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*''Japanese'': 安宅船 ''(atakebune)''
''Atakebune'' were a prominent form of warship in the [[Sengoku period]].
Ranging in size from 50 tons (500 ''[[koku]]'') to 200 tons (2000 ''koku''), they were propelled by tens or even nearly 200 oarsmen, and sometimes had hulls reinforced with double-planking, and coated with [[lacquer]] for extra waterproofing. ''Atakebune'' often had squared-off bows and sterns, which were then reinforced with iron, and sometimes armed with three or four cannon. The ships also carried up to a hundred or more warriors, armed with ''[[teppo|teppô]]'' (arquebuses) and bows.
[[Oda Nobunaga]] is said to have sailed one on [[Lake Biwa]], near his [[Azuchi castle|castle at Azuchi]], in [[1573]]; he later used a fleet of ''atakebune'' to attempt to blockade the [[Ishiyama Honganji]], but was eventually driven off by the superior navy of the [[Mori clan|Môri clan]]. Following this embarrassment, he ordered [[Kuki Yoshitaka]] to design and construct larger ''atakebune'' specially designed to resist the flaming arrows, bombs, and other weapons & tactics employed by the Môri. According to the ''[[Shinchoko-ki|Shinchôkô-ki]]'', the resulting ships had iron-reinforced hulls which could not be penetrated by musket fire, and could themselves fire flaming arrows and arquebuses in all directions, destroying entire ships in a single volley. [[William Wayne Farris]] has expressed skepticism, however, as to whether any of Nobunaga's or Hideyoshi's ships, or for that matter the famous Korean "[[turtle ships]]," were ever indeed iron-plated.<ref>Farris, 283n76.</ref> In any case, with the aid of these new ships, Nobunaga eventually subdued the Ishiyama Honganji in [[1580]], after a roughly ten-year-long siege.
Hideyoshi used a fleet of similar ships in his [[Korean Invasions|invasions of Korea]] in the 1590s.
The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] then banned the ''daimyô'' of western Japan from possessing ''atakebune'' in [[1609]], in order to curb their ability to lend aid to [[Toyotomi Hideyori]] in [[Siege of Osaka|Osaka]]. ''Atakebune'' rapidly became rare oddities, which the shoguns enjoyed as amusing curiosities. Sometime around 1700, [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] had the last ''atakebune'' dismantled.
{{stub}}
==References==
*William Wayne Farris, "Shipbuilding and Nautical Technology in Japanese Maritime History: Origins to 1600," ''The Mariner's Mirror'' 95:3 (2009), 276-277, 283n76.
<references/>
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]
[[Category:Ships]]
''Atakebune'' were a prominent form of warship in the [[Sengoku period]].
Ranging in size from 50 tons (500 ''[[koku]]'') to 200 tons (2000 ''koku''), they were propelled by tens or even nearly 200 oarsmen, and sometimes had hulls reinforced with double-planking, and coated with [[lacquer]] for extra waterproofing. ''Atakebune'' often had squared-off bows and sterns, which were then reinforced with iron, and sometimes armed with three or four cannon. The ships also carried up to a hundred or more warriors, armed with ''[[teppo|teppô]]'' (arquebuses) and bows.
[[Oda Nobunaga]] is said to have sailed one on [[Lake Biwa]], near his [[Azuchi castle|castle at Azuchi]], in [[1573]]; he later used a fleet of ''atakebune'' to attempt to blockade the [[Ishiyama Honganji]], but was eventually driven off by the superior navy of the [[Mori clan|Môri clan]]. Following this embarrassment, he ordered [[Kuki Yoshitaka]] to design and construct larger ''atakebune'' specially designed to resist the flaming arrows, bombs, and other weapons & tactics employed by the Môri. According to the ''[[Shinchoko-ki|Shinchôkô-ki]]'', the resulting ships had iron-reinforced hulls which could not be penetrated by musket fire, and could themselves fire flaming arrows and arquebuses in all directions, destroying entire ships in a single volley. [[William Wayne Farris]] has expressed skepticism, however, as to whether any of Nobunaga's or Hideyoshi's ships, or for that matter the famous Korean "[[turtle ships]]," were ever indeed iron-plated.<ref>Farris, 283n76.</ref> In any case, with the aid of these new ships, Nobunaga eventually subdued the Ishiyama Honganji in [[1580]], after a roughly ten-year-long siege.
Hideyoshi used a fleet of similar ships in his [[Korean Invasions|invasions of Korea]] in the 1590s.
The [[Tokugawa shogunate]] then banned the ''daimyô'' of western Japan from possessing ''atakebune'' in [[1609]], in order to curb their ability to lend aid to [[Toyotomi Hideyori]] in [[Siege of Osaka|Osaka]]. ''Atakebune'' rapidly became rare oddities, which the shoguns enjoyed as amusing curiosities. Sometime around 1700, [[Tokugawa Tsunayoshi]] had the last ''atakebune'' dismantled.
{{stub}}
==References==
*William Wayne Farris, "Shipbuilding and Nautical Technology in Japanese Maritime History: Origins to 1600," ''The Mariner's Mirror'' 95:3 (2009), 276-277, 283n76.
<references/>
[[Category:Sengoku Period]]
[[Category:Ships]]
