Bibliography of Early Japanese Firearms

[Kiipu]

The following list is in chronological order.

 

Boxer, C. R. “Notes on Early European Military Influence in Japan (1543–1853).” The Transactions of The Asiatic Society of Japan, Second Series, Volume 8, 1931, pp. 67–93.

 

Brown, Delmer M. “The Impact of Firearms on Japanese Warfare, 1543–98.” The Far Eastern Quarterly, Volume 7, No. 3, May 1948, pp. 236–253.

 

Kimbrough, Robert E. “Japanese Firearms.” The Gun Collector, No. 33, September 1950, pp. 445–465. Thanks to @djealas it is available at the link below.

looking for Sugawa's book: the Japanese Matchlock, Post #5

 

Waterhouse, D. B. “Fire-Arms in Japanese History: With Notes on a Japanese Wall Gun.” The British Museum Quarterly, Volume 27, Number 3–4, Winter 1963–64, pp. 94–99.

 

Milward, Clement. “Some Unusual Japanese Firearms.” The Antique Collector, August 1964, pp. 148–153.

 

Perrin, Noel. Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879. David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1979.

 

Derby, Harry. “The Beginning — Matchlocks.” The Hand Cannons of Imperial Japan, Derby Publishing Company, 1981, pp. 4–9.

 

Needham, Joseph, et al. Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge University Press, 1986. Part 7 of Volume 5 of Chemistry and Chemical Technology.

Science and Civilisation in China

 

Sugawa Shigeo 須川･薫雄. Nihon no hinawajū 日本の火縄銃. Sugawa Shigeo 須川薫雄, 1989.

 

Sugawa Shigeo. The Japanese Matchlock: A Story of the Tanegashima. Sugawa Shigeo, 1991. A translation of Nihon no hinawajū 日本の火縄銃.

 

Daehnhardt, Rainer. Espingarda Feiticeira: A introdução da Arma de Fogo pelos Portugueses no Extremo-Oriente [The Bewitched Gun: The Introduction of the Firearm in the Far East by the Portuguese]. Texto Editora, 1994. The book is written in both Portuguese and English.

 

Lidin, Olof G. Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan. NIAS Press, 2002. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series No. 90.

 

Chase, Kenneth. “Korea and Japan.” Firearms: A Global History to 1700, Cambridge University Press, 2003, pp. 172–196.

 

Ethridge, Charles E. Reinventing the Sword: A Cultural Comparison of the Development of the Sword in Response to the Advent of Firearms in Spain and Japan. 2007. Louisiana State University, Master’s thesis.

https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/3729/

 

Howell, David L. “The Social Life of Firearms in Tokugawa Japan.” Japanese Studies, Volume 29, No. 1, 2009, pp. 65–80.

 

Allan, Francis C., Chip Goddard, Takehito Jimbo, Doss H. White, and Stanley Zielinski. Japanese Imported Arms of The Early Meiji Era. Francis C. Allan, 2011. Banzai Special Project No. 10.  The coverage starts at about 1853 and thus does not depict the older Japanese firearms; however, it does show numerous examples of the the Meiji era registration numbers which are commonly seen on the older Japanese firearms.

 

Lauro, Daniele. Displaying Authority: Guns, Political Legitimacy, and Martial Pageantry in Tokugawa Japan, 1600–1868. 2012. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Master’s thesis.

https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/concern/dissertations/n009w2390?locale=en

 

Astroth, Alexander. “The Decline of Japanese Firearm Manufacturing and Proliferation in the Seventeenth Century.” The Age of Gunpowder: An Era of Technological, Tactical, Strategic, and Leadership Innovations, 2013, pp. 136–148.

http://history.emory.edu/home/undergraduate/endeavors-journal/volume-5.html

 

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

A New Book-Release!

 

Kuba Takashi. “The Diffusion of Japanese Firearms in the Ming Dynasty at the End of the Sixteenth Century: From the Japanese Invasion of Korea to Yang Yinglong’s Revolt in Bozhou.” War and Trade in Maritime East Asia, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 197–219.

[Bugyotsuji]

That's great. Many thanks, Thomas. 

[Kiipu]

See also the thread by @estcrh below.

A few books in Japanese on the subject of firearms.

[Brian]

Fantastic Thomas, thanks. I may add the list to the FAQ