Giving Up The Gun
<p>In response to my post on <cite>The Last Samurai</cite>, one reader<br />
asked a question I should have expected: didn&#8217;t the Tokugawa Shogunate<br />
successfully suppress firearms in Japan?</p>
<p>No.  Actually, they didn&#8217;t.  Many American believe they did because<br />
they&#8217;ve vaguely heard the argument of Noel Perrin&#8217;s book <cite>Giving<br />
Up The Gun</cite>, explaining that the Tokugawa Shogunate successfully<br />
suppressed firearms in Japan, partly by promoting the cult of the<br />
sword.</p>
<p>But the book was wrong. Arthur Tiedemann, an eminent historian of<br />
Japan, once explained this to me personally.  It seems that if you<br />
study the actual weapons inventories of daimyo houses, it turns out<br />
they maintained firearms and firearms-wielding troops from the<br />
Battle of Sekigahara clear through to the Meiji Restoration.</p>
<p>This was especially true of the so-called &lsquo;outside<br />
lords&rsquo;, the descendants of the survivors of the losing side at<br />
Sekigahara.  Their domains were far from the capitol at Edo and the<br />
shogunate&#8217;s control over them was often little more than nominal.</p>
<p>But to significant degree it was true everywhere.  The shogunate<br />
banned firearms, the daimyos pretended to obey the ban, and the<br />
shogunate pretended to believe them.  A very Japanese, face-saving<br />
compromise.</p>
<p>Perrin, alas, was taken in, perhaps because he wanted to be.<br />
Hoplophobes have been citing his book with approval ever since.  But<br />
while it doesn&#8217;t seem to have been a deliberate fraud like Michael<br />
Bellesisles&#8217;s <cite>Arming America</cite>, it&#8217;s just as false to<br />
fact.</p>
