LAND OF THE RISING GUN

“ORDERS FOR THE GUNS, NICKNAMED TANEGASHIMAS, BEGAN TO FLY IN FROM WARLORDS ACROSS THE COUNTRY”

In 1543 a powerful typhoon blew a Chinese junk off course, washing it onto the subtropical coast of Tanegashima – an island just off the southernmost tip of Japan, ruled by the Shimazu clan. The three Portuguese merchants aboard stepped out, onto a country torn apart. Since the 15th century, the Ashikaga shogunate, a military dictatorship that had once held the country together, had collapsed. Though it remained a symbol of authority in the capital of Kyoto, real power was now splintered between regional warlords, slowly expanding their spheres of influence. In this era of chaos the shogunate, and thereby all of Japan, was just waiting to be taken. But first, one would have to emerge supreme.

Being on the very frontier of Japan did not mean the Shimazu could rest easy. They, too, were locked in a deadly war with for control over the southern island of Kyushu.

The local lord, Shimazu Takahisa, was greatly taken by the unusual-looking Portuguese tradesmen, and their novel wares. After exchanging formalities, the merchants treated him to a display, firing off arquebuses.

The arquebus had established itself as a crucial component