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It is very romantic to portray the Samurai wielding a katana against attackers or shooting arrows in quick succession on horseback. The reality is that Samurai were very familiar with guns and by 1550 had started to make their own guns, copied from the Portuguese arquebus musket. The major adoption of the matchlock gun (called Tanegashima) was in the battles of Ahegaea and Nagashino, where shortly after in 1567 a famous Samurai, Takeda Shingen said “Hereafter, the guns will be the most important arms.“ The Samurai were by now using guns and even cannon in battle to great effect (but the bow remained a staple weapon). Because of the long time it took to load a matchlock rifle, the Samurai used guns mainly in battle where a formation of soldiers can be used to allow for reloading. Away from the battlefield in civilian life, the Samurai still carried a sword. In the movie, The Last Samurai, they made a big deal about the last Samurai (Katsumoto in the movie) not using guns but the reality is that the last Samurai, Saigo Takamori did use firearms and even artillery. * Don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more videos. **You can see this and other documentaries, available on our website:
