February Entry: the Gempei War

[Gamerprinter]

Oda Nobunage (or as the Japanese Last names come first) Nobunago Oda, is one of my favorite historical figures of old Japan, however he was general during the early years of the Sengoku period in the late 1400's. So for my Gempei War map, Oda won't be born for another 250 years, so you won't see him unfortunately.

I'm thinking of placing Ukiyo-e styled samura, shogun, and various leaders as decoration in the ocean part of the map, rather than ocean itself - something I'm thinking about anyway.

I've been researching "Kamon" which is the Japanese family crest or trademark here in the last few hours, as these will represent the political markings throughout the map. For example attached is the Kamon for the Shimizu family - which is my mother's maiden name...

I will also being using war banners, which are Kamon placed on verticle rectangles or squares in different colors, especially in war hot areas of the map. Of course I'll also rely on the colored lines for the provincial borders of the region. Another issue is that there are 26 provinces within that rectangular selection of the map area I plan to incorporate in my final map. So lots of defined territories to include!

GP

[Gamerprinter]

I made time to get this started in WIP form. I referenced several maps and a satellite image to get the best views of what I needed.

I've created the coastlines and placed as many islands as I could find at this dimension in the Inland Sea.

Next I'll cut the rivers. Don't worry - mountains, borders and scale will be coming down the road. I wanted to get all the top down features before I start placing Ukiyo-e mountains.

The color is just a placeholder now, this will change greatly as the map developes. I just wanted some color so I can get the feel of the place.

WIP so far...

GP

### Latest WIP ###