The introduction of the European matchlock began in 1545, during the appropriately named Sengoku Jidai (“Period of the Country at War”). At this time Japan had found a trading partner in the Europeans. Spaniard and Portuguese sailors who had sailed through Indian and Asian oceans had crash-landed on the small island of Tanegashima, in 1543. “While on this island the Portuguese had offered one of their matchlock rifles as a gift to the local lord” (Bryant 2002). | The introduction of the European matchlock began in 1545, during the appropriately named Sengoku Jidai (“Period of the Country at War”). At this time Japan had found a trading partner in the Europeans. Spaniard and Portuguese sailors who had sailed through Indian and Asian oceans had crash-landed on the small island of Tanegashima, in 1543. “While on this island the Portuguese had offered one of their matchlock rifles as a gift to the local lord” (Bryant 2002). |