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Tanegashima Guns (Japanese Matchlocks)

Type Object Region Japan Time 1543–1600

Tanegashima guns are Japan's imitation and localization of the Portuguese matchlock that reached Tanegashima in 1543, commonly called teppō;…

Timeline

  1. 1543–1550Tanegashima · TanegashimaIn 1543 Portuguese merchants arrived at Tanegashima with matchlocks; the island lord Tanegashima Tokitaka ordered craftsman Yaita Kinbei to copy one successfully, producing Japan's first domestic teppō; thereafter nanban trade channels spread firearms technology to the realms of Kyushu.
  2. 1560–1570Kinai, Kii, and Kyushu · JapanIn the 1560s teppō were mass-produced at forging centers such as Sakai, and Oda Nobunaga, the Saika group, and the Mōri clan competed to equip them; mixed teppō-spear ashigaru tactics matured, and around the Ishiyama War of 1570 the teppō had become a standard Sengoku weapon.
  3. 1575–1590Shitaragahara (site of the Battle of Nagashino) · Mikawa ProvinceAt the Battle of Nagashino in 1575 the Oda-Tokugawa alliance routed Takeda cavalry with staged volleys of three thousand matchlocks, establishing the dominance of teppō squares on Japanese battlefields; thereafter daimyō vied to expand their teppō units, and the Tanegashima gun form continued in improved production into the early Edo period.

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