Samurai Firepower - A Matchlock Samurai Documentary
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.พ. 2025
- The evolution of samurai gunnery from 1543 to the present day; nearly 500 years of history. Firearms changed the feudal battlefield forever, and in doing so helped unify a country that had been at war with itself for generations...
www.GunSamurai.com
![True Size of a Samurai Army [c. 1600] 3D DOCUMENTARY](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/deV34RTyPO8/mqdefault.jpg)
Wasnt it Oda Nobunaga who first properly implemented firearms into military tactics to devastating effect?
It’s hard to say, for sure. There were significant samurai that used firearms before Oda, but never on such a large scale. Takeda for example also used them 🙇
I think Oda's innovation was using them above the unit level, like instead of having a elite rifleman unit they had to "invent" mass gunnery for their context
Oda were the first to use pure brigade of firearms but Shimazu were the first to implemented in a battle tactic during the conquest of Kyushu. Or the Batltle of Kizaki that Shimazu outnumbered by 1:10 but won the battle. Shimazu troops would make a fake retreat and then ambush the pursuers by a firearm. Shimazu Toyohisa allegedly kill Ii Naomasa with a firearms.
oda Nobunaga did invent tactics around bow and firearms using archers to cover gunners so it was continuous fire
Первым был - Танегасима Токитака.
As a student of history and particularly muzzleloading firearms, the weapons from Japan has been a subject that's sorely lacking over the years and I am glad we're starting to see more and more of videos like these, because these guns played a huge role, not only in Japanese history, but firearms history in general.
It’s been overlooked by some of the misunderstood conveys of history in Japan, that are more popular I think 😅
Hey I know you
The spanish employed such weapons in their conquest of the americas.
As much as some idealize the swords and martial weapons as the main arms of the samurai, one has to admit the combination of fullbody armor with firearms looks cool.
I think it does, too (and we still carry swords with our firearms!) 🤯
Idolisation indeed since the sword, both in Japan and in Europe was barely ever other then a backup weapon.
I like traditional guns, and having a sword as a sidearm is the most amazing thing. I can't recreate it because I'm Japanese, but I'd like to recreate it someday while I'm visiting America.^^
The Ōdzutsu is my favorite Japanese firearm. That thing is beastly.
I am so gonna make my Samurai-Gunslinger be getting this bad boi in my dnd campaign. Thing is deserving of fear and awe.
@@bluexdalek1997 They're a hand-held swivel gun basically. You'd want to use some sort of "buckshot" effect as they would typically be used like a massive blunderbuss. I'm pretty sure they fired solid shot as well, but I'm not the expert.
The only version of Oriental Adventures I played was the 3.0 version and it had issues. Putting a massive gun like the Ōzutsu in there is going to require some homebrew rules unless there's something new that came out I haven't seen yet.
Thank you so much sir, for the upload! I like the fact that this time is almost 17 mins long video!
I wanted to make a slightly longer video this time… which is surprisingly tough seeing as I do it all using a smartphone 😅
@@Gun_Samurai 😁
This is an excellent video and it clearly and logically explained both the progression and development of firearms, and their use as a weapon of war. It was greatly enhanced by the use of climatic footage injected into the explanations of how and why Hojutsu became a martial art. The modern footage explained the differences in matchlocks available to gunners and who used which weapons and why. Then it showed tactics in realistic demonstrations. The female gunner explained how and why she became a gunner and why she was passionate about passing her knowledge on. As always your narration was flawless and engaging.
I won't say this your best video, because you'll just make an even more through and entertaining one soon. So I'll just say it's one of your best and will be for quite a while.
I tried my best to make something better than normal; but doing it all with a smartphone is quite tough. I might need to think about upgrading to a better facility 😅
@@Gun_SamuraiAll this on a smartphone is impressive! This felt old school and I like it a lot!
Nice video, this topic definitely needs more documentaries on it
I’d love to make some more, and higher quality documentaries about Japanese gunnery 😅
I'm from Brazil. I knew that our ancerstors the Portuguese sailors arrived in Japan and also Sain Francis Xavier stayed in Japan for a short period. But I didn't knew about this firearm introduction.
Yes the introduction was in 1543, when Portuguese adventurers from Goa, explored the vast ocean 🙇
Very nice video actually, thank you for this, you are an artist.
Thank you 🙏
I remember watching Ran and all the other older movies, and playing Shogun Total War (the first one), all while, based on what I knew of the more (overall) novel European 1500's musketry, thinking feudal Japanese musketry (Tanegashima's) couldn't possibly be THAT much more effective, and would have been more of a fear factor, what with the way those guns looked, no stocks, etc.
Until I read about how the economics, industry & geography of Japan (for the most part a bunch of valleys in between mountains) played a big part in how the feudal lords fought battles.
Such as the battles of Uedahara & Nagashiro, where the Takeda's couldn't circumvent/go around, suffering absolutely crippling and decisive defeats, in large part due to murderously effective musketry.
Japanese archebus don't have conventional stocks because the armature used by the soldiers, making unpractical put the weapon on the shoulder, so then they press the handle against the face.
Fantastic video! I was unaware of the different types of gun used and their battlefield role. I would love to learn more about how matchlocks were incorporated into armies and how generals used them as part of their overall strategy.
Fascinating video, well done.
Thank you 🙏
I saw many other interesting guns in Matsumoto castle when I visited. It would be nice to learn more about those
Yes, we look after all of the firearms in the collection and research them. I’ll probably do a video about that next month or august 🙇♂️
This looks fascinating so very glad this popped up my feed😱👍❤️🔥🔥🔥🔥
Thank you 🙏
Excellent video.
Thank you 🙏
Tanzutsu 5:19
Banzutsu 5:45
Zamazutsu 6:14
Samuraizutsu/Chuzutsu 8:12
Ozutsu 9:01
Other types 9:24
Just found your channel! Awesome stuff! I was just in Tokyo this weekend and want to see much more of the country now.
Thank you 🙏 currently we’re busy training for our last shoot of the year, in October 🙇♂️
Every time I watch a samurai tv show or movie, the gunner commander shouts to the ashigaru to fire, what is the commander saying in Japanese? I've specifically heard it in the aoi: tokugawa sandai and sanada maru tv shows but I was always curious. Google translate said fire is yattane but google translate for japanese is rarely accurate in my experience lol
Hanate - {ha na tay} which comes from the word hanasu. It means ‘release’ 🙇♂️
@@Gun_Samurai Ok thanks, I've been trying to figure it out for months now lol
火縄銃(gun)も弓矢(bow)も放て(hanate)ですね
何かを発射する武器を使う時は基本、"放て(häna-té)"か"撃て/射て(wu-te)"と言う。
厳密に区別してる訳じゃないけど、銃火器を使ってる時は"撃"、弓矢のような火薬に頼らない飛び道具を使ってる時は"射"で表現する場合が多い。
Really interesting documentary, thanks! Can you recommend any English language resources on the tactics and strategy of these matchlocks in warfare? Or is there a chance you'll be doing a documentary on the specifics of how they were utilized by generals of the time?
I’d like to do something like that soon 🙇
Would love a collab between yall and Townsend and Waypoint survival. They do videos on similar topics but from the colonial Americas .
Arizona Ghostriders is another, but they do old west history, so late mid 19th to early 20th centuries.
Thank you. Colonial American history is also very interesting 🙏
3:35 So hold on, the use of a gun is considered a martial arts in Japan?
Yes, when applied to guns produced in the feudal era 🙏
@@Gun_Samurai does this also apply to modern day firearms or only Tanegashimas?
I know that some people have tried to adapt hōjutsu as modern martial art, but the Japanese way if the gun only applies to hinawaju (matchlocks) 🙇
@@Gun_Samurai Aight, thanks for the information
徳川の時代が終わるまでは西洋の銃を使う方法も『砲術』として武術の一つでしたし、大砲を使う術も同じでした。
武術（BUZYUTU）と武道（Budou）は本来異なるものです。
武術（BUZYUTU）は武器の扱い方、戦場での戦闘方法を学ぶ為のトレーニング方法の事を言いました。
武道はそのトレーニングから学ぶ精神的な道筋を言いました。
似てるけど大きく違うんですが、今では日本人でも区別出来ない人が増えてます。。
Great video! Will you make a video on the less common japanese guns? I remember seeing a wheellock gun once, as well as the Kunitomo air gun which is fascinating.
That’s a good idea 🙇♂️
Do you know where I can get a look at the trigger mechanism on one of these I would lovecto build one I've built a medieval matchlock with the crossbow style lock these are extremely cool thank you for your video it was very good.
I don’t know sorry, although you could try Saika Armory in the USA, for advice.
Eric from IV8888 sent me here. Subscribed! 😁
Thank you 🙇♂️ it was good chatting with home 🙏
How would the novice collector differentiate between a sixteenth century or early seventeenth century matchlock and a nineteenth century one?
Thank you so much. Can someone add a subtitle so it is easier to see the words and look up the terms?
Most of the terms are here: www.gunsamurai.com/thewayofthegun
@@Gun_Samurai Thank you. Though, I still cant find the drill information. The Volley fire drill and the Sequential fire drill are called Baien and Shoen?
Dairen and shōren 🙇♂️
@@Gun_Samurai sounds like “big volley” and “small volley”
Are these firearms produced locally or imported? I know Pedersoli in Italy basically produces western modern repros, but id love something like this!
These are all originals from the feudal era 🙇♂️
@@Gun_Samurai Man that is fantastic, are there any gun manufacturers outside of Miroku that would/could make these?
Firearms production in Japan is strictly regulated but Saika Armory in the US might be able to assist.
8:58
I think the equivalent to the Odzutsu is the Hand Mortar from the 18th Century.
soo cool
Thank you 🙏
when your opponent sends the biggest baddest champion to lop off your head but then your samurai just pull out a matchlock rifles
I think Indiana Jones did something similar 😆
Muito bom.
Boom!
Os portugueses, por volta de 1543, aportaram no Japão, além de missionários e comerciantes, levaram armas de fogos. Apartir deste período , começaram a copiar e produzir. Mas nada era terrível quanto a espada samurai. Lâmina insuperável até os dias de hoje.
いや、刀が活躍した戦争は無いんです。武士に取って一番重要な武器は弓矢、次に鉄砲や槍です。
Watching this encourages me to read the War and Peace size history of the medieval Japanese Korean War that has been sitting on my reading list for far too long.
You don’t even need to read all of it! Just read the parts that interest you and enjoy the history of feudal Japan 🙇♀️
Did the Japanese ever progress to the flintlock?
Not particularly. There are a few examples but essentially, the military went from matchlock to cartridge.
@@Gun_SamuraiTom cruise was wrong? 😂
@@c3alohaOh yeah. I wish they had gotten some of the historical parts right like the reason why they stopped using Firearms was Logistics not honor. We could have seen the samurai scavenging the Imperial rifle after battle.
Okay
Eu sabia que as armas de fofo foram introdduzidas no Japão pelos Portugueses. Ainda hoje os Japoneses celebram todos os anos esse feito..
A Martial Art About Guns.
Americans:😍
I'm curious about how the people of 2 completly different language system culture social heirachy in ancient time able communicate to each other when they just met
There was a Chinese sailor aboard the ship called GoHu, who could speak Portuguese; and write Chinese characters that the Japanese were able to understand 🙇♂️
Fun fact, due their isolationism policy the Japanese continue using matchlock for 3 centuries, ignoring wheel lock, flint lock weapons, after Commodore Perry force then open their ports in 1853 they start converto to percussion lock.
It's interesting how the development of tactics around the arquebus in Japan very closely mirror the developments in Europe when it was introduced there. It's as if the human brain works very much the same everywhere... (sarcasm).
While breast plates introduced by the portuguese began appearing in japanese armor, early modern armies in Europe as well had introduced the notion to wear a heavier breast plate, pretty much at the expense of everything else, just so it would survive getting shot at by a matchlock arquebus by the early 1500's. Some western european infantry from the era are depicted even without helmets - though often with the sexy combed morion.
The fire by sequence was also adapted in Europe in some armies, probably around the time of the Italian Wars, along with shifting ranks and countermarch during pike-and-shot warfare. Flintlocks, bayonets, and faster reloads enabled fire by ranks and other tactical methods using thin lines of musketeers during the 18th Century, possibly introduced by the dutch and perfected by nations like Prussia and the United Kingdom.
The innacuracy of these guns is always a little overstated. At 100 metres and with good marksmanship you may still only hit the man next to the one you were aiming at, but in formation battles that's not a very big issue, I would think. In Europe at least, as we now know, they had a tendency to undershoot when firing **en masse** at longer ranges, and this was actually tested and discovered by the prussians around the 1750's. Thick smoke blinding your perception of the battlefield certainly played a big role in it.
Yes I think the inaccuracy is overstated as well; certainly the firearms were lethal in the hands of experienced gunners 🙇
Some have postulated that some tactics adopted by the Japanese gunners were in turn adopted by the europeans.
@@Gun_Samurai A smooth dependingon how it is patched, that is how tightly the ball is loaded and also how clean the barrel is, can be aimed and used to kill people at 80-110 yards.
They seem much more smaller and efficient than their European counterparts. Is that correct? What differences are there between japanese and european firearms of the same period?
You could argue there was very little difference as they were originally based on a European design. However the main difference is probably that they never progressed to different firing mechanisms in any significant way 🙇
Mechanically, not much. But in Samuel Hawley's book, The Imjin War, he states the opinion that as far as effectivness on the Battelfield, the Japanese guns were superior because of one factor. European Armies of that time were mostly made up of Mercernaries who had to mold their own bullets to fit their wildly varving calibers.
While Japanese Gunsmithing Schools standardized on calibers, making it easier to equip a large force with ressuply.
the real shoGUNs
Sho(t)gun 😅
I did not think guns were allowed in Japan, but apparently those matchlocks are legal.
Guns are allowed in Japan although very heavily regulated 🙏 th-cam.com/video/3hyz_XYoRdo/w-d-xo.htmlsi=N6Le8SQnBzQ5bhuW
@@Gun_Samurai I went to the link and appreciate your explanation. In the USA if the weapon is a muzzleloader at the federal level there are no regulations relative to purchase or possession. This also includes cannons if they are muzzleloading. I believe that there are regulations relative to projectiles, Cannon projectiles with explosives that explode I think would be regulated, but that is law that I am not familiar with. There might be some federal regulations for larger amounts of black power, but I am not sure. Many people here like to make small quantities of their own black powder. Black powder is more regulated than nitrocellulose smokeless powder propellants. Currently there is a shortage of black powder in the USA for some reason and prices of nitrocellulose powders have increased drastically due in part to the war in Ukraine.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for stating that the art of samurai gunnery was a "martial art." In popular culture, the (crazy!) idea that "martial arts" means "hand to hand combat" (and even more oddly, "Asian self defense.")
"Military art" and yes, that means the use of firearms.
The next time some ignorant person says, "Oh I'll just shoot a martial artist," I'll show this video and reply, "Sure, if the martial artist doesn't shoot you first!"
It’s older than most other martial arts that are regularly practiced - it can be traced back to 1543; 481 years 🙇♂️
실제 사무라이는 지휘관이고 조총 사격한건 아시가루잖아?
Both samurai and ashigaru carried them 🙇
武士も使いましたよ。武士用の口径デカい特別な銃あり、「侍筒（SAMURAIＺｕｔｕ）」といいます。
Actually it was invented in India. The Portuguese took it to japan when a captured Goa.
That is mentioned at 1:08. This video doesn’t say who invented them… it’s about how they arrive in Japan 🤦♂️
@@Gun_Samurai I know. But I just wanted to give a fact.
Bruh kids says knight will win against samurai
Samurai:bang bang
That’s probably true 💥
Kniggts had guns too
It doesn't look like they were ramming the ball down the barrel with a ramrod ! That's very strange. The American Indians that used flint locks on horseback never did either. It takes a very small ball in a big barrel to do that. Otherwise the ball won't get down to he in powder reliably. That can be dangerous. Amazing they would do this. Of course these reinactors don't fire anything but iT appears that this was normal not using a ramrod In Japan.
It depends on the type of shooting; usually a ramrod is used but for certain types - a ramrod is not used in order to cut the loading time 🙇♂️
It's a novelty to see a small fragment of American, in the Japanese.
American?
@@Gun_Samurai Well, you know, Americans are considered gun-nuts?