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Japanese ashigaru firing hinawajū.Night-shooting practice, using ropes to maintain proper firing elevation. Tanegashima (), most often called in Japanese and sometimes in English hinawajū (火縄銃, "matchlock gun"), was a type of matchlock-configured [1] arquebus [2] firearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese Empire in 1543. [3]
Guns were used less frequently because the Edo period did not have many large-scale conflicts in which a gun would be of use. Oftentimes the sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small-scale Edo period conflicts; nevertheless, there were gunsmiths in Japan producing guns through the Edo period.
Ashigaru wearing armor and jingasa firing tanegashima (Japanese matchlocks). Ashigaru (足軽, "light of foot") were infantry employed by the samurai class of feudal Japan.The first known reference to ashigaru was in the 14th century, [1] but it was during the Ashikaga shogunate (Muromachi period) that the use of ashigaru became prevalent by various warring factions.
The French-built Matsushima, flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy at the Battle of the Yalu River (1894), used a 320 mm (13 in) Canet gun.. Following the Meiji Restoration, Japan would pursue a policy of "Rich country, strong army" (富国強兵), which led to a general rearmament of the country.
However, the Japanese were arguably using guns more effectively than their European counterparts by the sixteenth century, as well as producing more accurate, durable varieties. [citation needed] The Battle of Nagashino, where guns were deployed against samurai cavalry, is one of the most famous and influential battles in the history of the ...
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. Samurai stuck to their swords and their bows, engaging in cavalry or infantry tactics, while the ashigaru wielded the guns. Some militant Buddhist ...
A samurai in his armour in the 1860s. Hand-colored photograph by Felice Beato. Samurai or bushi (武士, [bɯ.ɕi]) were members of the warrior class in Japan.They were originally provincial warriors who served the Kuge and imperial court in the late 12th century, and eventually came to play a major political role until their abolition in the late 1870s during the Meiji era.
The use of a gun in each hand is often associated with the American Old West, mainly due to media portrayals. It was common for people in the era to carry two guns, but not to use them at the same time, as shown in movies. The second gun served as a backup weapon, to be used only if the main one suffered a malfunction or was lost or emptied. [11]