Emishi (III/6)

Author: Duncan Head

Proposal:

Change the end date of this list from AD 1100 to AD 878.

Change to list notes:

Replace "modern Mutsu province" with "the later Mutsu province".

Justification:

The last major Imperial Japanese campaigns against the Emishi were

to subdue the rebellion of 878. The prolongation of the published

second edition list to 1100 was to cater for important warrior clans

in the north such as the Abe and the Kiyowara who were said to be

ethnically Emishi. However (as mentioned in discussion of the

Pre-Samurai Japanese list III/7), these appear to have been fully

assimilated to the samurai class in their fighting style by the 11th

century, and perhaps sooner. See the descriptions of the Former Nine

Years' War (1051-1062) and Later Three Years' War (1083-1087) in

William Wayne Farris, Heavenly Warriors: The volution of Japan's

Military, 500-1300 (Harvard University Press, 1992).

878 is therefore the last known campaign of an Emishi army as such.

As for the notes, traditional Japanese provincial names are no longer

in official use, so aren't really "modern".