Nobushi

A group of armed peasants from the Northern and Southern Courts to the Muromachi period. It is also written as "Nobuseri" and is also called "Nobuseri". As described in the "Taiheiki" (Record of the Great Peace), when Rokuhara Tandai Hojo Nakatoki and Tokimasu were surrounded by bandits and killed in battle in Omi, the term "Nobuseri" referred to local people who attacked defeated soldiers and took their weapons and other items. However, since shugo daimyo and local lords conscripted peasants to use as ambushes and in pursuits, the term "Nobuseri" also came to refer to armed peasants who were used as temporary combat support personnel. One example is when Ikeda Mitsumasa, a local lord from Settsu, who joined the Eastern Army at the outbreak of the Onin War (1467-77), entered Kyoto leading 12 mounted warriors and about 1,000 bandits. Although the story that Hachisuka Koroku Masakatsu was the leader of the bandits is a fabrication made by later generations, it is true that as group battles developed during the Sengoku period, battles using armed peasants, known as bandits, became increasingly common. However, with the Taiko Land Survey and the Sword Hunt, which completed the separation of soldiers and farmers, bandits disappeared.

[Makoto Ogawa]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

南北朝～室町時代の武装農民集団。「野臥」とも書き、「のぶせり」ともいう。『太平記(たいへいき)』に六波羅(ろくはら)探題北条仲時(なかとき)・時益(ときます)が近江(おうみ)で野伏に囲まれて討ち死にしたとあるように、敗軍の将兵を襲って武器などを奪う土民をいったが、守護大名や国人は農民を徴発して伏兵、追撃などに用いたので、臨時に戦闘の補助員とされた武装農民をも野伏というようになった。応仁(おうにん)の乱（1467～77）の勃発(ぼっぱつ)にあたって東軍に参加した摂津の国人池田充正(みつまさ)が、騎馬武者12騎で野伏1000人ばかりを率いて入京したのは一例である。蜂須賀小六正勝(はちすかころくまさかつ)が野伏の頭目であったというのは後世の作り話としても、戦国期に集団戦の発達につれて野伏軍(いくさ)という武装農民を用いる戦闘がますます盛んになったことは事実である。しかし太閤検地(たいこうけんち)や刀狩(かたながり)が行われて兵農分離が完成するとともに野伏は消滅した。

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