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Tinto Flavour #27 - 13th of June 2025 - Japan, Nanbokucho, Sengoku

Hello and welcome once more to another edition of Tinto Flavour. Today we will continue the Japanese theme by taking a look at the flavor of Japan and the Japanese clans, as well as the situations of the Nanbokuchō and Sengoku Jidai.

After a long period of peace under the Kamakura Shogunate, the islands of Japan were plunged again into war during the Mongol invasions. That debilitated the authority of the Shōgun to the point that Yamato Go-Daigo Tennō was able to wrestle control of the country away from him. However, his intentions of restoring imperial rule were not to come to fruition, as his former ally Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji established a new Japanese Shogunate.

Now Shōgun Ashikaga Takauji rules over the country after Go-Daigo Tennō fled the capital and established himself in Yoshino. The struggle between the central government and the fleeing Emperor is far from over.

Japan.png

These are the estates of Japan:
Japan Estates.png

And it has this unique reform:
Shogunate Reform.png

While the other clans and the imperial courts have these other ones:
Clan Reform.png

Imperial Family.png

Japanese countries have some common advances, and some of the individual clans have also some unique ones. Some examples:
Bushido.png

Head Hunting.png

Codified Bushido.png


Some unique ones (try to guess which clan they are for):
Clans of Tosa.png

Izumi Sea.png

Unlikely Alliances.png

Uninspiring clan.png

Furinkazan.png

Let’s talk now about how the clans behave. Let me start by saying that our recommended country to play in Japan generally is the country of Japan itself, as the clans, being building-based countries, play quite a bit different than regular tags, and thus are rather suited to experienced players that want to try a different and more challenging game style.

That being said, let’s look at how they work. Being building-based countries, they are of course dependent on their buildings. Here is some of them:
Shoen.png

Yamashiro.png


The next ones are exclusive for the imperial court countries and the non-imperial clans, respectively:
Gosho.png

Yakata.png

And another important building that cannot be built manually but it will instead be built automatically when a clan is assigned to be Shugo of a province (see yesterday’s Tinto Talks for that mechanic):
Kokufu.png

As you can see, both their economy and their troops will depend directly on the buildings that they own, so their strategy is to expand their presence by building more of those buildings and also taking the ones owned by other clans in war.

Now that we mention war, it’s time to talk about the two civil war situations in the game. Let’s start with the Nanbokuchō Jidai, a situation that starts just at the beginning of the game. Initially, all countries all assigned to support either the northern or the southern court, according to their historical alliances, but when the situation starts, countries will get the following event:
Nanbokuchou start event.png

With this, the clans will be able to choose to switch loyalties, or even declare neutrality, although for obvious reasons neither the two courts nor the shogunate are able to change their allegiances. The whole country will thus be divided into sides:
Nanbokuchou panel.png

Nanbokuchou map.png

Even after the situation has started, countries can choose to change their loyalty, not only via the actions in the situation panel but also through events that will fire during the situation allowing for that. Besides that, there will also be other events firing with options of getting casus belli or even declaring wars, making it so that chaos is ensured.

One important thing to note is that as long as the Nanbokuchō Jidai situation is active, countries will not be able to declare war on others supporting the same side as them. If you want to attack another clan that is supporting the same side as you, you will have to do it after the situation is resolved (or choose to change your loyalty, of course).

To end the situation, one of the two courts must be forced to disappear, through a special peace treaty “Force Imperial Abdication”.

So, we just had a civil war, what about a second one? Whether the Nanbokuchō Jidai situation resolves successfully or not, an even bigger civil war will still be looming. The Sengoku Jidai situation can happen after 1400 if there is no Shōgun, or if the Shōgun is in a weak position (low legitimacy or stability, or with rebellion problems), or if there are more than 6 wars currently active among the clans. As such, a strong shogunate will be able to avoid falling into it if they manage to keep their children in check.

Once it starts, the stronger and bigger clans will automatically transform into landed Daimyō, with the rest receiving an event with the option to also become landed, at the cost of opinion with the shogunate.
Sengoku Event Start.png

Becoming landed will have many consequences. For once, all locations in the shogunate in which they have a presence with their buildings will become owned by them, and they will receive a new government reform replacing the “Japanese Clan” one:
Daimyo Reform.png

Even if a country does not choose to become landed with this event, they may have the option to do so in the future, both via further events that can fire during the situation, and also directly through the action “Proclaim Independence” in the situation panel:
Sengoku Panel.png

The actions available in the panel are slightly different for the Shōgun, giving extra tools to control the many clans, both the ones that have been already landed and those that are still as building-based countries:
Sengoku Shogun Actions.png


The objective of the Shōgun will thus be to curb the autonomy of the clans, while the objective of any clan would be to gain sufficient power to either become the Shōgun themselves or to destroy the shogunate entirely. The situation will end when there is only a single country in the shogunate (with the exception of allowing for the presence of a building-based emperor), or when the Shōgun has managed to reduce all other clans to just a single location building-based country.

As with the Nanbokuchō Jidai, there will be some events firing during the situation, giving the countries options to gain casus belli, declare wars, etc, and there are also some event chains of interaction between the Shōgun and the clans when the former uses the action to “Summon to Court”.

And that is all for today. With almost 150 countries in the Shogunate, there is much more to unpack in the game, but this is as far as we can show here.

As an extra treat, because many of you asked about it, here's an updated view of the terrain map for Japan, with an especial effect of cherry blossoms during spring:
Japan Terrain.png


Next week @Pavía will be back, so I'll leave you in his care (I still don't know what will be the schedule for next week, sorry).

And remember to Wishlist Europa Universalis V now!
 
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Will the Japanese have some way of keeping the Imperial dynasty around? Ie like if the Papacy is destroyed it gets recreated elsewhere if the Imperial courts are destroyed can they recreate themselves?
 
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Do the famous characters of the Sengoku Jidai appear (the three unifiers etc)?

Does Sen no Rikyū appear as a character?

Any advances related to tea ceremony?

are there events for some of the famous temples and shrines like Kinkaku-ji (which would be a purchase from a landlord), Kinkaku-ji (a renovation by Ieyasu), promote Sensō-ji and so on?

Is there anything to simulate the reasons for invading Korea, ie all those military men sitting on their asses after uniting Japan?
 
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So, what happens if the Southern Court wins? It should have consequences for the power of the Shogun at the least. Will it destroy the Shogunate and put the Emperor in power, or will it just weaken the authority of the Shogun so that the Imperial Court can more easily take control later?
 
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Will there be anything to represent the overthrow of the shugo by their deputies and kokujin vassals?

"By the middle of the sixteenth century the shugo had everywhere disappeared from Japan to be replaced by regional lords of the sengoku-daimyo variety. A glance at the origins of these sengoku-daimyo reveals that the large majority had emerged from the kokujin class; these were men who had held inferior positions within local administrations, such as shugodai, but who had succeeded in replacing their former shugo masters. Only in exceptional cases did shugo houses, such as the Ouchi, transform themselves from shugo to daimyo status. This is because most shugo, being constrained to reside in Kyoto and to rely on the bakufu for their own authority, found themselves stranded after the Onin War when the bakufu^s power declined. The only shugo of central Japan who survived the Onin War was the Ouchi, and even they eventually succumbed to the Mori. All other shugo who successfully made the transition, such as the Shimazu and Otomo of Kyushu, and the Imagawa and Takeda in the Kanto, were located in peripheral areas, so that they had not become involved in bakufu politics. It is informative to follow the course of Ouchi development beyond the Onin War to see how this family managed to hold on in western Japan until displaced by the Mori."

"Most shugo houses of importance in the early Muromachi period failed to meet the challenge of local competition in the years after the Onin War. Only in exceptional cases did a shugo construct a local power base firm enough to withstand the pressures of kokujin competition and thus retain the status of domainal lord into the Sengoku period. By and large the lords of the Sengoku age, the so-called sengoku-daimyo, came from the ranks of the newly risen kokujin. Thus, paralleling the process of bakufu transformation described in the previous essays, the provinces also underwent a change in the pattern of local rule in which the shugo system of the early Muromachi period was ultimately superseded by the daimyo system of the Sengoku age. The century following the Onin War witnessed the emergence of genuinely autonomous regional hegemons, the sengoku-daimyo, who had little inclination to recognize the authority of the shogun except when it suited their purpose."

(Source): Japan in the Muromachi Age
 
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How does it work if two clans have buildings in the same location and both convert to owning locations? Is there a tie-breaker value, or is it random?
 
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