INTRODUCTION

As we come to the conclusion of this three-part blog post, I just wanted to extend my thanks to anyone who has read along so far. I don’t necessarily expect anyone to get as excited about ancient warfare the way I have, but sometimes it’s nice to learn something new! I have learned so much over the last three years as an Honorary Reporter for The Embassy of the Republic of Korea (also the Korean Cultural Centre Canada) and as I continue my fourth year in the program I know I’ll learn more. I promise to share!

In part 1, I talked about Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s secret weapon in the Battle of Hansan: the uniquely armored 거북선 (geobukseon). In part 2, I looked at the 판옥선 (panokseon), the 16th century Joseon navy’s primary warship class, and its Japanese rival 安宅船 (atakebune). 

For the third— and final —part of my series on Hansan: Rising Dragon (한산: 용의 출현) and Joseon-era weaponry, I thought it would be interesting to take a closer look at the evolution of military armaments. How and when did Korea (and Japan) move from exclusively using stuff like bows and swords to using firearms in battle?

JOSEON VS JAPANESE WARSHIPS AND WEAPONRY

PART 3: 화약

Early-on in the movie, we get a look at the shipyard where panokseon and geobukseon are repaired and docked. We also meet Na Dae-yong, the man who designed the Turtle Ship.

One of the first exchanges on land is a commander reporting that they’re running low on gunpowder and have been trying to source the necessary ingredients to produce more from the peasants of nearby villages. According to this soldier, 거북선 use up a LOT of it.

My first thought: “What the heck is gunpowder even made from?”

Before I go further, I just want to warn you that what you’re about to read is a simplification of the history and process of making gunpowder, because if I tried to go through everything I’d be writing until I needed dentures. If you want to learn more, there are plenty of great resources which house a lot more detail.

Due to the imperfections of historical record-keeping, it isn’t 100% clear exactly when the first iterations of this explosive were invented; not to mention, early alchemical forms of gunpowder is not the same substance we see today. It’s not even the same substance we see in Hansan: Rising Dragon. Our current research indicates (and is mostly agreed-upon among historians), that the first experiments were done in 9th century Tang Dynasty China; however, the first confirmed record of what would eventually become the basis for gunpowder is dated from Song Dynasty China, in the 11th century.

As I’m sure you can imagine, once they developed a recipe to create a reliable explosive, China kept it, and the entire manufacturing process, a secret from outsiders. The final product was gladly sold to surrounding countries but no one else could figure out how to make it.

That is, until sometime around the year 1373, when a Korean delegation was sent to China and a military commander/inventor named 최 무선 (Choi Museon) learned (either through academic exchange or bribery) the long-kept secret of gunpowder from a Chinese trader: how to manufacture potassium nitrate. The other two ingredients necessary, sulfur and wood charcoal, were easy to find in Korea.

In the 1370s, Japanese pirates had become a huge problem along the southwestern shores of the Korean Peninsula, and in fact, it was their early days of marauding which played a large role in what inspired Choi to seek out gunpowder for primitive artillery on their ships. I mentioned this in both Part 1 and Part 2, but since the Japanese naval strategy for both military and pirates was primarily to hook the enemy ship for close-quarters combat, Koreans needed a way to cause damage from a distance, long before there would be a chance to board.

To prevent pirates from getting access to the instructions for making potassium nitrate, it was only manufactured on specific sites deep inland, strictly overseen by government officials.

Additional fun fact: Commander Choi had the government establish the Office of Firearms and he led the way in developing eighteen different types of gunpowder-fueled weapons.

There was a period of time at the beginning of the Joseon Dynasty where the development of firearms and gunpowder wasn’t highly prioritized, but once King Sejong came into power he revived the industry. 

By 1563 Korea was producing 불랑기포 (bulang-gipo)— or 仏郎機砲 (furanki), or “breech-load swivel guns” —on its own. The original design of this cannon was captured after China defeated the Portuguese at the Battle of Xicaowan (1522) and had their men reverse-engineer it. These typically ended up at the bow and stern of warships.

As we already know, throughout the Imjin War, gunpowder played an enormous role in giving the Koreans a chance against numerically superior Japanese invasions.

See, in the years surrounding the events that take place in Hansan: Rising Dragon, Japan was lagging behind Korea in terms of firearms development (atakebune only carried four small cannons, compared to the fifty much bigger cannons installed on panokseon).

But wait!

One thing that stood out to me in the movie (and maybe to you too) was how, when it came to handheld weapons, the Korean soldiers were using bow and arrows, while the Japanese soldiers had an early form of rifle. So if Japan was behind on firearms, how did they have guns when Joseon didn’t?

The simple answer is that they WERE behind, in terms of R&D, and the actual production of gunpowder or long-range explosives. However, thanks to a storm that forced a Chinese ship carrying Portuguese sailors to anchor at a Japanese island (whew, try saying that five times fast!), they managed to get their hands on guns first.

The firearm carried by Japanese gunners of this era, which we see them use in the movie, are commonly called 火縄銃 (hinawajū). Historically, the name was 種子島 (Tanegashima) after the nobleman who introduced this style of musket to the rest of Japan.

As the story goes, 種子島 時堯 (Tanegashima Tokitaka), lord of the island, purchased two European matchlock muskets from the Portuguese sailors who washed up on their shores, then hired a master swordsmith to copy the barrel and firing mechanism. Once the design was solved, Japan was eager to produce them en masse, but the creation of each barrel took the labor of one person one entire month. 

Sounds like a crazy amount of work, right? Well, crazier still, within ten years of its introduction, the country had produced over 300,000 firearms. By 1592, about a quarter of Japan’s military were gunners; this development, plus the element of surprise, allowed 豊臣 秀吉 (Toyotomi Hideyoshi)’s initial invasion force to capture the city of Seoul in just eighteen days.

Matchlock muskets, though not particularly accurate, gave the Japanese a close-quarters (100-200m) advantage because the spray of shot had a better chance to hit moving targets than a single-fire weapon like the bow and arrow.

The key strategy of gunners facing off against Admiral Yi’s fleet in Hansan: Rising Dragon was the use of multiple firing lines to not only bombard the ships with a volley of shots (which forces the enemies on deck to take cover, disabling them from counter attacking or protecting the topdeck from boarding) but also so they can continuously fire the volley without much delay. One line fires until empty, then the next line steps up while the second reloads. And sure, a single gunshot might not kill you, but in this period of history death by infection was extremely common, so it kind of works either way.

That’s all folks! I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the Korean Cultural Centre of Canada for opening my eyes to this whole new area of interest, and for providing me with (free!!) opportunities to see awesome Korean movies. Thank you again, reader, for sticking with me through this, and if you want to talk historical military tactics, leave a comment!

You can find the original posts here