teppo guns

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. Edo bakufu 江戸幕府 The Edo Government .
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teppoo, teppô 鉄砲 Teppo, gun, musket, matchlock, Gewehr
hinawajuu, hinawajū 火縄銃 Hinawaju
teppo ashigaru 　鉄砲足軽　matchlockmen
tanegashima 種子島, also hinawajū 火縄銃 Tanegashima matchlock


source : kotobank

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Tanegashima (種子島), also hinawajū (火縄銃), was a type of matchlock configured arquebusfirearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese in 1543.Tanegashima were used by the samurai class and their foot soldiers (ashigaru) and within a few years the introduction of the tanegashima in battle changed the way war was fought in Japan forever.



1 History
1.1 Origins
The tanegashima seems to have been based on snap matchlocks that were produced in Portuguese India, at the armory of Goa (a colony of Portugal since 1510). The name tanegashima came from the Japanese island (Tanegashima) where a Chinese junk with Portuguese adventurers on board was driven to anchor by a storm in 1543.
The lord of the Japanese island, Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528–1579), purchased two matchlock muskets from the Portuguese and put a swordsmith to work copying the matchlock barrel and firing mechanism. The smith (Yaita) did not have much of a problem with most of the gun but "drilling the barrel helically so that the screw (bisen bolt) could be tightly inserted" was a major problem as this "technique did apparently not exist in Japan until this time." The Portuguese fixed their ship and left the island and only in the next year when a Portuguese blacksmith was brought back to Japan was the problem solved.
Within ten years of its introduction, over 300,000 tanegashima firearms were reported to have been manufactured.
1.2 Sengoku period
1.3 Edo period
1.4 Modern use
2 Parts of the tanegashima
3 Gallery
- source : wikipedia -

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- quote
Teppô is the Japanese term for arquebuses, or matchlocks, the first European firearm to be introduced to Japan. Though some forms of gunpowder weapons existed in Japan earlier, having been introduced from China via Korea or the Ryukyus, European firearms made a major impact upon Sengoku period samurai warfare.
While the term teppô might literally be translated as "iron cannon," or "metal gun," the term hinawajû is sometimes also used, meaning literally "fire rope gun," and referring to the matchlock mechanism.

Introduction to Japan
The introduction of the European matchlock began in 1543, during the Sengoku period. In that year, two or three Portuguese arrived aboard a Chinese junk off the coast of Tanegashima, south of Kyushu. Though the account by Fernao Mendes Pinto is oft-cited, that by Antonio Galvano, governor of Malacca from 1536-1540, is considered by some scholars more reliable. According to his account, published posthumously in 1557, the three Portuguese were Christopher Antonio da Mota, Francis Zimoro, and Antonio Perota, who had abandoned their Portuguese compatriots in Siam and found passage aboard this Chinese junk.

After trying out the arquebuses the Portuguese had with them, the lord of the island, Tanegashima Tokitaka, purchased from the strangers two examples of the firearms for his family treasury and is said to have occupied himself ceaselessly with learning to use them. He instructed a retainer to learn to make the gunpowder, and another, the swordsmith Yasuita Kinbei Kiyosada, to reproduce the weapon itself. According to some accounts, Tokitaka gave his daughter to the Portuguese in exchange for the weapons, and/or for instruction in their production. Kiyosada encountered difficulties, however, in reproducing the spring mechanism, and also in properly sealing the end of the barrel. Fortunately the next year a Portuguese ship arrived (by some accounts bearing the same Portuguese men), and a smith on board was able to teach Kiyosada about the spring mechanism, and how to close the barrel. This discovery led to the production of several tens of firearms in a period of a little over a year. Tokitaka instructed his retainers to practice on the new weapon, and many beccame proficient. Later, the Sakai merchant Tachibana Iemonzaburô, later known as Teppô-mata, came and stayed on the island for one or two years and learned the craft. From him, the knowledge spread throughout the country.

After that the Portuguese had begun to openly trade with other cities in Japan. Nagasaki had become a major trade port for trade between the Japanese and Portuguese, and the traders brought a variety of novelties including wool, velvet, tobacco, clocks and eyeglasses. But the most popular and less novel item brought to Japan by Europe, was the matchlock arquebus.

Many of the daimyô were impressed after seeing the European matchlock; by 1549 many daimyô ordered their weaponsmiths to copy and mass-produce this advanced weapon. One daimyô in particular who saw potential in this weapon was Oda Nobunaga; he placed an order for 500 arquebuses, the largest order to date...

Soon the Japanese demonstrated not only their ability to quickly assimilate objects from other cultures, but also their ability to improve upon it. Many metalsmiths went to work and even improved the teppô. This weapon was found to be more powerful then the bow, and easier to use. Eventually the teppô replaced many archer units in battle.

A look at the Teppô
The First 30 Years
1549 - Oda Nobunaga's father placed an order for 500 arquebuses.
1570 - Oda Nobunaga's army of 30,000 were forced to withdraw by a fierce counter attack of the Ikko-ikki of Ishiyama Honganji. 3,000 Ikko-ikki matchlockmen used controlled volley firing against Nobunaga's men. .....



- - - - - Edo Period
Firearms continued to be used by both samurai authorities and by peasants & commoners in the Edo period. Sakai and Kunitomo continued to be the chief sites of production, and matchlocks continued to be the dominant form of firearms used; firearms technology did not advance much within Japan over the course of the 17th to mid-19th centuries. Flintlocks, which had replaced the matchlock in Europe, were known and occasionally produced, but the matchlock remained dominant in Japan, possibly in part because they produced less recoil. These sorts of muskets were by far the most common form of firearm in the country, with some estimates claiming that roughly 150,000 to 200,000 firearms were in circulation at any given time in Tokugawa Japan. Peasants' weapons generally fired shot two to three monme in weight, equivalent to .440 to .495 caliber, in today's terminology. At the request of the shogunate, gunsmiths also on occasion produced handguns and small cannon.
David Howell argues that over the course of the period, within the countryside at least, firearms came to be seen less as weapons (i.e. for military purposes) and more as essential agricultural equipment. Peasants maintained possession of their guns after Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Sword Hunts in the 1580s-90s, which specifically targeted swords, and not firearms. It was only in 1657 that regulations on peasant ownership of weapons began to be put into place; even then, hunters, and farmers who claimed they needed guns to help defend themselves and their crops against wild boar and other such threats, were permitted to continue to own firearms. .....
..... A series of edicts issued in the 1720s not only permitted the use of weapons by peasants year-round, but actually encouraged their use, and the borrowing of weapons, for the purposes of scaring away animals.
..... In the early 19th century, the shogunate began to worry about the amorphous imagined threat of "bad guys" - including rônin, jobless commoners, and the like - hoarding weapons and planning violence or other criminal activities. Numerous edicts banned peasants from engaging in martial activities, including firing practice.
- - - - - Bakumatsu
Meiji Period
- source : wiki.samurai-archives.com



Tanegashima / Teppo / Hinawaju ... Japanese Matchlock Guns
source : militaria.co.za/nmb/topic


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Teppo-machi, teppoochoo　鉄砲町 Teppocho, Gunsmith's village
now 日本橋本町3・4 - - - Nihonbashi

Teppokaji 鉄砲鍛冶 Craftsmen producing guns were only allowed to work in this district.

. teppoo kaji 鉄砲鍛冶 gunsmith producing Teppo matchlocks .
- Introduction -


There is also a Teppo-machi in other cities of Japan.
Nagasaki.
Not far from Shimabara Castle in Nagasaki's Shimabara City sits the town's well-preserved samurai district. Known as "teppo-machi" or "gun town", this district once housed foot soldiers of the local clan who were skilled in firearms use.
Today, the neighborhood is a quiet place. The single main street boasts a small canal running through its center; on either side, many of the imposing gates of old samurai mansions still stand. Three of the old samurai houses are open to the public and admission to all of the properties is free.
Low-class samurais lived in Teppo-machi (what is called 'Samurai-house zone')
- source : en.japantravel.com/nagasaki -


- - - - - List of Teppo-Cho in Japan
鉄砲町（てっぽうちょう、てっぽうまち）
- reference : wikipedia -

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. Legends and Tales from Japan　伝説 - Introduction .

O-Teppo Matsuri お鉄砲まつり Teppo Festival

In 宮城県 Miyagi, Kurihara District at 花山村 Hanayama village after the festival when all guns are shot, if there was one that did not fire properly, the family of this man will have bad luck. Therefore they all keep the weapons very clean and free of ritual impurities.

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Gunma 群馬県 勢多郡 横野村

daija 大蛇 huge serpent
「樽」の酒屋は大身代で、守護の大蛇が棲んでいた。大蛇のために、毎年36石入り、6尺の大樽の酒を用意していたが、ある時主人が、蛇さえいなければ身代ももっと上がると考え、火縄銃で撃ち殺してしまった。遺骸を埋めたのが蛇塚で、その後、酒屋は没落してしまった。


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Ibaraki 茨城県 水戸市 Mito

mujina ムジナ Badger
ある人が雨の日の夜に月を見て、それが狢の化けているものだと知り、油断をさせて火縄銃でその月を打ち落とした。狢は月に化けることがある。


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Kochi 高知県 幡多郡 黒潮町

tanuki 狸
炭焼をしていた話者が夜竃をしていた所、自分の娘が呼びに来た。怪しんで火縄銃を差し付けたら、逃げて行った。また別の日、隣の男が来て「お前の女房が病気だから帰ってくれ」という。怪しんだ紺蔵が男を竃の前で待たせて観察していると、男は居眠りを始め、耳も口もすっかり狸の相を現してしまった。そこで燃える炭を叩き付けると狸は逃げ、翌朝、焼け爛れた大狸が谷川に浮いていた。

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土佐山村 Tosayama
山で妖怪に行き会ったときは、火縄銃にある照尺の小穴からのぞくと正体が分かる。

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Nara 奈良県 添上郡 月ヶ瀬村 石打 Tsukigase Ishiuchi

Toosuke Jizoo 藤助地蔵 Tosuke Jizo


source : geografi.nu/region
The mountain path toward Tosuke Jizo at Tukigaseishiuchi

Once upon a time,
a hunter named Tosuke took his beloved dog and went hunting in the mountains. He waited in his mountain hut for a prey. Suddenly he heard a loud noise and run outside, but he did not see anything. His dog seemed to see or sense something, but he trembled in fear.
Tosuke became afraid, took the last bullet and shot his gun into the dark. But out of his gun came a ball of fire toward himself and he died almost on the spot. His dog pulled him inside the hut and watched over him.
But then the hut burned down in the fire in no time and the body of Tosuke became a 黒仏 "Black Buddha".
The villagers built a small sanctuary for him, Tosuke Jizo, and came here to pray every year on the 6th day of the 8th month.
Many years later when his descendants tried to re-built the hut, they found a hinawaju 縄銃 gun in the straw roof of the building.
This is near 小字 堂山 Shoji Doyama. There are actually two stone statues, one of 不動明王Fudo Myo-O and one of 藤助地蔵 Tosuke Jizo.


source : panoramio.com/photo


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- - - - - 上北山村 - - - - - ippon datara イッポンダタラ
「ハテノハツカに伯母ヶ峯越すな」と言う。伯母ヶ峯にはイッポンダタラが出て通る人を食らった。西原の射場兵庫という鉄砲名人が退治したのが12月20日で、この日にはイッポンダタラの供養がある。ハテノハツカにはその時の火縄銃が汗をかくという。

. Ippondatara, Ippon-datara 一本ダタラ - Ippon tatara .
Yoshitsune and his horses 義経の馬 .

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Saitama 埼玉県 秩父郡 Chichibu district

daija 大蛇 huge serpent
沼の主の大蛇を火縄銃で撃ち殺すと、その人の子孫は背中や脇の下にうろこのようなあざがあり、毛の生えている子供が生まれる。大蛇が殺された時、沼が決壊して大水になった。死んでいる大蛇を見た人は病気になった。


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- reference : nichibun yokai database -
222 to explore
火縄銃 OK

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source : militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/14557
Woodblock prints with matchlocks!



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- - - - - H A I K U and S E N R Y U - - - - -

- source : Kobayashi Issa - David Lanoue -

鉄砲の三尺先の小てふかな
teppô no san jaku saki no ko chô kana

three feet
from the musket's barrel...
little butterfly

Susumu Takiguchi points out that guns were "brought to Japan for the first time by the shipwrecked Portuguese in 1543 (some say 1542), and revolutionised the way battles were fought and castles were designed. They were initially 'hinawa-ju' (matchlock or firelock) and this must be the type of 'teppo' which Issa was talking about."


鉄砲の先に立たり女郎花
eppô no saki ni tachitari ominaeshi

in the musket's
line of fire...
a maiden flower


木がらしや鉄砲かつぎて小脇差
kogarashi ya teppô katsugite ko wakizashi

winter wind--
he shoulders a musket
and a short sword


雨乞にから鉄砲のきげん哉
amagoi ni kara teppô no kigen kana

after praying for rain
in a mood
to shoot the musket



. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .

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sugideppo 杉鉄砲 blowing toy for children made from Sugi wood

春や昔杉鉄砲の痛きこと
川名大

杉鉄砲借りしが縁児と笑ふ
浜田みずき

良寛堂ひとりやだれの杉鉄砲
松田ひろむ

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神杉を突いて鉄砲宮相撲
茨木和生

鉄砲射堋(あづち)霧間の樹神(こだま)かよひけり
調古

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