ABSTRACT
It is natural that the teppō spread early on the island of Kyushu. As the Kunitomo teppōki says: ‘The teppō spread all over (Tsukushi) Kyushu’. If the Tanegashima theory holds water, it is only natural that the new weapon would have reached the daimyo there first. And even if the new weapon were introduced separately at other places, Tanegashima was the island closest to sea traffic; here the Portuguese came first. Indirect evidence is the fact that it was to Kyushu that the Jesuits and the Christian mission also came first. It is reasonable that, after the first encounter on Tanegashima, the Portuguese next sailed to Kyushu’s harbours and that presumably the most important merchandise they could offer the martial samurai were firearms and gunpowder. Reading Pinto, it becomes apparent that Bungo became a prime port for the Portuguese merchants and later the Jesuit missionaries. The Ōtomo daimyo welcomed both-and certainly benefited from obtaining the new weapon. It is said that ‘Yoshishige (Sōrin) loved the teppō’,1 and also that he was ‘quick to perceive the immense advantage of the arquebus and of artillery’.2 It is a fact that the manufacture of muskets began in earnest after he seized power in 1550. According to H.Motojima he sent a smith by the name of Itō Hachirō to Tanegashima in 1550 who learned to forge teppō and returned to Bungo seven years later.3 Also cannon seem to have been part of the arsenal from about 1560. It is evident that Ōtomo Sōrin asked the Portuguese to bring cannon about that time. If this had been realized, Bungo might have been the first province with operational artillery.4 In a letter to the Jesuits in China in 1567 he asked for a quantity of saltpetre, for which he would pay handsomely.5
