Read the title of the book as "Farewell Time Letter". Lu Bun is a prominent man who played a role as a playwriter from the end of the Tokugawa period to the beginning of the Meiji era, his real name is Bossi Nozaki, from Edo, and besides this book there are works such as "Western Canal Knee Chest". According to the introduction of this book, based on the "Seikokushiji" etc., which Wei Genji was established, others, based on other "Mr. Satoshi Ichinomiyoshi", this book is played and the contents are clearly understood by women and children It is said that it made it into a pseudonym book and put it in.
The outline of this book began with colon (閤 龍) petitioning to Isabela king and discovering the New Continent, eventually the British reigned and rushed to regulate, but Washington appeared and established independence and founding founder Progress has been made interestingly, with some fictional figures and youkai appearing.
Therefore, this book is kind of a novel and a novel based on the course of the founding of the United States
I'm pretty sure my high school history class would have been more fun with youkai appearing.
The Google Translate translation is mostly gibberish, but in short this book isn't really a history book. It's a book in the "gesaku" genre (Edo era light literature) that the author created by reading other books about Columbus and America and adapting the story to fit the conventions of the genre (thus youkai, etc.).
Interestingly, the style of art and writing is very similar to that of Hokusai Manga. Which is considered as the one of the predecessors of today's Manga and Anime.
Definitive proof that the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder. The artists obviously had seen a cannon, more likely a picture of one, but had absolutely no idea how it was actually fired.
> Definitive proof that the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder. The artists obviously had seen a cannon, more likely a picture of one, but had absolutely no idea how it was actually fired.
This is a very incorrect conclusion.
By 1861 when this book was published, Japan had known about and seen cannons for hundreds of years, and since the 1850s the shogunate had been manufacturing cannons because of the threat from foreign ships.
Judging whether "the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder" at this time based on a random low-brow book aimed at a popular audience is like concluding that humans didn't know how electricity worked in the 1990s because you found a technical mistake in Jurassic Park.
Japan had the knowledge, not the japanese. The people involved with this print thought a large cannon, one on wheels, was a hand weapon. Nobody involved had any real knowledge of gunpowder beyond stories.
But no one watches NCIS to get accurate depictions of hackers. People watch NCIS to get entertained. Pop-culture in general doesn't actually CARE how things work, its entertainment value, NOT accuracy.
Depends on your definition of "the Japanese". tl;dr while the general populace didn't see much of cannon or musket, that was more because of the two-hundred-year-long peace Japan had known since the Tokugawa unification. The weapons (obsolete by Western standards) existed in massive stockpiles and were continually manufactured.
When it came to infantry weapons, Japanese warfare in the Sengoku period was dominated by matchlock muskets (originally knockoffs of Portuguese models made in Tanegashima, which later caused all Japanese-made matchlocks to be called "Tanegashima"). Specifically, once individual firearms arrived in Japan the country quickly came up with a local version of the European pike-and-shot tactics of the same era (early 17th century).
Once the country had been unified (and had failed in its attempt to conquer Korea, which had less effective land-based weapons but more effective naval cannon), the large-scale conflicts that necessitated use of firearms ceased. Cannons and muskets were stockpiled in warehouses, and occasionally pulled out for military drills, but were unfamiliar to the general populace. From The Wiki, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanegashima_(gun):
> From the mid 17th century, Japan decided to close itself to interaction with the West (except for the Dutch) through its policy of Sakoku. Contrary to popular belief, this did not lead to Japan "giving up the gun." If anything, the gun was used less frequently because the Edo Period did not have many large-scale conflicts in which a gun would be of use. Often the sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small-scale conflicts. It should also be noted that isolation did not decrease the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo Period. But the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring off animals. With no external enemies for over 200 years, tanegashima were mainly used by samurai for hunting and target practice, the majority were relegated to the arms store houses of the various feudal lords (daimyōs).
Similarly to the rest of Northeast Asia (Korea and China especially), Japan entered the colonial era not with an iron-age level of military technology - swords and spears - but with an early-modern level - matchlock muskets and muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons.
I'm pretty sure the Japanese were aware of gunpowder ... esp. by 1861 ... by then they should have seen a musket too ... at this point we should remind ourselves that this is a FICTIONAL account
Oda Nobunaga probably wasn't the first user of guns in Japan... but he was one of the most popular advocates of guns. Oda Nobunaga mass-produced gunpowder and muskets during the Warring States period.
All this happened in the 1500s / 16th century. Japan not only "knew about guns", but knew about their efficacy in combat after Oda Nobunaga. Yes, this was later than Europe, but we're still talking about a span of hundreds of years here.
With that being said, Japan learned of RIFLES like 50+ years after the Americans proved their usefulness in the American Revolution. The 1800s took huge steps forward with regards to war machines. Yes, gunpowder muskets existed, but Americans began to use Rifles.
Rifles means sharpshooters and snipers. They were quite bad during the American Revolution (It takes well over a minute to load a 1700s style rifle, and there's still a high-chance of misfiring...), but by the American Civil War, sharpshooters were commonplace. Once the Minie Ball allowed for faster reloading, advances in metallurgy allowed more precise mass-production, and more precise rifle-barrels lowered the chance of misfires down... well... the rest is history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%C3%A9_rifle
This Japanese Print would have been written in a time where Muskets were commonplace (but very quickly falling obsolete), with Rifle and sharpshooter-based combat beginning to take a role in the battlefield... and a legend of "Full Iron Ships" that are fully immune to cannons that people probably didn't fully believe in yet.
I mean, the Japaneses learned of guns later than Europeans. But "later than Europeans" means using guns in the 16th century. The 19th century (1860s) when this Japanese print was made is dated hundreds of years after Oda Nobunaga proved the efficacy of gunpowder on the Japanese Battlefield.
Yes exactly, and the Japanese weren't that far behind the Europeans until circa 1800 or later. A lot of firearm technology we take for granted wasn't common/practical until the US Civil war era. AKA breach loading artillery and rifles, cylindrical shells, brass riffle cartridges, etc.
Direct link to book scans: http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0380/...
Note - the Reddit comment provides some helpful commentary in English, hence OP didn't link directly to the book scans.
The same author wrote a short biography of General Grant. I managed to track it down after reading the Japanese wikipedi page for him.
American Flag Kimonos: http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0470/...
"Grant kun" at dinner: http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0470/...
The Google Translate version of the summary https://www.kufs.ac.jp/toshokan/gallery/data22.htm is pretty uhm... odd
Read the title of the book as "Farewell Time Letter". Lu Bun is a prominent man who played a role as a playwriter from the end of the Tokugawa period to the beginning of the Meiji era, his real name is Bossi Nozaki, from Edo, and besides this book there are works such as "Western Canal Knee Chest". According to the introduction of this book, based on the "Seikokushiji" etc., which Wei Genji was established, others, based on other "Mr. Satoshi Ichinomiyoshi", this book is played and the contents are clearly understood by women and children It is said that it made it into a pseudonym book and put it in. The outline of this book began with colon (閤 龍) petitioning to Isabela king and discovering the New Continent, eventually the British reigned and rushed to regulate, but Washington appeared and established independence and founding founder Progress has been made interestingly, with some fictional figures and youkai appearing. Therefore, this book is kind of a novel and a novel based on the course of the founding of the United States
I'm pretty sure my high school history class would have been more fun with youkai appearing.
The Google Translate translation is mostly gibberish, but in short this book isn't really a history book. It's a book in the "gesaku" genre (Edo era light literature) that the author created by reading other books about Columbus and America and adapting the story to fit the conventions of the genre (thus youkai, etc.).
So, pretty much like modern historical-fantasy books that posit WW2 with Nazi vampires or whatever?
Edit: http://pbfcomics.com/comics/now-showing/
Side-relevance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6FuHfgF2bc
David Bull talks through how these kinds of books are made, read, etc.
Interestingly, the style of art and writing is very similar to that of Hokusai Manga. Which is considered as the one of the predecessors of today's Manga and Anime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_manga
Why not link to the original source instead of some reddit post crap?
http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0380/...
Because the reddit post gives useful context.
Definitive proof that the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder. The artists obviously had seen a cannon, more likely a picture of one, but had absolutely no idea how it was actually fired.
http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0380/...
> Definitive proof that the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder. The artists obviously had seen a cannon, more likely a picture of one, but had absolutely no idea how it was actually fired.
This is a very incorrect conclusion.
By 1861 when this book was published, Japan had known about and seen cannons for hundreds of years, and since the 1850s the shogunate had been manufacturing cannons because of the threat from foreign ships.
Judging whether "the Japanese had little knowledge of gunpowder" at this time based on a random low-brow book aimed at a popular audience is like concluding that humans didn't know how electricity worked in the 1990s because you found a technical mistake in Jurassic Park.
We know humans knew Unix because of Jurassic Park :)
Japan had the knowledge, not the japanese. The people involved with this print thought a large cannon, one on wheels, was a hand weapon. Nobody involved had any real knowledge of gunpowder beyond stories.
John Adams is fighting a giant snake.
http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/bunko11/bunko11_a0380/...
---------------
I guess you can say that the typical American doesn't know about computers in the `00s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8qgehH3kEQ
But no one watches NCIS to get accurate depictions of hackers. People watch NCIS to get entertained. Pop-culture in general doesn't actually CARE how things work, its entertainment value, NOT accuracy.
Depends on your definition of "the Japanese". tl;dr while the general populace didn't see much of cannon or musket, that was more because of the two-hundred-year-long peace Japan had known since the Tokugawa unification. The weapons (obsolete by Western standards) existed in massive stockpiles and were continually manufactured.
When it came to infantry weapons, Japanese warfare in the Sengoku period was dominated by matchlock muskets (originally knockoffs of Portuguese models made in Tanegashima, which later caused all Japanese-made matchlocks to be called "Tanegashima"). Specifically, once individual firearms arrived in Japan the country quickly came up with a local version of the European pike-and-shot tactics of the same era (early 17th century).
Once the country had been unified (and had failed in its attempt to conquer Korea, which had less effective land-based weapons but more effective naval cannon), the large-scale conflicts that necessitated use of firearms ceased. Cannons and muskets were stockpiled in warehouses, and occasionally pulled out for military drills, but were unfamiliar to the general populace. From The Wiki, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanegashima_(gun):
> From the mid 17th century, Japan decided to close itself to interaction with the West (except for the Dutch) through its policy of Sakoku. Contrary to popular belief, this did not lead to Japan "giving up the gun." If anything, the gun was used less frequently because the Edo Period did not have many large-scale conflicts in which a gun would be of use. Often the sword was simply the more practical weapon in the average small-scale conflicts. It should also be noted that isolation did not decrease the production of guns in Japan—on the contrary, there is evidence of around 200 gunsmiths in Japan by the end of the Edo Period. But the social life of firearms had changed: as the historian David L. Howell has argued, for many in Japanese society, the gun had become less a weapon than a farm implement for scaring off animals. With no external enemies for over 200 years, tanegashima were mainly used by samurai for hunting and target practice, the majority were relegated to the arms store houses of the various feudal lords (daimyōs).
Similarly to the rest of Northeast Asia (Korea and China especially), Japan entered the colonial era not with an iron-age level of military technology - swords and spears - but with an early-modern level - matchlock muskets and muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons.
A historically counter-factual proposition. The Japanese had possessed and been using both cannons and matchlocks in battle since the 16th century.
I also don't know how to operate a cannon. Presumably this is definite proof that the United Kingdom has little knowledge of gunpowder.
I think I can use this technique to prove that no country in the world has ever had knowledge of gunpowder.
I think they were more used to hand cannons which look similar, see :-
https://www.military-history.org/articles/samurai-wars/milit...
I'm pretty sure the Japanese were aware of gunpowder ... esp. by 1861 ... by then they should have seen a musket too ... at this point we should remind ourselves that this is a FICTIONAL account
Oda Nobunaga probably wasn't the first user of guns in Japan... but he was one of the most popular advocates of guns. Oda Nobunaga mass-produced gunpowder and muskets during the Warring States period.
All this happened in the 1500s / 16th century. Japan not only "knew about guns", but knew about their efficacy in combat after Oda Nobunaga. Yes, this was later than Europe, but we're still talking about a span of hundreds of years here.
With that being said, Japan learned of RIFLES like 50+ years after the Americans proved their usefulness in the American Revolution. The 1800s took huge steps forward with regards to war machines. Yes, gunpowder muskets existed, but Americans began to use Rifles.
Rifles means sharpshooters and snipers. They were quite bad during the American Revolution (It takes well over a minute to load a 1700s style rifle, and there's still a high-chance of misfiring...), but by the American Civil War, sharpshooters were commonplace. Once the Minie Ball allowed for faster reloading, advances in metallurgy allowed more precise mass-production, and more precise rifle-barrels lowered the chance of misfires down... well... the rest is history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%C3%A9_rifle
This Japanese Print would have been written in a time where Muskets were commonplace (but very quickly falling obsolete), with Rifle and sharpshooter-based combat beginning to take a role in the battlefield... and a legend of "Full Iron Ships" that are fully immune to cannons that people probably didn't fully believe in yet.
The Dutch had a trading post in Japan during the Edo Period.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dejima
Before that they had regular trade with the Portuguese starting in the 16th century.
The Japanese didn't have guns for the exact same reason Amish still use Kerosene lamps.
Didn't Oda Nobunaga in the 16th century almost take over the whole country because he used Guns? (And economics... and better training... and...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oda_Nobunaga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_of_Japan
I mean, the Japaneses learned of guns later than Europeans. But "later than Europeans" means using guns in the 16th century. The 19th century (1860s) when this Japanese print was made is dated hundreds of years after Oda Nobunaga proved the efficacy of gunpowder on the Japanese Battlefield.
Yes exactly, and the Japanese weren't that far behind the Europeans until circa 1800 or later. A lot of firearm technology we take for granted wasn't common/practical until the US Civil war era. AKA breach loading artillery and rifles, cylindrical shells, brass riffle cartridges, etc.