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Then, the modern Ashikita Matchlock Gun Corps takes the stage at one of Ashikita\u2019s festival, in full samurai regalia. They light the fuses of their matchlock guns, and at their captain\u2019s cry, fire in formation. The crack of gunpowder echoes off the mountains, and for a moment, the town\u2019s past is brought back to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ashikita Matchlock Gun Corps is a society\nestablished in 2003, to preserve artifacts related to matchlock guns, including\noriginal muskets, gun-smithing tools and early clockwork. Its members also\ntrain, and perform, in the style of the musket corps that was stationed here\n450 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I encountered the corps in my first week as Ashikita\u2019s CIR, when I helped to coordinate their tour of Hawaii. At the time, I was surprised to learn that they were the town\u2019s Goodwill Ambassadors. Now, having seen them perform many times, I understand what has charmed crowds not only across Japan, but also in South Korea, the U.K. and Hawaii.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In performance, the Ashikita Matchlock Gun Corps demonstrates in strict formation, serious and refined, as they load, ignite, and fire the original matchlock guns that belonged the musketeers stationed here during the Edo period. Yet there is also humor in their performances \u2013 as an encore, they often fire colorful streamers into the audience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Afterwards, members of the corps discuss local history with audience members, and even allow them to feel the weight of those 450-year-old artifacts in their own hands. For them, matchlock guns mark the change that has swept through Japan, from the bloody Sengoku (warring states) period of relentless fighting to the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The matchlock, or hinawaju<\/em> in Japanese, is an early type of musket, so-named because before firing a hinawa<\/em> (rope fuse) must be ignited by hand. Matchlock weapons were first introduced to Japan by Portuguese merchants on board Ming Chinese junks, which landed at Tanegashima Island, southern Kyushu, in 1542. Though initially used for hunting, blacksmiths soon recreated matchlocks, gun corps were established and new tactics of warfare were devised. The matchlock gun became pivotal in the battle of Sekigahara in 1600, from which Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) emerged victorious, ushering in the Edo period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matchlock guns not only influenced warfare, but also\ntechnology. Firearms were the first examples of machinery encountered by many\nsmiths, introducing them to the screw, a deceptively simple technology that led\nto advances in science, clockwork and eventually automation. Beyond\nengineering, firing muskets required new concepts in mathematics, such as\nparabolas to calculate bullet trajectories, and in chemistry, to create\ngunpowder. These advances contributed to a seismic shift in Japanese\ntechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many scholars devoted themselves to the study of gunnery, among them Inatomi Ichimu (1552-1611), who established the Inatomi School, of which Tokugawa Ieyasu was a student. The Inatomi School created diagrams teaching how to set up, load and aim matchlocks. Gunnery was studied alongside disciplines such as judo<\/em>, sword-fighting and horse-riding, and many samurai trained in musket corps, including in the Ashikita region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the dawn of the Edo period, the region of present-day Ashikita was part of Higo Country, a domain located along the west coast of Kyushu in what is now Kumamoto Prefecture. Higo Country was ruled by the Kato Clan, brought to prominence by Kato Kiyomasa (1562-1611), a general and castle-builder famous as the architect behind Kumamoto Castle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, in 1632, Kiyomasa\u2019s heir Kato Tadahiro was\nbanished for treason against the shogun, and control of Higo Country passed to\nHosokawa Tadaoki, who brought many retainers with him, pushing out samurai\nloyal to the Kato Clan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/34de962b459a29897d9ef15103f537a4-4.jpg\")
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