, targets were used at 100 and 50 meters.  The accuracy was not that great at 100, but at 50 meters most hit their target.  I suspect that Nobunaga and Ieyasu told their troops not to fire until you see the white of their eyes moment.  Later they did another experiment with the gunners inside the fence.  Firing was erratic.  Then the gunners were placed inside and outside the fence.  Firing was much more consistent.  If you have seen the Nagashino battle screen, gunners were placed inside and outside the fence.  

The documentary also covers Nobunaga's reliance on firearms and without them, bloodshed in Japan would have continued for many more decades.  The documentary uses clips from the Nobunaga drama King of Zinpangu Nagashino battle scene and music from the movies Kagemusha and Ran. Sengoku historian Owada Tetsuo also makes an appearance as well.  He mentions Nobunaga's use of Heino Bunri/Separation between farmer and soldier.  This helped Nobunaga to create a gunnery squad which help to win on the battlefield more often.

Nobunaga no tame!