looking for Sugawa's book: the Japanese Matchlock

[Chuck75]

Hi all,

 

My father (a dedicated firearm collector) wishes for christmas Shigeo Sugawa"s book: "The Japanese Matchlock - a story of the Tanegashima".

I have browsing around for quite a while now and could not find an available English version of it.

Would anyone know, how I could find one please? Or maybe the contact details of M. Sugawa?

 

Thank you very much in advance for your help!

 

Best Regards,

 

Chuck

[Kiipu]

Sugawa's website.

JapaneseWeapons

English

http://www.xn--u9j370humdba539qcybpym.jp/net/index.htm

 

Japanese

http://xn--u9j370humdba539qcybpym.jp/

[Chuck75]

Thank you very much!!

I sent an email. Crossing fingers for an answer:)

[Kiipu]

There is another more recent book that may be of interest as well.

Pettersson, Jan. The Yonezawa Matchlock: Mighty Gun of the Uesugi Samurai. 2017.

 

A New Book-Release!

http://www.militaria.co.za/nmb/topic/23913-a-new-book-release/page-1

[djealas]

While you're waiting to acquire Sugawa San's book, I've attached a copy of the 1950 issue of the Gun Collector for your entertainment. There is a chapter on tanegashima in there that is interesting to read. Enjoy.

Regards,

 

Marc

The Gun Collector, September 1950.pdf

[Peter Bleed]

Marc,

Thank you for sharing the 1950 article. Indeed, I have never seen that paper and it is very wonderful. Thank you thank you!

Peter

[IanB]

An fascinating read, but most interesting to me was the illustration of the three barrelled snaphaunce pistol then in Mexico. I had the privilege of handling it, or one very like it, in the hands of a US collector many years ago. It had probably arrived in Mexico with the Keicho mission to Europe undertaken by Hasekura Tsunenaga who was shipped across the Pacific, with other Japanese in a ship built by Will Adams and Mukai Shogen, Ieyasu's Admiral. Hasekra then travelled on a ship of the 'plate-fleet' to Spain whilst the other Japanese, one of whom was a bullion dealer, traded in silver with the Spanish in Mexico before returning to Japan. We know from a letter sent by Date Masamune of Sendai in response to an accusation by Tokugawa Hidetada, that the Tokugawa had supplied the gifts of armour and weapons for the mission to Europe and the snaphaunce I saw had defaced Tokugawa kamon on the barrels near the breeches as well as later Buddhist Deities in zogan higher up the barrels. The mechanism for ignition was clearly inadequate, as two of the 'steels' against which the flint struck had been replaced by bronze copies of the one remaining original. They took the form of L shaped pieces attached to spiral brass springs fastened at the rear of each pan. My memory is a bit woolly on exactly how these were supposed to work. I think they had a small stud at the bottom of the striking face that hooked into a hole in the flash guard at the front of the pan. When hit by the flint, the cover and steel was pushed rearward, unhooking the stud and allowing the spring to lift the steel and pan cover clear of the pan. Clearly it never really worked, and certainly wouldn't with bronze 'steels', but it was obviously considered a suitable gift to present to the Mexican authorities.

Ian Bottomley

[djealas]

Your welcomed, Peter. The Gun Collector was a very small circulation newsletter, but contained really expert wisdom from guys who had been there and done that. I once found the whole collection for sale on a European website but balked at the price for the whole set, then it disappeared, sadly. You can find old editions on Ebay, I just did a search and there are quite a few. Happy hunting.

 

Marc

[Wolfmanreid]

Fascinating article from the Gun Collector. I’m particularly intrigued by the Japanese method of threading the breach block. Since the Japanese did not develop taps and dies at that time, the author speculates that the female threads must have been hand filed in some agonizingly laborious and precise fashion. How the hell could that be done without a tap?

 

Reid

[Bugyotsuji]

Reid, apparently they wrapped a thread around a bolt, and filed out the valleys. The first time anyway.

 

This was fitted into a red-hot barrel which was hammered around until it had corresponding valleys and mountains.

 

A tap would have been made/developed pretty quickly, I guess, under the tutelage of early visiting gunsmiths.