Person1528 – 1579

Tanegashima Tokitaka

Lord of Tanegashima, who bought two matchlocks from the Portuguese who landed in 1543 and had copies made

Where they went

1
1543Portuguese Reach Tanegashima and Bring Firearms to Japanrelated figure
A ship carrying Portuguese reached Tanegashima in Japan, bringing the first matchlock guns. Soon mass-produced in Japan, they transformed the wars of the Sengoku period and the Imjin War.

The Age of Discovery1415 – 1600
From Ceuta to the Manila galleons — two centuries in which European ships crossed the oceans and bound the world together by sea
Ming, Qing and Edo Japan1500 – 1800
The age when the Ming, shaken by northern raiders, southern pirates and the silver economy, fell to Li Zicheng’s rebels, and the Manchu Qing reached its greatest extent and prosperity under Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong — as Japan was unified out of the Warring States into the Edo shogunate’s bakuhan order and closed country, and Joseon, after two great wars, met its neighbours through embassies to Edo and the Northern Learning