Yasuda Firearms 1588-1592

Yasuda firearms refers to no one firearm, but instead a series of firearms made by Shigeru Yasuda. These include the 閃光粉 包装 小銃(Senkō-ko Hōsō shōjū, Flashpowder cap rifle), 圧延 区画 小銃 (Atsuen kukaku shōjū, Rolling block rifle), and the 紙 薬莢 (Kami Yakkyō, Paper Cartridge).   

History and development

  Takeshi had noted that during his Summer and Springtime campaigns he would have to sometimes temporarily halt his armies due to the rain making it impossible to fire artillery or firearms. He knew that rainy conditions would be present everywhere he was fighting, and he went to Yasuda to either make a new type of rain proof powder, or a new rifle capable of firing in the rain. Yasuda's first idea was making a new mechanism which would go off when hit. He experimented with it, however found that packing that much of a highly volatile substance in a barrel usually meant it would go off prematurely. He abandoned the plan and instead looked to making rain proof powder. His attempts did not make any results, however he had the idea to combine both of these ideas. He make a rifle with a small copper cap packed with a small amount of flash powder fitted onto where the hammer would usually strike, a tube lead into the main powder charge which would ignite and fire the gun. Yasuda would also have the gun's powder and round contained into a small paper cartridge covered in wax to help fit it in the gun and improve water resistance. Takeshi oversaw a test of in in 1591 February 12th and remarked how useful it would be and very much liked the gun. The price however was another story, making disposable copper caps filled with flash powder was expensive, and while these new guns were made and saw plenty of frontline usage the new copper cap system and cartridges didn't solve the problem in especially humid areas. Still this was a step forward and Takeshi allowed Yasuda to pursue any new gun research as he pleased on government payroll. In 1592 Yasuda made the rolling block rifle and showed it off, however due to its exorbitant cost Takeshi would not employ it in frontline use, however at least 5 rolling block rifles made it to the Philippines.

Senkō-ko Hōsō Shōjū

  The guns made with this system were not all rifles, in fact most were smoothbore guns. Most were retrofitted Tanegashima muskets. The matchlock system was removed and a hammer would be put in its place, this hammer would hit the cap filled with flash powder. The cap was fitted onto the end of a tube that went into the breech, and the expanding hot gasses from the flash powder going off would light the gunpowder in the barrel and make it go off. The biggest advantage this had over matchlocks and contemporaries was the ability to fire in the rain. It was expensive to produce, and even more expensive due to the copper cap system, and so Takeshi only gave the guns he had to jungle units who needed a gun that could fire when wet.   

Atsuen kukaku shōjū

  An extremely ambitious gun on Yasuda's part, however in practice it was far too expensive. It's function was simple, a block would rotate down and there was a hole to fit the paper cartridge. this block was then flipped up and on the back of the block was a space to fit a flashpowder cap. Once fitted, there was a hammer on the back of the gun which would be pulled back, when the trigger was pulled the hammer hit the cap and ignited the round. The gun was well liked, and Takeshi reportedly owned 3, however it was extremely expensive, and only 5 ever made it to the Philippines. 

Kami Yakkyō

  The Kami Yakkyō is a paper cartridge, just like the ones in Europe at the time it was a self contained package of the powder and round all in one neat package. This one in particular was covered in wax to help its resistance to water, these were extremely easy to make even in novice hands, and as such were relatively cheap. These rounds would be the backbone of all of the firearms that Takeshi had at his disposal.