Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Isolation did not decrease the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo period. But the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring ...
The samurai-zutsu guns were custom-made for use only by the samurai, whose high social standing and wealth meant they could afford well-crafted and intricately designed guns which were longer and of larger caliber, as opposed to the cruder and inferior quality ban-zutsu used by the ashigaru. Samurai-zutsu
In 1853, Japan was opened to the West by U.S. Commodore Matthew C. Perry, beginning the Bakumatsu ("end of the bakufu") era. Samurai from the rebellious Chōshū and Satsuma Domains played a major role in the sonnō jōi movement against the Tokugawa shogunate, and later in the Meiji Restoration and Boshin War of 1868, which restored power to ...
Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. There are reports of some sort of incendiary chemical weapon , the Greek fire , used by the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) from the 7th through the 14th centuries, which may have been delivered through grenades and ...
As in Europe, the debilitating effects of wet (and therefore largely useless) gunpowder were decisive in a number of battles. But, one of the key advantages of the weapon was that unlike bows, which required years of training largely available only to the samurai class, guns could be used by relatively untrained footmen.
In comparison, the Portuguese guns were light, had a matchlock firing mechanism, and were easy to aim. Because the Portuguese-made firearms were introduced into Tanegashima, the arquebus was ultimately called Tanegashima in Japan. At that time, Japan was in the middle of a civil war called the Sengoku period (Warring States period).
The shogun presented Adams with two swords representing the authority of a samurai, and decreed that William Adams the pilot was dead and that Miura Anjin, a samurai, was born in his place.
Pages in category "Samurai weapons and equipment" The following 49 pages are in this category, out of 49 total. ... Tanegashima (gun) Tantō ...