The tanegashima, also called hinawaju or matchlock gun, was a snap matchlock arquebus used by samurai and ashigaru foot soldiers in Japan. It reached Japan in 1543 when a Chinese junk carrying two Portuguese traders was driven by a storm to the island of Tanegashima; the weapon's design derived from snap matchlocks produced in the Portuguese armory at Goa in India. The local lord, Tanegashima Tokitaka, bought two of the muskets and commissioned a swordsmith to copy them, and a Portuguese blacksmith later helped solve the technical problem of drilling a helical barrel. Within a few years the tanegashima had changed the way war was fought in Japan, although it never fully displaced the bow because of its slower rate of fire and vulnerability to wet weather. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Weapon Class Introduced Year Classification
Service Status Weapon Class
Weapon Class (category) Sources
1. Wikipedia: Tanegashima (gun)
Lead section
was a type of matchlock-configured arquebus firearm introduced to Japan through the Portuguese Empire in 1543
Origins section
The name tanegashima came from the Japanese island (Tanegashima) where a Chinese junk with two Portuguese adventurers on board was driven to anchor by a storm in 1543.
- Weapon class classified from the entity's own sourced description text.
- Introduced circa 1543 per the entity's own sourced description text; no pre-1900 weapon system remains in current active military service.
View the SourceWikidata: Tanegashima
Wikidata Q358057, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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