Murata Tsuneyoshi

Danshaku Murata Tsuneyoshi
村田 経芳
Portrait photograph of Murata Tsuneyoshi.
Personal details
Born	July 30, 1838 Kagoshima Domain, Satsuma Province, Japan
Died	February 9, 1921(1921-02-09) (aged 82) Tokyo, Tokyo Prefecture, Japan
Military service
Allegiance	Satsuma Domain Imperial Japanese Army
Years of service	1863-1905
Commands	Army Technical Bureau
Battles/wars	Active service Bombardment of Kagoshima Boshin War Satsuma Rebellion Reserve service First Sino-Japanese War Russo-Japanese War

In this Japanese name, the surname is Murata.

Murata Tsuneyoshi (村田 経芳, 1838-1921) was a Japanese samurai, swordsman, marksman, firearm inventor, gunsmith, soldier, and military officer. He also used the names Yūemon (勇右衛門) and Keizaemon (勁左衛門).

Biography

Satsuma Domain's Shūseikan industrial park in 1872 — the most advanced arsenal in Japan before 1871

He was born the eldest son of Murata Ransai Tsunenori (村田 蘭斎 経徳), a retainer of the Shimazu clan. In his youth he studied the Tachi school of swordsmanship, a derivative of Jigen-ryū, as well as the Takashima school of hōjutsu. He also studied Western gunnery.

Murata's first combat experience was during the Bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy in 1863. During this battle, Murata was strongly impressed by the British guns, and began to research contemporary European firearms technology. He studied using European books he acquired from Nagasaki. In early 1865, Murata presented to the Satsuma authorities his own design for a bolt-action rifle. This was an astonishing feat for an inventor educated in a medieval society, as the bolt-action was then a state-of-the-art technology even in Europe. However, Satsuma rejected his design because it was considered to be beyond the limited manufacturing capacity of the Satsuma arsenals. Murata's 1865 rifle design was probably inspired by the Dreyse rifle. Murata continued to refine his initial design for more than a decade.

Murata joined the revolutionary Imperial Japanese Army at the outbreak of the Boshin War, and rapidly developed a reputation as one of the best marksmen in the army. During the war, Murata led the First Rural Unit (外城一番隊, Tojō ichibantai), a sniper fireteam contributed by the Satsuma forces and made up of men recruited from Satsuma's tojō system. Engagements in which Murata was involved included the battles of Toba-Fushimi, Bonari Pass, and Aizu. Among the Western-made firearms captured from the Shogunate army, Murata was especially impressed with the Sharps rifle and equipped the First Rural Unit with it. In 1871, he was assigned to the Imperial Guard Division in Tokyo where he became a captain (大尉, taii).

Murata became good friends with Captain Armand Echemann, an officer of the French Army who visited Japan in 1872 as part of the second French military mission to that country.

In 1875, he was sent to Europe to study modern firearms technology and gunnery techniques. During his tour, he visited, among others, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Sweden–Norway. Murata first visited France, and was received courteously through the offices of his friend Echemann. When he showed his 1865 rifle design to French officers, they told him it was very similar to the Dutch Beaumont rifle. However, local authorities found pretexts to prevent him from visiting manufacturing facilities due to a prevailing fear of arms development in Asia. In Germany, despite being snubbed at the Spandau Arsenal, Murata participated in a military marksmanship competition which he won. In England as well Murata won marksmanship competitions in Aldershot and Bristol. He also purchased a Whitworth rifle there. After visiting Switzerland, Murata returned to France and won a championship marksmanship competition in Marseille. Despite the obstruction, he was somehow able to acquire at least one Gras rifle and Beaumont rifle respectively and studied their mechanical and ergonomic designs. In 1877, after returning to Japan, he was promoted to major (少佐, shōsa) and participated in the suppression of the Satsuma Rebellion. In 1880, he developed Japan's first indigenously produced standardized service rifle, the single-shot Murata rifle. Around that time, Murata built a summer house in Ōiso, Kanagawa Prefecture.

Murata's rifle featured a firing pin actuated by a simple but powerful leaf spring, a somewhat antiquated design compared to the more complex coil springs used in most bolt-action mechanisms of the time. This feature it shared with the Beaumont rifle. It is unknown why Murata chose this type of spring, but a number of reasons have been suggested. Japanese gunsmiths already had centuries of experience manufacturing leaf springs for the matchlock firing mechanisms of tanegashima arquebuses, and Murata's own training in traditional gunnery had likely familiarized him with the mechanical aspects of the centuries-old matchlock.

At the Koishikawa Arsenal in the early 1880s, Murata oversaw the manufacturing of the first Murata rifles to be distributed to the Japanese armed forces. Many units were personally inspected by him, and early production models were stamped with his kakihan (書き判) or monogram. The first Murata rifles were made using steel imported from France, and technicians from Germany were hired to teach the art of drawing brass cartridge cases. Much of the machinery for mass producing early 11x60mm Murata cartridges was procured by the Japanese government from the Winchester Repeating Arms Company.

Later life

In 1890, he was promoted to major general (少将, shōshō) and transferred to the reserve. On June 5, 1896, he was created a baron (男爵, danshaku) for his military service in the Boshin War and Satsuma Rebellion. Murata's research on firearm design was taken over by his student Arisaka Nariakira. Murata remained in reserve throughout the First Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, but did not play an active role.

In 1891, Murata collaborated with Jūmonji Shinsuke (十文字 伸介) of the Kanemaru Kenjirō Gun Shop (金丸健二郎商店) on Japan's first published book on modern Western-style hunting, the New Illustrated Book of Rifle Hunting (傍訓図解銃猟新書, Bōkun zukai jūryō shinsho).

Privately, Murata was an avid practitioner of precision target shooting. In his later years, he often travelled to Europe to participate in long range shooting competitions where he won a number of championships.

He died of liver failure in 1921 at the age of 83. Murata's grave is located at Yanaka Cemetery in Taitō, Tokyo.

Family

Murata Tsuneyoshi's great-grandson was the scholar of German literature Murata Tsunekazu (1930-2011), married to Murata Ingeborg (村田 インゲボルグ) (b. 1941). Murata Tsunekazu is known for his studies of Thomas Mann. Another descendant is Murata Tonio (村田 統二雄).

See also

• Hino Kumazō