Hōjutsu 砲術 - The Art of Gunnery

 

 

Hōjutsu (砲術), gunnery technique, appeared in Japan following the introduction of Tanegashima or Hinawajuu (a type of matchlock arquebus) by the Portuguese during the Nanban Trade period (1543-1614). The name Tanegashima comes from the island of the same name where a Chinese junk carrying Portuguese adventurers found refuge after a storm. 

As war raged during the Sengoku period, these were widely used. Whilst the myth of 'giving up the gun' during the period of peace under the Tokugawa endures, they were still being produced and samurai (mostly ashigaru or foot soldiers) still trained in Hōjutsu (albeit their use was more common forpeasants to scare off wild animals than for samurai to fight). 

As Euro-Americans arrived in Japan in the 1850s and 1860s, Tanegashima were antiquated (but still used) so the government acquired advanced firearms including "geweer"-style smoothbore guns and rifles. The Lord of Nagaoka even possed two Gatling guns (which were the best rapid-fire firearms of the time). The French minié rifles had a large-caliber and high precision that caused terrible wounds, they are believed to have tipped the balance in favour of Imperial troops during the first battle of the Boshin war (Battle of Toba-Fushimi) as the shogunal troops were not united and not all equipped with effective firearms. 

Various other weapons were circulating in Japan, such as the Spencer carbines mostly used by Tosa men in the Battle of Ueno, but if you remember Yamamoto Yaeko from the Aizu post (29 July), she was also a skilled user. Handguns were also popular at the end of the Bakumatsu period, and Satsuma imported the Smith & Wesson Army no 2 through Scottish trader Thomas Blake Glover. 

The museum of Matsumoto castle has a large collection of matchlock guns and they are frequently used for Hōjutsu performances by the "matchlock samurai corps" (https://www.gunsamurai.com/). 

 

 

 

More on this: 

• Samurai History Podcast EP05 The Myth of Samurai Giving Up the Gun

• Conrad Totman, Collapse of the Tokugawa Bakufu, 1862–1868 (1980)