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Description
A Concept Drawing of a Japanese Woman Warrior as part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited , which is roughly based on the Middle ages covering 800 AD to 1400 AD. She is one of the Three Minamori Sisters in the series, which represents the Japanese faction, comparable to that of the Kamakura Period in the early days of Samurai.

Minamori no Masako - The Eldest Sister of the three sisters , commands the greatest respect and master of strategy, both military and politically

Inspired by Main Theme - Sengoku

Introduction

Japan has always been the source of many inspiration for most of the people, whose culture, both traditional and modern have populated our daily lives. Most of the time, people often associated the Historical Japan as that of Proud and Noble Samurai Class during the Sengoku era, fighting for their honor, just like that of the Knight in the Middle Ages. But before the fancy samurai armors and romanticized history involving Oda Nobunaga, Japan in the middle ages had a very turbulent period, whose Literal and Cultural achievement were plagued by instability, poor economy as well feuding noble families all vying for power over the Imperial court. But it was from this turbulence that allowed Japan to rise from the ashes to become one of the regional powers that bridge the best of both East and West.

----------Drawing Commentaries----------

Drawing Japanese Kimono is hard and really, really tough. Initially i thought i could get away with just Girl in Kimono and that big bun of hairstyle, but judging by her status and the era depicted, i don't really have much choice but to dig some history and learn about the Kamakura period in Japan.

The role of Japanese Women in this period was bit of mixture, but it could be said that given the turbulent period and growing sophistication of Japanese society of the era, they held some political power or even were trained in Warfare. It was more of a practicality, because they need to be able to defend themselves from the enemy should their household come under attack, or failing that, commit suicide to avoid capture, or worst, rape. It was only when after Japan was united and war was no longer a threat, that Women, especially amongst the nobility, paid more attention to political interest than martial pursuit.

As for the character itself, She is Minamori no Masako, the eldest of the Three Minamori Sisters depicted in a very very stylized court dress worn by the Female Nobility of Japan during the Kamakura period. It's suppose to have more layers, and anyone with the understanding of Kimono types and history can point out many errors in the drawing (please forgive me...like i said, drawing Kimono is a nightmare ). Nevertheless, regardless of the dress, being the eldest fo the three sisters, she is the most mature and unlike her siblings, maintain a rather powerful presence in her court as well as being a competent commander.

Just incase you are wondering, Hibangana is just a play word on Higanbana, or Spider Lily, a flower often associated with death. The Minamori clan mon is a stylized representation of the said flower and water caltrop.......or if you prefer another interpretation, TDK, producer of some of my beloved earphones

~~~~~References and Other Related Media~~~~~

The Chinese and the Mongols and the Koreans

A Part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited - You can find more on the various faction on the map here:

==========Historical Commentaries==========

Ah yes, Japan, the country we are all familiar with, from its pop-culture, actual culture, cuisines, language, technology to media. I guess it can be pretty easy to say that at least one of the possession we have was made by Japanese or under the supervision of japanese, even to the Sony VAIO Laptop I'm typing this with . But what do we know about their history? was it full of samurai and princess yearning for love like what is depicted in popular media?

Perhaps, but it's pretty much more than that. What most people know of Japanese history is most likely the Sengoku period and beyond, afterall, that's were all the cool samurai and ninja came from . But when speaking of the Middle ages, which corresponds to the this particular historically wrong sketch series, Japan fell under 2 historical period, the Heian Era (late 8th century to late 12th century) and Kamakura Era (late 12th century - mid 14th century), the 2 periods that saw Japan undergoing many changes in their political, social and military system.

The Heian period marked a period of relative peace, where the land was governed by the Imperial House under the influence of the Fujiwara clan. Japanese literature flourished and culture became a symbol of beauty, Indeed, beauty was taken really seriously in this period that men and women wore make up (some of which were pretty.....unique to modern standards). Nevertheless, although the era saw the height of literature achievement and Buddhist influence, Japan was in a pretty poor state. The economy was weak, most of the nobles didn't know how to manage their lands and crimes run rampant thanks to the lack of proper policing of the society....which led to a lot of discontent, civil wars, and eventual rise of the new warrior class, called samurai.

With that and the establishment of Japanese first Shogun Minamoto no Yorimoto (Shogun can be roughly translated to as military dictator), Japan entered a rather turbulent era called the Kamakura period. The rise of Samurai class in this period also saw the rise of landlords who swore their allegiance to the shogun, but pretty much govern their realm like petty kingdoms. Sounds familiar? Well, this is exactly where japan transitioned into what we refer as feudalism. The consolidation of power really did improved the management of the lands with food production and economy increasing at a steady rate.

The Japanese victory over the mongol invasion of Japan, also gave the Japanese (more specifically, the samurai class) confidence and a sense of superiority which lasted till the 2nd world war. Why did the mongol lose? It was rather interesting, because the 2 main invasion fleets sent by the mongols devastated by Tsunami, successively, which halted any attempts by the mongol to invade Japan. As for the actual fighting (a few did take place), the japanese stood little chance against the Mongol, merely because the mongol used a different style of warfare. Japanese warfare during this period, was mostly ritualized. It was a custom for the Japanese to do a ritualized insult to their opponents, before attacking them, where each soldiers fight a one on one battle, or at least something similar to that. The mongols, who probably didn't understand japanese at that point, simply launched a volley of arrows before charging all out into the main battle line, something which the japanese were never prepared to face before. It maybe an exaggeration, but you can probably imagine the picture

Nevertheless, the Mongol Invasion did caused a lot of discontent and damaged the economy pretty bad. With weak central authority and rivalries between feuding lords, Japan was once again thrown into a period of Civil war, leading to another turbulent period in which Sengoku-Jidai was a part of it.

Many thanks to , and for the the references and pointing ou tthe right direction in the creation of this art

Description
A Concept Drawing of a Japanese Woman Warrior as part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited , which is roughly based on the Middle ages covering 800 AD to 1400 AD. She is one of the Three Minamori Sisters in the series, which represents the Japanese faction, comparable to that of the Kamakura Period in the early days of Samurai.

Minamori no Masako - The Eldest Sister of the three sisters , commands the greatest respect and master of strategy, both military and politically

Inspired by Main Theme - Sengoku

Introduction

Japan has always been the source of many inspiration for most of the people, whose culture, both traditional and modern have populated our daily lives. Most of the time, people often associated the Historical Japan as that of Proud and Noble Samurai Class during the Sengoku era, fighting for their honor, just like that of the Knight in the Middle Ages. But before the fancy samurai armors and romanticized history involving Oda Nobunaga, Japan in the middle ages had a very turbulent period, whose Literal and Cultural achievement were plagued by instability, poor economy as well feuding noble families all vying for power over the Imperial court. But it was from this turbulence that allowed Japan to rise from the ashes to become one of the regional powers that bridge the best of both East and West.

----------Drawing Commentaries----------

Drawing Japanese Kimono is hard and really, really tough. Initially i thought i could get away with just Girl in Kimono and that big bun of hairstyle, but judging by her status and the era depicted, i don't really have much choice but to dig some history and learn about the Kamakura period in Japan.

The role of Japanese Women in this period was bit of mixture, but it could be said that given the turbulent period and growing sophistication of Japanese society of the era, they held some political power or even were trained in Warfare. It was more of a practicality, because they need to be able to defend themselves from the enemy should their household come under attack, or failing that, commit suicide to avoid capture, or worst, rape. It was only when after Japan was united and war was no longer a threat, that Women, especially amongst the nobility, paid more attention to political interest than martial pursuit.

As for the character itself, She is Minamori no Masako, the eldest of the Three Minamori Sisters depicted in a very very stylized court dress worn by the Female Nobility of Japan during the Kamakura period. It's suppose to have more layers, and anyone with the understanding of Kimono types and history can point out many errors in the drawing (please forgive me...like i said, drawing Kimono is a nightmare ). Nevertheless, regardless of the dress, being the eldest fo the three sisters, she is the most mature and unlike her siblings, maintain a rather powerful presence in her court as well as being a competent commander.

Just incase you are wondering, Hibangana is just a play word on Higanbana, or Spider Lily, a flower often associated with death. The Minamori clan mon is a stylized representation of the said flower and water caltrop.......or if you prefer another interpretation, TDK, producer of some of my beloved earphones

~~~~~References and Other Related Media~~~~~

The Chinese and the Mongols and the Koreans

A Part of the Historically Wrong Sketch Series: Medieval Revisited - You can find more on the various faction on the map here:

==========Historical Commentaries==========

Ah yes, Japan, the country we are all familiar with, from its pop-culture, actual culture, cuisines, language, technology to media. I guess it can be pretty easy to say that at least one of the possession we have was made by Japanese or under the supervision of japanese, even to the Sony VAIO Laptop I'm typing this with . But what do we know about their history? was it full of samurai and princess yearning for love like what is depicted in popular media?

Perhaps, but it's pretty much more than that. What most people know of Japanese history is most likely the Sengoku period and beyond, afterall, that's were all the cool samurai and ninja came from . But when speaking of the Middle ages, which corresponds to the this particular historically wrong sketch series, Japan fell under 2 historical period, the Heian Era (late 8th century to late 12th century) and Kamakura Era (late 12th century - mid 14th century), the 2 periods that saw Japan undergoing many changes in their political, social and military system.

The Heian period marked a period of relative peace, where the land was governed by the Imperial House under the influence of the Fujiwara clan. Japanese literature flourished and culture became a symbol of beauty, Indeed, beauty was taken really seriously in this period that men and women wore make up (some of which were pretty.....unique to modern standards). Nevertheless, although the era saw the height of literature achievement and Buddhist influence, Japan was in a pretty poor state. The economy was weak, most of the nobles didn't know how to manage their lands and crimes run rampant thanks to the lack of proper policing of the society....which led to a lot of discontent, civil wars, and eventual rise of the new warrior class, called samurai.

With that and the establishment of Japanese first Shogun Minamoto no Yorimoto (Shogun can be roughly translated to as military dictator), Japan entered a rather turbulent era called the Kamakura period. The rise of Samurai class in this period also saw the rise of landlords who swore their allegiance to the shogun, but pretty much govern their realm like petty kingdoms. Sounds familiar? Well, this is exactly where japan transitioned into what we refer as feudalism. The consolidation of power really did improved the management of the lands with food production and economy increasing at a steady rate.

The Japanese victory over the mongol invasion of Japan, also gave the Japanese (more specifically, the samurai class) confidence and a sense of superiority which lasted till the 2nd world war. Why did the mongol lose? It was rather interesting, because the 2 main invasion fleets sent by the mongols devastated by Tsunami, successively, which halted any attempts by the mongol to invade Japan. As for the actual fighting (a few did take place), the japanese stood little chance against the Mongol, merely because the mongol used a different style of warfare. Japanese warfare during this period, was mostly ritualized. It was a custom for the Japanese to do a ritualized insult to their opponents, before attacking them, where each soldiers fight a one on one battle, or at least something similar to that. The mongols, who probably didn't understand japanese at that point, simply launched a volley of arrows before charging all out into the main battle line, something which the japanese were never prepared to face before. It maybe an exaggeration, but you can probably imagine the picture

Nevertheless, the Mongol Invasion did caused a lot of discontent and damaged the economy pretty bad. With weak central authority and rivalries between feuding lords, Japan was once again thrown into a period of Civil war, leading to another turbulent period in which Sengoku-Jidai was a part of it.

Many thanks to , and for the the references and pointing ou tthe right direction in the creation of this art