Samurai Like European Reiters ?

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Re-reading an old book of Thurnbull I found reference to Mounted Samurai with pistols supposedly used AFTER Sekigahara. This is much like central european Reiters fought. However I would ask about the timeline accuracy of the reference as it sound strange to me imagine a battle with such armed warrior after 1600. Maybe at Osaka, still just a more unique than rare occurrence. I think the specialists in this forum can teach me something about the matter and may give some link to educate an armchair historian like me. Some pics :

[Bugyotsuji]

Reiter = mounted cavalry. You have already found almost the only known clear illustration of this subject. Taira Sawada published a book explicating this text.

 

Although there may not have been massed battles dressed this way after the Shimabara uprising, there were many schools of gunnery active throughout the Tokugawa/Edo Period, and many books and scrolls illustrating methods of use for various weapons. Imagination must be at work in such illustrations too.

 

There is a slight difference between short Tanzutsu (pistols) and slightly longer Bajozutsu (cavalry guns). Matchlock pistols were extremely rare, almost non-existent in the west, and even in Japan they were never common.

 

Because of their traditional rarity, there are many clever fakes to be found today. In my experience one good Tanzutsu might appear for every ... 50-100 long guns?

[Carlo Giuseppe Tacchini]

Thanks Piers. Effectively, it is hard to find information about this topic.