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The introduction of teppo (guns) to Japan is, today, highly evaluated as being the moment of the arrival in our country of a new type of weapon that would greatly influence how battles were fought and of the transfer of advanced Western technology to Japan. Although there is material documenting the change in fighting methods, there are no existing relics, let alone technical information on the teppo from the Sengoku Jidai (the Age of Warring States) to verify the advanced technology supposedly transmitted, which makes this point difficult to comprehend.
It is likely that this argument is based on the preconception that Western culture and civilization are more advanced than those of Japan -- a notion that has been around since the Meiji Era -- still, some sort of proof is necessary if one were to follow such an argument.
The National Museum of Japanese History houses the collection of Minoru Anzai, the prominent collector of material related to "hojutsu" (gunnery).
This collection includes the "Temaezutsu seisaku no koto" (On the production of temaezutsu), a volume from the "Nakajima-ryu hojutsu kankiroku" (View on the art of gunnery of the Nakajima School) (21 volumes in total), written in May 1843 by Nagataka Munei, a disciple of Atsutoshi Nakagawa of the Suo Tokuyama Clan, and the "Daisho Onteppo Haritate Seisaku" (Making large and small teppo) written by Tobee Kunitomo Ikkansai.
Both volumes are valuable historical material documenting the teppo-making process. In this article, I would like to begin by introducing the contents of the "Temaezutsu seisaku no koto" from the "Nakajima-ryu" series, shown in the illustration, in order to shed some light on the teppo-making technology of the time.
Teppo-making process found in "Temaezutsu seisaku no koto" of the "Nakajima-ryu hojutsu kankiroku"       |
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Teppo are small arms but starting around 1570, we begin to see the emergence of large-scale guns with cannons and hand cannons coming into use in the Genki (1570-1573) and Tensho (1573-1592) Eras. The photograph on page 2 shows a Seki-School one-kan (3.75 kg) cannon (caliber: 8.5cm, gun length: 90.2cm, total length: 140cm) donated by firearms historian Sokichi Tokoro with an epigraph reading "Goshu Kunitomo Tanba Daijo Tachibana Munetoshi" and gold inlay on the top of the barrel, which reveals the user to be "Kangun Hyoenojo Masanobu (Seal)". Credible documents attest that the cannon was used to fire over a long distance early in the Edo Period, in 1674, in Kururi, in Kazusa Province.
In August 1813, towards the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, Nobusada Seki, descendent of Masanobu Seki ordered a cannon of 300 me (weight of cannon ball: 1,125g) from Yozo Iwata, an Edo gunsmith. The "Nobusada Memorandum" describes the procedures for making this cannon as follows.
A piece of sheet metal is folded in two to make two pieces of 3 shaku (90.9cm) in length, 5 sun (15.15cm) in width, and 8 bu (2.42cm) in thickness a piece. Each piece weighs 5 kanme (18.75kg). The pieces are pressed against a stone with a round dent to shape into half-moon shaped pieces that are joined together to make a cylinder (barrel).
2. The barrel is secured and supported with a ring at the clamp about 3 shaku (90.9cm) in length and a strip about 1 shaku (30.3cm) in length is drawn outside the barrel and is secured by wakashizuke in about three sections from the tip to the middle.
3. Next, iron strips to wrap around the barrel were prepared. Nine strips of 1.1 to 1.2 sun (approx. 3.5cm) in width, 8 to 9 bu (approx. 2.6cm) in thickness, and 4 shaku (121cm) in length were used. The part attached to the barrel had steel pieces of about 5 sun (15.2cm) in length welded on to it by wakashizuke.
4. One person for the tongs, one for the bellows, and four to hammer alternately were positioned near the melting and constantly threw straw and dirt on the barrel. This was to improve the molding. In this way, the barrel with a width of 1 sun (3.03cm) at the upper corner, 3 sun 8 bu (11.5cm) at the sakiguchi, 4 sun (12.12cm) at the honkuchi, and a diameter of 1 sun 5 bu (4.5cm) was produced.
6. Next, came drilling to make a bore in the barrel. A pillar, 2 shaku (60.6cm) from the front where the barrel is put through and 6 to 7 shaku (approx. 197cm) from the side was erected. The barrel was put through the pillar and secured and the bore was made by inserting one after another five aragiri of 5 shaku (152cm) in length with a drill section of 8 sun (24.2cm). At this time, a drill-turner was attached to the drill. The mechanism was that a board to push the drill was set up on the opposite side of the drill and a rope was attached to the board and pulled from the sakiguchi side. A large stone was attached to the end of the rope and when the drill was turned, the board pushed the end of the drill and made a bore.From the "Hariho-seiho-no-maki" in the "Nakajima-ryu hojutsu kankiroku", one can see that the haritate technology of Yozo Iwata was that of toi-making.
Since Kangun Hyoenojo Masanobu is the eldest son of Shin, the founder of the School and since hojutsu (the art of gunnery) adheres closely to the teachings of the founder, it is possible that the one-kan cannon was also made with this technique. The "Hariho-seiho-no-maki" touches on the techniques of making "udon", "makihari", "kadotoi", and "kanaji" for the cannon base but it is not possible to go into the details in this article.
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In the Age of Warring States (Sengoku Jidai), teppo were made by gunsmiths in Kunitomo and Sakai and other eastern provinces of Japan. As can be seen from this fact, smiths all over Japan copied others to make their own iron cylinders. As a result, teppo spread throughout the country. In the teppo-making technology, however, there is no trace to be seen of Western gun-making technology.
Takehisa Udagawa
Japanese Medieval History, History of Arms and Armory
Information Reference Research Department, National Museum of Japanese History
National Museum of Japanese History, All rights reserved.http://www.rekihaku.ac.jp |