These were the poor, rural samurai of Japan. They were not full-time warriors like regular samurai. During times of peace they farmed the land. They were popular with the Oda clan, so maybe the Oda could have a discount on them.
Here is my depiction of them: (I modded the ashigaru unit_variant file from The Hedge Knight's awesome mod, and added kabuto and sode and do)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read: