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Originally Posted by fernando
Sorry, am i confused or was it the peasants that took up firearms against the samurais and their lords, starting a new era in Japan ?
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Yes and no; for the first few hundred years, firearms were simply one more weapon of the samurai, used in conjunction with their more traditional weapons. They stayed with the matchlocks and evolved them to a height seen nowhere else, but they were still an elite weapon, paid for and supplied by a lord to his troops.
The peasant levies didn't arise until the industrialization and Westernization of Japan, as glamorized in the Tom Cruise film "The Last Samurai". The families that controlled the Military-Industrial complex wanted to play in the game of empire-building, and the traditional families were trying to hold on to the old ways. The military raised armies out of the peasant class and rammed through laws banning the samurai. In the end Westernization won out. Tragically, you can now find more traditional, heirloom samurai swords in the US than in Japan.
