Descriptive
Characteristics
The Japanese kept the general configuration
and the ignition system of the smooth bore muskets that the
Europeans brought to Japan in 1543 for nearly three hundred
years, until the mid-nineteenth century. They adopted the matchlock
ignition system and did not proceed to adopt flintlocks; percussion
locks were imported form Western countries in the middle of
the nineteenth century and this ignition system was the first
departure from the matchlock. Japanese matchlocks vary a great
deal in caliber, size, length, and styles. All of them are hand
made and seldom do any of them have interchangeable parts. Their
stocks have no shoulder supports with a butt plate as do European
muskets, but rather they terminate at the rear with a cheek
piece; hence the Tanegashima stocks are referred to as "cheek
stocks."
The styles of the matchlocks
are classified by the shooting schools in which gun makers
were taught and by the districts of the ruling lords. It is
said that there were about two hundred fifty shooting schools
in Japan in the late eighteenth century; shooting was one
of the martial arts, called "Houjyutu." The country
was divided among almost one hundred lords and each had his
own characteristic ideas or policies about the manufacture
of every kind of product, including weapons. The Tanegashima
is sometimes called "Tetsupou," which means "iron
gun," or just "Tsutsu," which means "barrel."
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