Atakebune

Atakebune were large Japanese warships of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Japan undertook major naval building efforts in the 16th century, during the Warring States period, when feudal rulers vying for supremacy built vast coastal navies of several hundred ships. The largest of these ships were called Atakebune. ([安宅船]).

Around that time, Japan seems to have developed the one of the first ironclad warships in history ^{[#endnote_Ironclads]}, when Oda Nobunaga, a Japanese daimyo, had six iron-covered Ōatakebune (大安宅船) made in 1576. These ships were called "Tekkōsen" (鉄甲船, literally "iron armored ships") and were armed with multiple cannons and large-caliber rifles to defeat the large, but not iron-covered, vessels the enemy used. He defeated Mori's navy with them at the mouth of the Kizu River, Osaka in 1578 in a successful naval blockade.

These ships may be regarded as floating fortresses rather than true warships, and were only used in coastal actions. They used oars for propulsion.

Notes

↑ THE FIRST IRONCLADS In Japanese: [link], [link]. Also in English: [link]: "Iron clad ships, however, were not new to Japan and Hideyoshi; Oda Nobunaga, in fact, had many iron clad ships in his fleet." (referring to the anteriority of Japanese ironclads (1578) to the Korean Turtle ships (1592)). In Western sources, Japanese ironclads are described in CR Boxer "The Christian Century in Japan 1549–1650", p122, quoting the account of the Italian Jesuit Organtino visiting Japan in 1578. Nobunaga's ironclad fleet is also described in "A History of Japan, 1334–1615", Georges Samson, p309 ISBN 0804705259. Korea's "ironclad Turtle ships" were invented by Admiral Yi Sun-sin (1545–1598), and are first documented in 1592. Incidentally, Korea's iron plates only covered the roof (to prevent intrusion), and not the sides of their ships. The first Western ironclads date to 1859 with the French Gloire ("Steam, Steel and Shellfire").

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