The Kuki Sea Forces (5)

     Just 2 years witnessed a big change in navy battles; from throwing in earthenware explosives to shooting big guns.  The armored ships were not only armored with iron plates to shield the enemy attacks of shooting arrows and guns.  The Correspondences of the Society of Jesus in Japan also reported that the ships were also equipped with 3 cannons.  We may well call them battleships with heavy guns.

     Kano Mitsunobu (1565-1608), a painter of the Kano school, one of the most famous schools of Japanese painting, painted Nagoya Castle in Hizen on a byobu with 6 panels in detail years later.  The castle was a base to sally forth to Korean Peninsula at the time.  The byobu represents armored ships as well with two-storied or three-storied donjons on top of them.  Those donjons might have been spaces for a commander, and symbols of authority and power.  The ships had sails, but was usually driven with oars.  Small-sized armored ships were said to have 50 oars, while big-sizes to have more than 150 oars.  They were equivalent to ships with 75-300 of net tonnage, and were equipped with heavy guns, and were crenelated.

     The structure of the armored ships suggests that they could not sail so fast.  They went to battles with small fast boats guarding them.  In terms of modern navy battles, an armored ship fought as a battleship, a medium-sized boat as a cruiser, and a small boat as a destroyer.  Navy battles were definitely changing, and surpassing in firepower was coming to play more decisive roles than maneuverability, which the Murakami Clan was good at.  Big ships with a high-rise building on top of them and with a lot of guns to shoot from there at enemy ships and boats were opening a new era on the sea as well.  I just wonder how much iron they should have imported to meet the need.