インド大反乱と幕末西洋銃
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概要
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In the Edo era Zozan Sakuma learned of the Great Mutiny in India (1857-1859) and informed KaishG Katsu and other acquaintances of its possible effects on Japan. His intention was to open Japan to trade with the West while defending Japan's coasts. He continued his study of gunnery, designing and writing detailed descriptions of a breechloader which combined the best elements of the guns then in use. Its most prominent feature lay in the load of the cartridge. In India, just before the Mutiny, the Indian soldiers had refused to use the Enfield rifle's cartridge for religious reasons. Following this a new process of loading cartridges was; introduced. This was the same process described by Zozan, who understood that this cartridge was the immediate occasion of the outbreak of the Mutiny. Kaishu recorded in detail the Shoguate's purchases of rifles in 1863, and judging from these records, they were Enfield rifles. The total number of guns imported in the closing days of the Shogunate amounted to half a million. In 1864, in order to modernize its armaments, the Satsuma clan purchased Enfield rifles through an English merchant. In 1865, the Choshu clan did the same in the name of the Satsuma clan. The man who mediated between the two clans was Ryoma Sakamoto, and, on the arrival of these rifles, the alliance between Satsuma and Choshu began. Later, both clans succeeded in overthrowing the Shogunate by their overwhelming military strengh. What is historically interesting is that these Enfield rifles were disarmed from the Indian soldiers by Britain, after which they were exported and resold to Japan when she opened to trade. Because of the importation of these rifles to Japan, one may say that the Meiji Restoration (1868) was directly influenced by the Great Mutiny in India.
- 慶應義塾大学の論文