[lfuente]

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm uploading my Christmas recolor today so the moderators have enough time to approve it before the holiday break begins.

This is a recolor of Zio's (naked) Greek Hoplite into a Japanese Ashigaru spearman near the end of the Sengoku period. He is pretty generic since all daimyo armies had light infantry spearmen that were cheap to train and equip. The sashimono banner attached at the back of the waist identifies him as a soldier of Takayama Shigetomo around the time of the Battle of Yamazaki in 1582.

Born in 1552, Takayama was a well-known Christian daimyo who was vassal to the Matsunaga, Wada (1568), Araki (1573), then Oda (1578) clan. After Oda Nobunaga's forced suicide in 1582 Takayama commanded troops under Toyotomi Hideyoshi at the battles of Yamazaki (1582) and Shizugatake (1583), and the invasions of Shikoku (1584) and Kyushu (1587). He was stripped of his commands and domains by 1588 and sought the protection of Maeda Toshiie when his liege Toyotomi began persecuting Christians until his death in 1598.

Takayama did not fight in the pivotal battle of Sekigahara in 1600, but remained in Japan until Toyotomi's successor Tokugawa Ieyasu finally banned Christianity in 1614. Takayama chose exile in the Philippines, and died in Manila a month after arriving (on my birthdate).

Dom Justo Ukon-dono as he was known in Manila was beatified by the Catholic church in February 2017, one step away from sainthood.

A few comments about the model:
What really inspired this recolor was Niku Mansei's generic red and black samurai armor papercraft for 1:12 action figures - let me know if the armor needs more scaling down.
I've seen illustrations of Ashigaru shirtless under their light armor, and this makes sense as the battle of Yamazaki was in summer, July 1582.
There's an alternate triple sashimono used by Takayama which might be more correct for battles until Shizugatake.
The 'shorts' are supposed to be loose, not skin-tight.
If the conical hat is used, the top head piece is optional. Add a rectangle of thin paper that attaches under the hat to shade the nape.
I increased the saturation to make the figure browner, but can't do anything about his facial features - maybe he's half-white?

As usual, this will be available after moderator approval. I know it's a stretch, but at least there's some Christian, Philippine and personal stuff related to this recolor!