The {{nihongo, Negoro-shū, 根来衆} were an order of warrior monks based in Negoro-ji temple, in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Kii Province , or , was a province of Japan in the part of Honshū that is today Wakayama Prefecture, as well as the southern part of Mie Prefecture. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Kii''" in . Kii bordered Ise, Izumi, Kawachi, Shima, and Yamato Pro ...

. They were famous for their skill with firearms, as well as with more traditional monk weapons like the

naginata The ''naginata'' (, , ) is a polearm and one of several varieties of traditionally made Japanese blades ('' nihontō''). ''Naginata'' were originally used by the samurai class of feudal Japan, as well as by ashigaru (foot soldiers) and sōhei ( ...

. Negoro-ji, along with many other warrior monasteries, came under

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

at the end of the 16th century; in 1585, the temple was burned to the ground by the forces of

Toyotomi Hideyoshi , otherwise known as and , was a Japanese samurai and ''daimyō'' (feudal lord) of the late Sengoku period, Sengoku and Azuchi-Momoyama periods and regarded as the second "Great Unifier" of Japan.Richard Holmes, The World Atlas of Warfare: ...

. The monks of Negoro-ji were devotees of the Shingi sect of

Shingon is one of the major schools of Buddhism in Japan and one of the few surviving Vajrayana lineages in East Asian Buddhism. It is a form of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism and is sometimes called "Tōmitsu" (東密 lit. "Esoteric uddhismof Tō- ...

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, but were allied with monks of other sects, such as the

Ikkō-ikki were armed military leagues that formed in several regions of Japan in the 15th-16th centuries, composed entirely of members of the Jōdo Shinshū sect of Buddhism. In the early phases, these ''ikki'' leagues opposed the rule of local Shugo, go ...

, as well as with

Tokugawa Ieyasu Tokugawa Ieyasu (born Matsudaira Takechiyo; 31 January 1543 – 1 June 1616) was the founder and first ''shōgun'' of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, which ruled from 1603 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was the third of the three "Gr ...

, a chief rival of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. They aided their allies in a number of battles, including the

siege of Ishiyama Hongan-ji The was a ten-year military campaign that took place from 1570 to 1580 in Sengoku period Japan, carried out by lord Oda Nobunaga against a network of fortifications, temples, and communities belonging to the Ikkō-ikki, a powerful faction of J� ...

, the main base of the Ikkō-ikki. When their own temple came under siege in 1585, its inhabitants are estimated to have numbered 30,000 to 50,000, though many escaped before the siege and sought refuge in Ōta castle, home of the Saiga Ikki. Following the destruction, twenty-five of the survivors joined Tokugawa Ieyasu's army, forming the core of his firearms squads. An insight into the daily lives of the Negoro-gumi was provided by Father Gaspar Vilela, a

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

missionary who visited the temple. He compared the monks to the

Knights of Rhodes The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, commonly known as the Knights Hospitaller (), is a Catholic military order. It was founded in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem in the 12th century and had headquarters there u ...

, devoted warriors who would give anything to fight for their religion. However, he observed that the monks of Negoroji focused far more on military preparations than on prayer, and that many had not even taken monastic vows. Vilela was impressed by their martial prowess, the extent of their daily training, and the strength of their weapons and armor. These monks were not only expert

arquebus An arquebus ( ) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier. The term ''arquebus'' was applied to many different forms of firearms ...

iers, but also some of the best gunsmiths in the country, and accomplished fletchers. They celebrated military victories with all the pleasures enjoyed by a secular force, indulging in many things that an ascetic life ought to prohibit, such as

wine, women and song "Wine, women, and song" is a hendiatris that endorses hedonistic lifestyles or behaviors. A more modern form of the idea is often expressed as " sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll", a phrase popularized by British singer Ian Dury in his song o ...

References

*Turnbull, Stephen (2003). ''Japanese Warrior Monks AD 949-1603''. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. Japanese warrior monks