RESERVA THE PURE LAND

The Pure Land: Ōnin War in Muromachi Japan, 1465-1477 is Volume XIV of the COIN Series originally designed by Volko Ruhnke. It depicts a devastating civil war in 15th century Japan that reduced Kyoto to a smoldering ruin and precipitated the century-long warring states period—the Sengoku Jidai. Against the backdrop of this civil war between coalitions led by the Hosokawa and Yamana clan, the game also features peasant revolts led by the Jizamurai and religious unrest involving the Ikkō-ikki, the militant wing of the emerging Jōdo Shinshū (or True Pure Land) Buddhist sect.

Highlights:

• The Hosokawa Clan represent the political establishment and must encourage support for the Ashikaga Shogunate while also maintaining the loyalty of the other major clans.
• The Yamana Clan also want to encourage support for the Ashikaga Shogunate but at the same time must gain control of enough population to establish themselves as the dominant military power.
• The Jizamurai, minor nobles and merchants, can encourage peasant revolts to build regional autonomy, while also trading to increase their own independent wealth.
• The Ikkō-ikki can preach to reduce support for the shogunate and to spread their religious beliefs, while also radicalising the population to eventually overthrow the established order.

  There are four scenarios available to play in The Pure Land:

  1. The main scenario, The Ōnin-Bunmei War, is five campaigns long and covers the full course of the war, from the outbreak of violence in Kyoto in 1467 to the exhausted Hosokawa-Yamana stalemate a decade later in 1477.

  2. Foxes and Wolves is a shorter, three campaign scenario covering only the first six years of the war, until the deaths of Yamana Sōzen and Hosokawa Katsumoto in 1473.

  3. An Empty Moor covers the final four years of the war in two campaigns, from 1473 to 1477, with an alternative setup depicting the historical situation in 1473.

  4. Finally, The Flowery Capital is an extended six campaign scenario beginning at the birth of Ashikaga Yoshihisa in 1465, with the country still at peace, the Jodo Shinshu Hongan-ji temple still standing in Kyoto, and the urbanisation in Settsu province yet to begin.

  The game takes approximately one hour per campaign to play, so the scenarios range from a single evening to a full day experience. For beginner players the Foxes and Wolves scenario is recommended, as it covers the full narrative arc of the game in a manageable amount of time.

  

  Prototype map image

  Historical background:

  By the middle of the 15th century, the shoguns of the Ashikaga dynasty, ruling on behalf of a series of puppet emperors, had themselves become all but puppets. Real power lay with the kanrei, or shogun’s deputy, a position held on a rotating basis by the heads of the noble Hatakeyama, Shiba, and Hosokawa clans. In 1450 the Hatakeyama clan fell into a succession dispute between Hatakeyama Masanaga and his nephew Yoshinari, and around the same time the Shiba clan also began to suffer from internal strife and unruly vassals, leaving the Hosokawa clan as the preeminent political power in the capital Kyoto. Their only serious rivals were the Yamana clan, upstarts who had gained favor with the Ashikaga Shogunate after suppressing the rebellious Akamatsu clan in 1441. In order to maintain peace, the aging daimyo of the Yamana clan, Sōzen, married his daughter to the daimyo of the Hosokawa clan, Katsumoto. This gesture of goodwill would soon prove insufficient.