Gunbai: Ancient Japanese Warfare

Hōseki (抛石 ) - Japanese Catapult A Sijiao taken from Wujing Zongyao ( 武經總要 ). Due to the lack of Japanese iconography on the subject, I've used a Chinese ones which very likely resembled the Japanese version. Another very obscure and overlooked Japanese weapon is the catapult , also known as mangonel . In Japanese it is called Hōseki, Tōsekiki ( 投石機 ), or Hatsuishiki ( 発石木 ) and Hih ō ( 飛砲 ) in historical texts. There are many reasons why this type of weapon is hardly associated with Japanese warfare, but before addressing this fact, it is worth to look at the weapon itself and its history. The first mentions of stone projectiles being used to inflict damage is found inside the Nihon Shoki  and we can read that these projectiles were fired by large siege crossbows called Ōyumi (大弓 ) . Nothing is really known about these devices although the academic consensus on the matter is that they weren't catapults-like machines. The first references to proper catapults u...

Taihō (大砲): Japanese Cannons and Artillery Two different types of Japanese cannons, also known as  ōzutsu. From  武道藝術秘傳圖會 [1]. Cannons, and artillery in general, have been almost completely overlooked when it comes to Japanese warfare, despite the massive amount of works dedicated to the proliferation of guns in the 1550s , during the Sengoku period. This attitude towards Japanese cannons have many reasons behind it (Turnbull I'm looking at you) , and it was likely generated by Edo periods ideals boosted by the Tokugawa Shogunate, which by that time period had the monopoly on the production of said weapon. However, during the 16th and early 17th century, the situation was quite different. Yet it is fair to say that these weapons didn't play a significant role on field battles  for a very simple reason: Japanese terrain. Being a heavily forested and predominately mountainous island, carrying heavy artillery pieces throughout Japan must have been a nightmare,...

Shudo (手弩) and Ōyumi (大弓) - Japanese Crossbows Ono no Harukaze using a crossbow, from  前賢故実. In this article I would like to address one of the most mysterious and interesting aspect of Japanese military history:  Crossbow's usage . In fact, people usually ( and for a very good number of reasons which I will explain in this article ) don't associate Japan with crossbows at all. However, not only the Japanese knew crossbows, they also occasionally used them in warfare. First, it is fair to point out that unlike other unknown elements of ancient and feudal Japanese warfare, like shields , axes or maces which are usually  not associated neither with Japan or the Samurai, the crossbow never saw much use at all. If those aforementioned weapons were rare , the crossbow was  even more rare ; but it is still worth talk about it. Shudo ( 手 弩 ) - Hand held crossbow Shudo is the Japanese name for hand held crossbows, but it is not the only one. It was also know ...