Atakebune

A 16th century Japanese Atakebune coastal warship

Atakebune ( Japanese 安 宅 船 / 阿 武 船 ) were large Japanese warships in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Warship building in Japan experienced a high point in the Sengoku period , as the feudal lords fighting for supremacy built huge coastal fleets of several hundred ships. The largest of these ships were called the Atakebune .

In 1576 Oda Nobunaga had six Ōatakebune ( 大安 宅 船 , dt. "Great Atakebune") built, which the report of the abbot of Tamon'in ( 多 聞 院 日記 , Tamon'in nikki ) called iron ships ( 鉄 甲 船 , Tekkōsen ) . According to the historian Stephen Turnbull, this does not mean that the hull was constructed of iron, as was the case with later ironclad ships , but that their superstructure could have been reinforced with iron plates against enemy fire. The Jesuit Luís Fróis , who also saw and described the ships, does not mention any iron armor.

The Atakebune were armed with several cannons and arquebuses . Oda defeated with them in 1578 in a successful sea blockade in the mouth of the Kizu near Osaka, the Mōri navy .

These ships can be seen as floating fortresses or batteries rather than real warships. They were only used for coastal operations and were propelled by oars.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stephen Turnbull: Samurai Warfare . Cassell & Co., London 1996, ISBN 1-85409-280-4 , pp. 38 & 102 .
2. ↑ Stephen Turnbull: Samurai Warfare . Cassell & Co., London 1996, ISBN 1-85409-280-4 , pp. 102 f .