...Delmer M. Brown Abstract The characteristic feature of Japanese warfare, prior to the introduction of firearms in 1543, was the use of swords and spears in hand-to-hand fighting. Armies were made up of small, independent bands of soldiers who fought more as individuals than as units of a tactical...

... of the introduction, use, and disuse of firearms in Japan from 1543 to 1879. His work is free of the impedimenta and caution so dear to the academic world, and instead bubbles with freshness and enthusiasm. Perrin argues that Tokugawa Japan consciously chose to abandon firearms. For more than half a century after...

...Phyllis I. Lyons And Then . By Natsume Sōseki . Translated by Norma Moore Field . Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press , 1978 . 290 pp. Bibliography, $14.95. Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1980 1980 BOOK REVIEWS JAPAN 6OI these firearm units did...

... to that of their opponents. This confidence was buttressed by growing superiority in firearms technology and tactics. With the notable exception of China, Japan, and Korea, indigenous polities proved unable to adopt firearms fast enough to stave off defeat. Even the so-called "gunpowder empires" of the Muslim world failed...

... of military engines (cf. p. 54) abundant evidence has become available since the publication of this volume. Cf. Goodrich L. C. and Chia-sheng Feng , “ The early development of firearms in China ,” Isis , 36 ( 1946 ), pt. 2, no. 104, 114 –23. BOOK REVIEWS 105 176, 179), pugilism (p...

... studies in the United States 115 Ralph J. D. Braibanti, Neighborhood associations in Japan and their democratic potentialities 136 Charles S. Braden, The novelist discovers the Orient 165 William Burton Sowash, Colonial rivalries in Timor 227 Delmer M. Brown, The impact of firearms on Japanese warfare...

... 23). In the sixth month of 1737, officials 338 BRETT L. WALKER Table 1. Little Ice Ages of Early Modern Japan Little Ice Age Little Ice Age Little Ice Age 1610-1650 1690-1740 1780-1880 Intervallic Ice Age Intervallic Ice Age 1650-1690 1740-1780 requested firearms for the purpose of killing wild boar...

... the wet monsoons at the other end in mainland Southeast Asia, thus boosting rice production there. Others include disease (notably the Black Death), advances in various aspects of warfare, including artillery and firearms, rising literacy and spreading vernacular literatures, increasing monetization...

... these centuries, "continues" Bellwood's similar concern during prehistoric times. Andaya's very clearly written and interesting account is focused on three major components: the European-controlled city, shipbuilding, and firearms. Without actually debating the issue of cultural "borrowing" and "adaptation...

..., they reveal the influence the Chinese had in the political realm as local kings ( liurai ) acquired firearms from the merchants. This allows the kings, empowered by more potent weapons than their customary swords, to fortify their existing mutual military alliances. The European colonial officers took note...

... of a few basic types of seagoing ships. Paralleling the achievement in naval architecture was the development of firearms.44 Incendiary weapons such as flaming arrows, rockets, flame-throwers, "Kuwabara JitsuzB" $^tBf'lfWtt S&matsu no teikyo shihaku sdiikijin Ho~ Ju-ko no jiseki Dk-ftji&kW9$tMOi%ffi...

... organization was no less significant. The rapid increase in revenues and luxury imports and the dissemination of improved firearms and naval craft encouraged the rise of states that were more centralized, coercive, and "bureaucratic." After tracing the rise of new kingdoms across the mainland and the islands...

... and Firearms (p. 132), ". . . there appears to have been little continued technical development beyond Ch'oe's [Ch'oe Muson] effort." This reference to the introduction and production of firearms in the 1379's as an instrument for coping with Japanese marauding implies that ordnance development ceased...

... growth as well as the post-1500 diffusion of firearms – magnified the physical superiority of emergent political cores (the Southeast Asian lowlands, the Volga-Oka interfluve, the Paris basin, the Inland Sea-Kanto axis) over less favored districts. Agrarian/demographic vitality swelled royal revenues...

... in the historical memory of Moros even today. Many of the author's interlocutors not only identify American rule with “perceptions of stability, order, and fairness,” they also frequently mention symbolic expressions of American military prowess, like the .45 caliber firearm, with evident nostalgia (p. 134). Some...

... effects of the global market for those living and working in Japan's treaty ports. Harald Fuess wraps up the first section by exploring Japan's integration into a new violent world order through the import of massive quantities of Western firearms in the years leading up to the Boshin War of 1868–69...

...). His treatment of firearms actually starts with the Sung (pp. 51-63). Chan furnishes many insights into Ming history. His discussion of the Ch'ung-cheng emperor's weaknesses is revealing (p. 167). The author's observation that the Ming dynasty was "little troubled by empresses or their relatives...

... to prevent Aum's terrorism. Briefly, Hughes argues that police and security agencies were schooled in earlier terrorist attacks of left-wing groups like the Red Army, effectively preventing these groups from acquiring firearms, and probably forcing the most violent of them overseas. By contrast, they were...

... gain access to firearms. Those interested in better understanding aspects of Filipino crime, regional conflict, and socio-cultural environment would find this book a good read. Austin provides a worthwhile ethnographic view of some Filipino customs, weaving theoretical and historical connections...

.... , Early Japanese history ( Princeton , 1937 ), part A, 25 – 26 , 55. 8 Ōito, 167 ff.; Norman E. H. , Soldier and peasant in Japan ( New York , 1943 ), 12 – 13 . 9 Brown Delmer M. , “ The impact of firearms on Japanese warfare, 1543–98 ,” Far Eastern quarterly...