Ashigaru
The Japanese Ashigaru (足軽) were foot-soldiers of medieval Japan.
Ashigaru (lit "light-foot") were the lowest-class warriors, either the low-class buke (noble) or commoners who had joined or been impressed to the daimyo's army. There are also stories about female ashigaru.
The ashigaru were foot soldiers - the cavalry was the territory of the samurai. They might have been armed with katana or just with spears unless they served as handlers of catapults. In the 1500's, they were also armed with arquebuses. Their armor consisted of conical hats (jingasa) made of lacquered hardened leather, breastplates and occasionally greaves protecting the legs.
At first the ashigaru were mercenaries or adventurers who were paid only in loot but eventually some of them became part of local armies as retained warriors.
In the Onin War, ashigaru gained a reputation as unruly troops when they looted and burned Miyako (modern-day Kyoto). In the following Sengoku period some of them rose to greater prominence. The most famous of them was Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who also raised many of his warrior followers to samurai status.
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