*Hachisuka clan were not samurai!? but were merchants, arms merchants.
*Hachisuka clan were not samurai!? but were merchants, arms merchants.
*[[Gusuku]] article needs expansion, from articles, from Kerr, etc. - currently cites only Kitahara
*[[Gusuku]] article needs expansion, from articles, from Kerr, etc. - currently cites only Kitahara
+
*Wet rice cultivation in mainland SE Asia by c. 1st century CE, spread to Java by 8th century.
+
*During 11th c., China produced perhaps as much as 125,000 tons of iron a year, more than twice the total output of Europe, using coke (coal) as fuel for piston-driven blast furnaces (Germans invented blast furnaces driven by water-driven bellows after 1300). This iron production dropped off dramatically after the Jurchen invasion of 1127, however. (Crossroads & Culture, p382)