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Japanese 3-Barrel Palanquin Swivel-Breech Pistol (Ad-free)
🕑 Added 2025-05-03 12:00:03 +0000 UTCThis is a very rare style of Japanese matchlock, with three separate barrels on a revolving axis. It has all the design and decorative elements of a tanegashima musket, but built more as a self-defense piece for home or perhaps when traveling by palanquin. Think of it like the Edo-period Japanese equivalent of a Howdah pistol or coach gun. The barrels are approximately .40 caliber (~1.5 monme) and smoothbore. Each one has its own set of sights and priming pan and cover. They were held in place by a flat spring and friciton, although the spring is worn out today. It’s hard to give an exact date to this piece’s construction, as Japanese firearms design changed very little between the early 1600s and the mid 1800s.
Full video on the tanegashima: https://youtu.be/fRLIYz8f58E
Comments
Bruce Brodnax
Shouldn't it be quite easy to establish a date for "before 15XX..." when the Shogunate banned the use of firearms because they made battles too harmful to the samurai? I forget the date, but it's the reason Japanese firearm development ended at (iirc) matchlocks, because they isolated themselves from outsiders before flintlocks were introduced and ceased all further development themselves until Adm. Perry sailed into Tokyo harbor & said "Knock, knock!" a few centuries later...
Guido Schriewer
can't say I'd like matchlocks at all. wheellocks get kind of cool. and MUCH more craftsmanship, of course.
